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“Sounds good,” Kenton said.
“So tell me how life’s going for you,” I replied.
I listened as my best friend told me about what he had been doing with himself lately, and I smiled. I hoped that he would see the value of having a phone now, and that he would keep one on him. I didn’t care if he didn’t want to get into social media and all that, but to have a cell number would be great.
We talked for over an hour before I hung up, and I thought more carefully about what was going on with Laurel.
The truth was I was having the time of my life with what we were doing, but I knew Kenton was right. I couldn’t let the fun we were having take the place of her career.
Even if she didn’t blame me for any issues she had with her job, I would still feel responsible for it. And if she was as excited about this relationship as I was, I could see her making decisions that could potentially make her career suffer.
Even if that wasn’t the intent, it could still happen, and I wasn’t going to even consider that.
Once I was off with phone with Kenton, I checked the time. It was getting into the afternoon, and I felt it would be wise to text her and tell her I wasn’t going to be around to see her that night.
Hey, I’m going to call it an early night tonight, so if you get back to the hotel and don’t see me, that’s why. Get some rest when you can.
I hit send, then waited. I felt it was worded well, and she would get the message I was trying to convey. I didn’t know if she read into it enough to know I was doing this for her sake rather than being selfish and wanting to hang out, but she sent me a reply about ten minutes later.
Sounds like a plan, I’ll see you tomorrow.
With that done, I put my phone on the nightstand and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.
Then I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my day.
TWENTY
Laurel
“And with thefurniture set to deliver by the end of the week, I would say there’s very little reason for you to have any further delays,” I said.
“Thank you, I appreciate the effort you put in here. I knew Jason wanted to have all the hotels opening around the country on the same weekend, but I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull that off with how much there still was to do. When he told me he was sending in a professional designer, I knew even less of what to expect,” Ms. Taylor, the site manager of the new hotel, told me.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that you had a good experience with the company. We are based out of New York City, but as you can see, they’ve got me here in person today. I guess they mean it when they say that there’s nowhere too far or any project too small for us to handle.” I smiled.
She laughed, and I hoped she didn’t think I was crazy. It sounded so cheesy coming out of my mouth, I could practically feel myself blushing at what I’d just said. I sounded like Leroy, really, and that was the last thing I wanted. For as much as I wanted to progress in my job and make it in this career, I didn’t want to wind up being another version of Leroy himself.
But, Ms. Taylor didn’t seem to give it any more thought as she shook my hand and told me to have a good rest of the day.
“I appreciate all you’ve done, really,” she told me once more on my way out the door. I wondered what kind of a boss Jason Weir was with his employees so grateful I was able to make things go smoothly. But, if my own day was going to continue being productive, I had to get going.
I knew there was a lot of paperwork waiting for me when I got back home, and I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting on me. It was the dreaded side effect of being late, and I hated that. I didn’t want anyone to ever feel like they had to be held back because of what I was doing, but that felt inevitable considering the fact I was late this morning.
Even though I wound up only being forty-five minutes behind where I wanted to be by the time lunch rolled around, there was a part of me that was grateful when I saw the message from Greyson saying he was going to call it an early night. It wasn’t at all that I didn’t want to see him, or even that I blamed him for my being late that morning, but I knew I didn’t have any self-control when it came to being with him.
Spending time with him was the best feeling in the entire world, but I wasn’t here to date. I was here for work, and that had to be the number one priority in my time. I felt bad about being late that morning, even if I did know I had some flexibility here.
My phone rang just as I made it to my Uber, and I looked down to see Leroy’s name on the screen. I braced myself for the conversation I knew we were about to have, and I took a deep breath before answering the phone.
“Hey,” I said. “Glad to hear from you. How are you?”
“I’m good, and it’s good to talk to you, too,” he replied. “I hear that things went very well with the hotel back in Florida, which is excellent news. I’ve also been informed that you are nearly done with the hotel in California, is that right?”
“I am,” I said. “It was a lot easier to handle this one than it was the one back in Orlando. I know that was the first, but talking to Jason and what his vision is for the chain, I wasn’t sure how we were going to be able to tie it all together but keep it separate, too. I’m glad Jason was there for the first. It made it a lot easier for me to handle this one in Cali.”
“I’m glad,” Leroy said. “Jason called me after you left Florida and told me he was really happy with the work you put in. I felt good about you going into Cali with that. But, there is one thing I want to talk about coming up in Washington.”
“What’s that?” I asked. I felt I was ready for just about anything that came my way, but I still listened intently to what he had to say.
