AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s … starting already?” I ask her, confused.
“Nothing,” she says, shaking her head.
Mila gives the coordinator her information, and she’s given some kind of bag full of toiletries to use until her suitcase arrives, which she tucks into the large tote she has with her. She thanks the woman for her help, and then with a heavy exhale, she turns toward the door and walks out, and I trail behind.
“I’m so sorry, Mila,” I say as I catch up with her and we walk toward the rental cars.
She gives me a little sad-sounding laugh. “I should have seen that one coming,” she says.
“Are you psychic?” I ask, mostly joking. But this is the second cryptic thing she’s said in the past five minutes.
“Not psychic, just … a jinx.”
“A jinx? With traveling?”
“No … It’s a long story,” she says, waving my words away with her hand.
“We can stop somewhere? Maybe get you a few things?”
“Let’s just get to the hotel. I’m exhausted. It’s almost one in the morning, Denver time. We can get some things tomorrow if my bag doesn’t show up.”
“Sounds good,” I tell her.
“We should add that to the app,” she says as we walk.
“Add what?”
“Baggage tracking.”
I nod. “It’s not something we can add just yet, but hopefully in the future,” I say. That kind of information is restricted by the airlines, so we can’t get access to it.
“Wouldn’t have saved me from this,” she says, giving me a small smile.
I shake my head. “Probably not.”
“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING me,” a pale-faced Mila says to the man behind the hotel check-in desk as the hits just keep on coming.
We got our car, a small SUV, and made the thirty-five-minute drive from the Honolulu airport to our hotel in Ko Olina, on the western side of the island. Mila practically made a beeline to the counter, ready to get checked in and put this day behind us. Her spirits seemed to pick up on the drive, but I could tell the missing suitcase was weighing heavily on her.
Now at nearly eleven at night local time, which is three in the morning for us, we’ve just found out that there’s only one room reserved at the hotel tonight under my name—an issue with the app, the complexity of which I can’t begin to imagine—and the hotel is completely booked, as are most of the surrounding ones. Mila searched for other options on the app and couldn’t find any available rooms near us.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” says the front desk agent, an older gentleman with a kind smile and a white-and-pink floral Hawaiian shirt. He looks at his computer. “We have some people checking out tomorrow, so we can get you another room then.”
“What am I supposed to do tonight?” She looks at the agent and then at me.
“You can take the room, Mila,” I tell her.
“What? No.” She shakes her head. “There’s nowhere else to go.”
“I can sleep in the car,” I tell her. “Or on one of these couches,” I say, gesturing over to the large, opulent lobby with the shiny tile flooring and the various couches and chairs filling the area.
“Actually, we don’t allow that,” the desk agent says.
“Then the car,” I say, pulling the strap of my computer bag up on my shoulder, ready to head out there now.
“No.” Mila shakes her head. “That’s ridiculous. We can just share the room.”
I stare at her. Share a room? With Mila?
