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“I’ll make the beds,” he replied.
I went into the bathroom, cleaned it, and emptied the trash. Once they had their fresh towels, I went back into the bedroom. Mark was still working on making the bed. The quilt was hanging onto the floor on one side and hardly any on the other. And he put the pillows under the quilt.
Biting my lip, I tried not to laugh. “Mark, how often do you make a bed?” I asked.
“Every day. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. But I guess maybe I should make them. How about you collect the trash and place new towels on the racks?” I suggested. I mean, towels were easy. How could he screw that up?
I fixed the bed, and we went to the next room. But when I went to check the bathroom, I got my answer. He had placed one bath sheet on the towel rack, and the rest were face towels.
“Mark, these rooms are for couples. Two of each,” I explained and fixed them. “How about you just handle the trash.”
“Wow. No faith in me at all,” he said.
Had I hurt his feelings? Goodness, that would be rude of me. I turned around to apologize and saw the huge smile on his face.
“Okay, so the truth is, I’m horrible at making beds. And I never looked at the towels when we stayed at a hotel. Kind of embarrassing since I’m almost twenty-three. Growing up we each had our own chores. I had to wash dishes, put out the trash, and mow the lawn. My sister made beds and did dusting with my mom. Robert swept the floors and Christopher helped with laundry.”
“Why did I think you had a maid to do all that?” I asked.
“Because you still think I was born with money. Sorry, Adilyn. You got the wrong Henderson. My parents didn’t have much when we were young, and when things changed, they insisted we all still contributed to the house. As my mother liked to say, ‘no freeloaders allowed’. Even in college, I had to pay my own way.”
“You had said that, but when I found out you were a Henderson, I thought...that maybe you had said that so I wouldn’t feel bad about not having any money,” I explained.
“Nope. We were both struggling college students. I actually had to get a job when I was sixteen to start saving for school. My parents believe that if you want something, you work for it. Even paid my own way here,” he said.
“I’m sorry for misjudging you.” I couldn’t believe that just the name Henderson had made me forget all the good things I liked about him as though our brief time together hadn’t been real.
“Don’t worry about it. The name affects a lot of people. Usually, no one knows that we are related. It’s so much easier going through life with the last name Lane instead of Henderson. Of course, my cousins don’t seem to mind it,” he said.
I was enjoying chatting with him, but I was falling further behind. “Well, they might like the name, but if I don’t get going, they won’t like how messy their rooms are,” I stated.
It wasn’t so bad. I’d gotten all the parents’ rooms done, just the cousins remained.
“Okay. You can trust me with the towels now. I watched and I learned. Two in each room.”
“One now because we’ve moved onto the cousins, “I said.”
“Oh yeah. One bath sheet, one face cloth and empty the trash. Got it. Anything I’m forgetting?” he asked.
“Yes. To go down and enjoy your breakfast. I can finish this.” Probablyfaster without you distracting me. “Please, Mark. Go. We can finish this conversation later. Besides, you’re going to need the energy for what I have planned for us.”
“Do tell,” he said.
“We’re going out to cut down a Christmas tree,” I said.
He smiled. “You do know that there is one in the lobby already.”
“I do. This one will be special. One that we all can decorate together.”
“Who else is joining us on this tree adventure?” he asked.
“No one,” I replied.
His smile was huge. “Well, you win. I’ll go and eat. What time are we going?”
“Give me an hour, if that’s okay,” I said. I needed to finish the rooms and make sure the guests were all set before we headed out.
