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Retro looked at Jessica with a bit of apprehension on his face. “Young lady, where will you stay? Did you want us to go back to Butler?” he asked.
“Oh no. What I’m saying is that we will stay here. It’s covered under the cost of the trip. “We didn’t budget for another hotel stay beside The Shell,” Jessica said. Brian looked at the Amazon who looked around and shook her head in dismay. Okay it was time to step in.
“Jessica, I don’t think this place is fit for you to sleep in,” Brian pointed out. Several of the other patrons nodded. She faced him.
“It’s safe enough for you all to gather here, talk and drink cool drinks but it’s not safe enough for me to lay down for six hours? You have to see how odd that sounds.”
The men in the Shell were silenced by her logic and Retro was smiling. Brian could tell he thought this was funny and looked at him waiting to see what he would do.
Brian looked at Jessica and the Amazon. She couldn’t really be serious. This place was nowhere for two women to sleep in. He had only briefly been upstairs, and it looked like someone’s discarded attic as opposed to a room to sleep in. It was his understanding that after the hurricane hit, the upstairs was used as a storage for items that needed to be looked at or possibly saved. The town hadn’t gotten to it yet, making upstairs an obstacle course instead of a two-bedroom apartment.
“If that is what you insist on. However, I think we should go and take a look before you give your final answer on the issue,” Brian said with a smile.
* * *
She knew good looking men were sneaky and Brian Cholan was proving that to be the truth.
Jessica wasn’t going to back down on the sleeping arrangements. She was sure he was saying she couldn’t handle upstairs like she couldn’t the interim CFO position. He thought he was special with a body that said it was completely comfortable in a gym. Well, she didn’t care at all. When he stood up, he made her aware of how small she was next to him, but none of that mattered. She would follow him upstairs and make do. Jessica had been here before; she knew what was upstairs.
Besides, if he thought for a minute that him throwing those chocolate brown eyes at her was going to move her, he had another thing coming. Anyway, his eyes were really caramel colored not chocolate, and everyone knew how sticky and unhealthy caramel was for you.
When he gave her his stare, she pasted on her smile of indifference. She had been masking her feelings with this smile for a very long time and it didn’t fail her today, either. Why was he already here? Last she heard he had a meeting with the CEO.
Jessica had to admit she was glad when council member Lars Campbell stood up to corroborate her story. She followed Brian and tried to find her center of calm. Maybe his intentions had been good and not sneaky like she knew the pretty men to be. If anything, she felt bad for her bestie Beth. She had agreed to come with her for support, but she never thought they were going to be staying in a hurricane ravaged building. She had told Beth they would be roughing it, but this was the next level.
“It was very convenient for corporate to give you the key,” Jessica said as they went up the steps.
“They did give it to me, but I didn’t need it,” he said as he opened the door at the top of the steps. “It hasn’t locked since the hurricane.”
“Well, how have they locked up the Shell?” Jessica asked, trying not to let her voice rise as she thought about the implications.
“Oh, do you think that any of the men downstairs are interested in stealing your corporate attire?”
“Ouch!” Beth exclaimed.
Jessica wasn’t going to rise to the bait. Instead, she went into the apartment and was determined to say thank you and then see him out. She heard him mutter ‘where is the light switch?’. Jessica smiled and slowly made it to the wall on the other side of the room. She had been in this room so many times, she felt her way walking through the center of the room to get to the switch. As she walked, Jessica decided to be the bigger person.
“You know, Mr. Cholan, I want to say I think I was just surprised to see you. So why don’t we start over —” Jessica flipped on the switch. The next thing she heard was Beth.
“Oh, my goodness, what has happened in here?” Beth whispered.
Jessica looked around the room and could barely find any resemblance to the room that she was used to staying in. The room was a hoarder’s dream. Every corner was filled with something. She could see the dust and dirt on the surfaces of everything. What gave her pause was she was sure she could see little footprints on top of the wooden objects in the room. She tried not to think about what left those kinds of tracks. The air was stuffy and there was a dresser blocking half of the only window in the room. Jessica looked up and saw an empty hole where the ceiling fan used to be.
Brian cleared his throat. He stood with his arms open and looked around the room. “This is where you want to stay?”
Jessica was going to tell Beth that they would have to find different accommodations. She was sure Mr. Campbell would authorize them staying in the nearby hotel. It would increase the cost of this trip, which could be problematic as Ms. Prince was looking at the costs for this trip because Middleton wasn’t here. It would be one more mark against her. Jessica was sure Ms. Prince would say she should have known.
Maybe she could include pictures of the place to be able to justify the change to a hotel. Or maybe once the CEO saw the pictures, he would agree that the councilmen would have to come back to Butler headquarters and deliver their numbers. Would he really not relent if he saw this place? She was sure someone could stay here, maybe if it was the apocalypse, and there were no other options, a person could be grateful and make do, maybe? Jessica grimaced at the thought of the potential hazards that could be lurking in the corners of the room, from mutant wildlife to insects gone wild. She shuddered and wondered if it was worth risking her life just to avoid Brian’s skepticism.
When Jessica looked up to tell Brian her decision, she saw his face set with the smirk that just screamed ‘I told you so’.
She had to take him up on his offer, right?
Then, as if she were traveling back in time, she heard Ms. Prince talking to her, telling her she didn’t have the experience to do the big jobs.
Jessica heard the VP’s matter of fact voice playing in her mind. Between Brian’s smirk and those comments floating in her mind, she knew their next meeting would be about how she didn’t have the fortitude, experience or backbone to perform under stress. Nope, she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.
“Beth, we can make do with this right?” Jessica asked, hoping Beth didn’t walk out the door. “It’s a bit more rustic than I remember it but we can make do for the short term.”
