Author's Note: Thanks for all the great reviews everyone! But, I refuse to reveal anything about where I'm going with this story, so you'll just have to keep reading to find out. Also, if you feel that I'm slacking in any way, let me know!
Chapter Two: Hallucinating
When she had gotten home last night, Lisa had been thankful that she wouldn't have to be back at the hotel until eight the next morning. She had come in, kicked off her shoes, and settled onto the sofa with a pint of some Ben&Jerry's Marsha Marsha Marshmallow. But, as she blinked open her eyes, using her hand to shield them from the sunlight pouring in through the bay window, she decided that morning had come far too soon and she just didn't feel like getting up out of bed. Yesterday had been hell and she couldn't foresee today being any better. But, having the work ethic that her father had instilled in her since birth, she grudgingly climbed out of bed, muttering swear words under her breath the entire time. Her eyes still half closed, Lisa let out a squeak when she tripped over the rug at the foot of her bed. On the way down she banged her right elbow on her wooden hope chest and landed on the floor with a loud thud.
"Ow!" she whined, sitting up and cupping her hand over her injured arm which had already begun to turn purple. She eyed the bruise and then fell back to the floor with an exasperated sigh. She had been wrong before. Today wasn't going to be just as bad as yesterday...it was already worse. With tremendous effort, she managed to pick herself up off the floor and limp into the bathroom.
She pinned her hair up to keep it from getting wet and stepped into the shower just to help wake her up. After she had washed her face and brushed her teeth and secured her hair into a very professional pop-knot at the back of her head, she paused and stared at herself in the mirror. She just didn't think she had the energy for work today.
"Suck it up, Leese." she whispered, looking her reflection in the eyes and plastering an accommodating smile on her face.
After trying on three different outfits, one made her look like she had a flat ass, one made her look bloated, the third made her calves look huge, she finally settled on a simple black shin length skirt and a white camisole under a black short cut dress blazer along with a pair of black sling-back pumps that were much more comfortable that those damn Pradas. She was running a bit behind so she had to forego her usual cup of coffee until she got to the hotel, which was bad news for her fellow highway drivers. Purse slung over shoulder, keys in hand, and cell phone antenna clenched between her teeth, Lisa raced out the door.
She had been right to feel sorry for the other drivers on the road. In less than five minutes on the ramp, she had cut three people off, tailgated one bitch who had cut in front of her and then slowed down, and nearly sideswiped a minivan. She was late, her head was pounding, her elbow was throbbing, and she wanted to crawl back into bed and pretend that this day had never started...and it was only ten till eight! She was becoming an expert on bad days.
When she finally pulled into the hotel after what felt like an hour in the worst traffic jam she had ever seen in her life, she wanted to go to the back room, sit down with a steaming cup of coffee, and relax for just five minutes. Coffee. If she could just get some coffee in her system she would be fine.
Sadly, that was not to happen. As soon as she walked through the doors she was greeted by the sound of a Mr. and Mrs. Berks griping about the hotel room. She immediately switched into manager mode and stepped up beside the desk clerk, Kimberly. Kimberly was about eighteen years old and five seconds from cracking under the scrutiny of the Berks.
"Hi, I'm Lisa Reisert, the hotel manager. Is there something I can do for you?" she asked. Kimberly looked at her with wide terrified eyes. "Kimberly, Cynthia wa just looking for you in the back, so you go on and I'll handle this."
Kimberly nodded gratefully and then, as though she were trying out for the Olympics, set off in a dead sprint for the employee lounge.
"Yes." Mr. Berks boomed, "we specifically reserved a double room and that little girl gave us a single and said that there are no double rooms available right now. Now, we have our grandchildren here with us and..."
"Exactly!" Mrs. Berks chimed in, "They're very young and can't be put in a separate room from us. So, what are we supposed to do?"
"Or better yet," Mr. Berks decided to finish up, "What are you gonna do about it?"
Lisa continued to smile at them, though their voices sounded like nails on a chalkboard in her aching head. "I am so sorry for the mix up, Mr. and Mrs. Berks. Kimberly's only been her for a week and a half, I'm sure she didn't mean to upset you. Let me see what I can do."
"Finally, someone around this place with a little intelligence!" Mr. Berks exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his arms.
Lisa pulled up her crisis file and found a double room for them. She always had a handful set aside for occasions such as these. She moved them to the room and scanned in their keycards. "All right. I've got you in room 2323. It had a balcony with an extraordinary view of the beach and two queen size beds. Here's the key to the mini bar which is gonna be on us for the duration of your stay. Our bellhop will have your bags up shortly. Again, my name is Lisa so if you need anything at all you just let me know. Sorry, once again for the inconvenience and I hope you enjoy your star here at the Lux Atlantic."
"Well, thank you very much, Lisa." Mr. Berks said, "What the hell would this place do without you?" He took their keys then he, his wife, and two bratty looking little overweight kids piled into the elevator.
"Lisa?" Cynthia said emerging from the back, "Kimberly just told me that the Berks were up her complaining."
