The Last Place You Look
Chapter Two: Down the Primrose Path
by Aeris Tiniel Mirime
Disclaimer: All Disclaimers from the first chapter apply!
As watchman to my heart...
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles...himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.
-Shakespeare, Hamlet
Esteban stepped off the elevator and into the lobby, whereupon he saw that Maddie had arrived for work. Remembering what he had accidentally said while watching the boys, he averted his eyes from her and quickly walked to the front desk. If he were to go talk to her, it might make people think that it had meant something significant, and he didn't want to give that impression.
Maddie saw him get off the elevator, and was relieved when he didn't come over. If London should see them together, she would probably make a huge deal out of it. Maddie would talk to Esteban sometime later, once London had forgotten about what she had accidentally written. And knowing London, that would probably only take a few minutes.
London, meanwhile, had gone to change out of her school clothes. When she came back downstairs, she saw Esteban waiting around for someone to give him a job, and remembered what had happened with Maddie's notes earlier in the day. She wanted to find out what was going on between thim and Maddie that would make her write his name down like that. So she slinked over to him as if she had some top secret information and didn't want anyone to know about it.
"Hey Esteban!" she whispered. "Guess who I went to school with today."
Esteban knew the answer, of course. But why would London be asking him such an obvious question, unless she wanted to put him on the spot about Maddie? Knowing her and her love of gossip, he guessed that she must have already found out about his verbal mishap.
London didn't wait for an answer. Looking to the left and the right to make sure no one was listening, she leaned towards him and whispered "Maddie."
"That's nice." he said, staring at her blankly. He wasn't going to give London any more ideas than she already had.
Disappointed with not getting a reaction, she asked, "Don't you think that's kind of interesting?"
"Uh, why would it be? It's only Maddie. Don't you go to school with her everyday?" he said, trying to add a coldness to his voice to show he didn't care about the blonde girl any more than anyone else.
"Only Maddie, huh? Ok, well I was just asking." she said, and straightened up abruptly. "Bye, then."
Esteban sighed in relief as she turned away. She seemed to believe him, so maybe there wouldn't be too big of a fuss about his slip after all.
But in reality, London was wondering how Maddie would feel about that exchange. Despite Maddie's claim to the contrary, writing his name next to hers seemed, to London, to indicate how she felt for him, but Esteban didn't seem to be thinking of her in any special way. In fact, he seemed to be kind of annoyed by the mention of her name.
In her mind, London pondered what could have caused such a reaction. "Maddie probably tried to flirt with him, and I bet she came off looking really obvious. That must have been a big turn-off," she thought. It was then London resolved not to let Maddie know how Esteban felt about her advances. She may like to tease, but she wasn't cruel enough to purposely embarrass someone like that.
A few minutes later, Cody walked over to Maddie's station. Like London, he wanted to see if anything was up between her and Esteban that would cause him to mention her name.
"What's up, Maddie?" he asked
"Not much," she said.
"Have you seen Esteban lately?"
Maddie rolled her eyes. Had London spread her gossip all over the hotel in just half an hour?
"No I haven't," she said irritably.
"You know, you sound like you don't want to see him."
"What does it matter whether I do or don't" Maddie snapped. "It didn't mean anything!" she thought. "It was a simple coincidence. Why can't people understand that?"
"Hey, I was just making an observation," Cody said.
"Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you, but could you please refrain from making any more observations on my feelings? I don't want to see Esteban any more or less than on any other day."
"Alright then, Maddie. That's all I wanted to know." Cody said as he backed off.
Maddie's statement wasn't such great news. Cody suspected that Esteban liked her, and he wanted to see how she felt about him. But based on her reaction, Zack must have gotten there first, and blabbed Esteban's secret to her. She certainly hadn't looked too thrilled when Cody mentioned Esteban's name.
"Poor guy," Cody thought. He knew couldn't let the Esteban find out that Maddie knew he had been thinking of her, and didn't seem to return his feelings.