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ALL I WANTED WASa Coke.
“Miss, you need to step aside now! This is an active scene, and you’re going to get hurt.”
I scrunch my nose at the fire captain who’s attempting to usher me away from the hotel where I’m staying … well, was staying until it was lit ablaze by a raging inferno.
My slippered feet try not to trip on the thick hose snaking from a hydrant as I follow the fire captain. Sirens blare from an ambulance rounding the corner. The deep, grumbling honk of a fire truck echoes from where a convoy of engines has descended. It’s a madhouse of a scene, and while everyone is running away from the blazing hellfire, I want to go into it.
I tap on the fire captain’s shoulder and smile as he turns around with an exasperated expression, which I ignore.
“Excuse me, sir, but if I could just get inside for one moment and grab something—”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly,” I state with a point of my finger up toward my hotel room window, which is just below where a fireman is standing on a ladder. “My phone, computer, wallet, car keys … my clothes are all up in that room.”
“Are you a guest at the hotel?”
I look down at my attire—a plush white robe, matching slippers, and the metallic-gold ice bucket I’m holding like a teddy bear. His eyes do a double take, clearly answering his own question. My free hand clasps around the folds of my robe that are threatening to open from a gust of wind barreling down the small-town avenue. The fact that I’m not wearing underwear is plaguing me big time, yet I’m trying not to harp on that detail.
“Please,” I beg with the kindest, most pleading voice. After all, my mother always says you get more with sugar than vinegar. “Just two minutes inside. I can pop right in, grab my phone, which I’m certain is on the nightstand, and my purse, which is definitely on the desk. Oh, there’s also the box of monogrammed favors for a brunch. I need to get those too.”
Seriously, at this rate, I don’t even care about my clothes. My phone, car keys—so that I can hightail it out of here—and the favors my business partner, Melissa, made for our clients are all I need. A bra and a pair of underwear wouldn’t hurt, but in the grand scheme of things, I can forgo modesty for necessity.
“The building has been evacuated,” he yells as two firemen run toward the building, forcing me and the captain to step back. He gives me a stern warning. “Get out of here before you get yourself injured.”
His name is called, so he turns around to answer someone’s question.
Despite the breeze in the air, the heat radiating from the building is toasting my skin and doing nothing to calm the urgency inside me. I clear my throat and keep the plastered, closed-mouth smile on my face, and tap on his shoulder.
He turns around, looking quite displeased. “You’re still here?”
“Perhaps I’m not explaining myself correctly. I’m a wedding planner with an event in the morning, and all of my contacts are on my phone. You’re not looking at a woman who wants to log on to social media. This is business, and it’s imperative I get into my room, which isn’t even on fire. I’m looking at it now. It’s below the smoke and barely touched by flames. I just need to slip in and get my car keys at the very least.”
No sooner are my words spoken than a loud popping sound rings out as the fireman on the ladder uses an axe to break the window to none other than my hotel room.
I let out a whimper.
“The elevators are down. The building is closed to everyone, except the Walden Fire Department.”
My desperation rises to the surface. “Maybe you can walkie one of your men and have them zip into room 519 for me. Like that man right there on the ladder—”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Mildly,” I answer, straight-faced, because at this moment, I have no clothes, communication, way home, money, or dignity.
The breeze picks up, and my eyes widen as it threatens to lift the hem of the robe. My free arm makes a desperate attempt to keep my robe from opening around the crotch area. I must look like a deranged woman despite my failing attempt to maintain decorum.
When I checked in to the Walden Hotel, it was to have a decent night’s sleep after being on my feet all day. It wasn’t to stand outside on the windiest night of the year with nothing but an ice bucket and borrowed cotton as I watch plumes of smoke billow out the room above mine.
“There’s a waiting area set up in the restaurant across the street. Stay there. Get yourself something warm to drink.”
“Do I look like I have money on me?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s free. Call a family member.”
I take a deep, cleansing breath and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I don’t have my cell phone on me. It’s up in my room.”