"Yeah, they wanted a double and got a single." Lisa said, massaging her temples.
"That miserable old wank!" Cynthia snapped, "I booked that reservation myself and he only asked for a single!"
She kept going on but Lisa had tuned her out. She thought she had just seen someone turn the corner with...dark hair and...nah. She leaned to her right trying to peer around the corner and squinted her eyes to get a better look. Nothing. She rubbed her eyes and yawned into her hand. She needed to start getting more sleep, she was hallucinating. She returned her attention back to the still fuming Cynthia. "Oh, well." she said, "What's done is done."
"Hey?" Cynthia asked stepping up and rubbing Lisa's back, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a..." she was cut off by the phone screaming at her, which she picked up on instinct more than anything else. "Lux Atlantic, the is Lisa."
"Hello, Lisa. May I speak to the manager, please?"
"That would be me, ma'am. What can I do for you?"
"This is Margaret Lawsard in 5210 and my key has stopped working."
"The key to your door has stopped working?" Lisa asked.
"Yes. This is the fifth time this has happened to us in the past three days."
"Okay. Are you at your door right now?"
"Yes."
"All right, wait one minute Mrs. Lawsard and I'll be right up."
"Fine."
The line went dead. Lisa hung up the phone and let her head drop to the desk with a groan. "Cynthia, get Bill on the horn and tell him to get up to 5210 as soon as he can. I'll be up there waiting for him." She lifted her head, "God, I need a cup of coffee!"
With that, Lisa started walking toward the elevator but she saw a flash from the corner of her eye and stopped. She turned and scanned the direction that she thought she had seen it, then shook her mind clear and moved to the elevators. She paid attention to her peripheral vision as she swiped her card to gain access to the employee elevator right up to the point she stepped in and rode up to the fifth floor. The doors slid open with a ding and she made her way down the brightly colored corridor in the direction of 5210. When she rounded the corner, she found herself staring at a woman with platinum blonde hair up in a beehive on top of her head clad in a small black tank top that showed her stomach and skin tight cheetah print pants, black stilettos, and thick black sunglasses with rhinestones decorating the edges. Her skin was too tan and wrinkled and leathery from lying in the tanning bed too much and she was popping her bubble gum as loud as humanly possible. The blonde was standing beside a squat little man who was as wide as he was tall with curly black hair, bushy black eyebrows, a mustache to match and a five o'clock shadow. He wore a green polo shirt over yellow athletic shorts that showed off his pasty white legs and loafers with no socks. What a pair. The thought went through Lisa's mind and she had to make a conscious effort not to roll her eyes at them.
"Hello." Lisa chimed, "I am so sorry about all of this." Her job consisted of saying the phrase 'I am so sorry' about a thousand times a day. "May I see you keys?" They each handed her a plastic card which she then stuffed into her blazer pocket. "All right, I'm going to try to unlock the door for you with my master key and I've got one of our maintenance men on the way up to take a look at the door and see if he can't figure out why it keeps demagnetizing your cards." She explained, taking out her own key and swiping it through the door. It unlocked almost instantly.
The man, Mr. Lawsard rushed through the door and into the bathroom, slamming it closed as he entered. Mrs. Lawsard popped a bubble at Lisa as she walked past her into the room. "Um, I hate to have to advise this, but until we've figured out the problem with the door and whether or not it can be fixed, I would recommend that you don't both leave the room at the same time."
"Well, that's just great, sweetie!" Mrs. Lawsard blared at her, "What the hell are we supposed to do then, huh?"
"I'm very sorry, ma'am, but if we don't know whether or not we've fixed the problem then our best course of action will be to move you to another room for the rest of your stay here."
"Oh good Lord, girly, what kinda place are you runnin' here?" Mrs. Lawsard continued, pulling a tiny bottle of gin out of the mini bar and unscrewing the cap.
Lisa turned so that she was facing away from the door and thankfully she saw Bill coming down the way toward her. Bill was 5'1, 5'2 at best, stocky with a buzz cut and an earring and was missing one of his front teeth. There was no one from maintenance that she trusted more.
"Bill, I apologize." Lisa said, walking up to him.
"What for?" Bill asked.
"oh, you'll see." Lisa said taking him over to the door. "The keypad keeps demagnetizing the keycards and I have no idea why. See what you can do about that and..." she lowered her voice to a whisper, "watch out for the blonde."
Bill cocked an eyebrow questioningly and Lisa made a drinking motion with her hand. "Oh." Bill said, "Great. What have you gotten me into?"
"Look on the bright side." Lisa said as she started to walk away.
"What bright side?" Bill called after her.
Lisa spun around and walked backwards, "You don't have to deal with them all day...like me."
"You're right." Bill laughed, "That is a bright side."
Lisa stepped out of the elevator back into the lobby and smiled when she got to the reception desk. Sitting on top of the counter was a Starbucks cup marked: Lisa R. She snatched it up and took a sip, practically purring as the warm liquid slid down her throat. It was perfect. Light cream and sugar, just the way she liked it. The pounding in her ears stopped almost immediately. Cynthia emerged from behind the counter and Lisa enveloped the girl in a hug.
"Cynthia, my dear, you are a saint!" she said.
"Why?" Cynthia asked.
"For getting me this wonderful coffee!" Lisa answered taking another sip.
Cynthia stared at her blankly, "But, I didn't."
Lisa froze and looked at her, licking a few stray drops from her bottom lip. "But, then who..." she pointed at the cup in her hand and scanned the hotel lobby. "Ah, who cares?" she said and took another huge gulp.
"Lisa!" Cynthia scolded:That't worse than taking candy from a stranger."
"Oh, leave me alone. It's good and I really, really need it."
Cynthia couldn't help but laugh as she went to check to see if the bar was ready to open. Lisa finished off her coffee and repositioned herself behind the front desk. The rest of the day went pretty much like Lisa had thought it would. She'd been called up to the eighth floor to reprimand the members of the baseball team she had worked extremely hard to place because they were being rowdy and kept getting fresh with the maids. One of them had tried to grab her ass and she had smacked his hand away and threatened to not only kick them all out of the hotel, but file sexual harassment suits against every single one of them. She hadn't heard a peep from them since. There was the toilet that had overflowed on the fifth floor, the group of Japanese tourists who had thought that Cynthia was their tour guide, the three year old who had tried to rip her earring out of her ear, and the sixty year old woman who had had an allergic reaction to something in one of her salads and had to be carted away in an ambulance.
10:00 p.m. rolled around and Lisa was sitting in the back checking over some kitchen orders when Rebeccam, one of the girls who worked the front counter came back.
"Lisa?" she said hesitantly.
Lisa jumped from surprise, then looked at her. "Yes! I mean, yes?"
"I'm sorry to bother you..."
"Don't be silly, Rebecca. What do you need?"
"I just got off the phone with a Mr. Jackson in room 4080..."
"Mmmhmm."
"He's had to send back his room service order three times."
"You're kidding." Lisa said standing up and throwing her checklist onto the table.
"Afraid not. He finally just asked to speak with you."
"All right. Don't worry. I'll take care of it." she said giving the young girl a comforting squeeze on the shoulder and heading for the elevator.
She had just punched the 4 button when her cell phone rang. She flipped it open and pressed it to her ear without thinking twice. "Lisa Reisert."
"Hey honey, it's me."
"Hey, dad." Lisa said, genuinely smiling for maybe the third time that day.
"I just thought I'd call and see if you're up for a late dinner with the old man?"
"God, I'd love to, but I don't think I can. it looks like I'm gonna be stuck here for the rest of the night."
"You work too hard."
"Yeah, yeah."
"It's not healthy."
"Hey, I learned it from you." she laughed as the elevator doors opened and she stepped through them, "Oh! I meant to call you yesterday to thank you for the flowers. They're gorgeous!"
"What flowers?"
"The...the ones you sent me."
"Sweetheart, I didn't send you any flowers."
On instinct Lisa spun on her heel to duck back into the elevator, but the doors had just closed. "Seriously?"
"I swear. Lisa, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah." she said as she scanned to the left and right of her.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm fine, dad. I just...I gotta go deal with this customer right now. I'll call you right back."
"All right, sweetheart. I love you."
"I love you, too, daddy. Buh-bye." she flipped the phone closed without waiting for her father's response. She spun a full circle taking in both sides of the long hallway which all of the sudden seemed much too quiet. She took a breath and headed for room 4080. It was simple. She would just check on Clint Jackson and get the hell back down to the lobby. Simple.
If it was all so simple then why was her heart beating at about five thousand miles per second. She stopped in front of the hotel room door and just stood there staring at it. She took a minute to steady her breathing back to a normal rhythm and then quickly tapped on the door before she could change her mind. She heard the chain bolt unlock and watched as the doorknob started to turn. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought that it was going to beat its way right out of her chest. The door swung open and there stood Clint Jackson, smiling at her from behind those tiny silver spectacles.
"Hello again, Ms. Reisert. I'm sorry, I'm being so difficult." He apologized.
"Not at all, Mr. Jackson." She tried not to choke on the name, but her breathing had returned to normal. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"
"Well, it's really just the simplest little error, but over and over and over. Since you took such good care of me last night, I just figured that maybe you could help me out with..." his gaze moved to just over her right shoulder, "Oh. I believe you know know my associate."
Lisa turned to look over her shoulder and found herself staring straight into a pair of crystal blue eyes that she would never in her life be able to forget. She opened her mouth with the intent to scream, but nothing would come out. She prayed that she was once again hallucinating. But, he was real.There, leaning on his hand which was braced against the wall and wearing a well tailored charcoal suit stood Jackson Rippner, that all too familiar cocky grin firmly on his lips.
"Hey, Leese."
Author's Note: Well? You must tell me right away what you think.