'AARRGGHHHHH' Tibby yelled with frustration as a smartly dressed businessman stole the fourth cab she had hailed. 'What is wrong with this city'
She spun around and noticing Brian's smirk hit him across the back of his head. 'If you think it's so funny why don't you get us a ride'?
Brian shrugged and in less than five minutes had them in a cab heading towards the hotel while Tibby sulked at his apparent ease in taxi hailing, what, was there a special transport code? Brian offered her a jelly bean out of one of his quirkily colour sorted bags but recoiled at her sour look. He rolled his eyes and looked out the window, used to Tibby's moods.
Half an hour later they arrived at a hotel which would have taken them twenty minutes to walk to but thanks to the congested streets they were now down quite a bit of cash, taxi's would have to be a luxury from now on.
'But we booked two rooms?' Tibby argued with the young girl at the front desk. The girl looked Tibby up and down and gave her a fake smile. 'I'm sorry, but the reservation on the computer here was for only one room, and we're completely booked'. Tibby gave the girl the most sarcastic smile she could muster and took the room key. So far she wasn't seeing what was so great about the Big Apple. Brian took the reservation mix up with one of his famous easygoing shrugs and frowned when Tibby mimicked the unapologetic explanation from the girl. Seeing how annoyed Tibby was Brian suggested they went somewhere else but Tibby was too tired to traipse around anymore and so they headed up to their room.
After Tibby had claimed the bed for herself, checked out the fully stocked mini-bar and flicked through the hotel cable she was energised again. Not wanting to wake Brian who was snoring on the couch she crept out of the room and wondered around the lobby for a while. She sunk into a comfortable chair and skimmed over the hotels room service menu. After a while she became aware of a conversation between the girl at the check-in desk and a guy.
'No, you're reservation was for two rooms Mr Randal'
The guy gave a frustrated sound and replied in a calmly strained voice. 'Why would I want to pay for two rooms when it's just me staying here?' The girl gave him one of her fake smiles 'Okay, take a seat and I will see what I can do' she pointed with grotesquely long, painted nails to the seat next to Tibby.
The guy sat down and rolled his eyes at Tibby, who smiled sympathetically. Tibby glanced at the guy again over her menu. He was good looking, great looking even, and early twenties with curly dark hair, olive skin and blue oval shaped eyes. Something about him seemed strangely familiar, but she could just not put her finger on it and the name 'Randal' wasn't familiar at all. As if he sensed her watching him he looked up and smiled. This tiny change in his face made him go from a great looking guy to a god-like creature of beauty and Tibby was instantly and completely infatuated for the first time in her life.
It took her a dazed minute to realise that he was talking to her. Not being able to translate what he said from an incoherent jumble Tibby just nodded and smiled.
He held out his hand 'I'm Andy'
Grasping it with her own hand Tibby spluttered out 'Tib…by'
Andy grinned at her 'It's great to meet you Tibby, I don't supposed you need an extra room' he said jokingly.
Wait, she did need an extra room, well she didn't need it, she didn't mind sharing with Brian, but any excuse to talk to Andy for longer. 'Actually there was a mix up with my booking as well and we do need another room'
After some sorting out with the relieved receptionist it was agreed that the hotel would pay for the extra cost between the cost of the room Tibby had originally booked and the price that Andy's second room cost, which was apparently of a higher cost. Andy walked Tibby up to her new room which was twelve floors above Brian's, she didn't think it was necessarily fair that she got a better room and Brian didn't, but she wasn't about to reject the room, or miss out on standing in an elevator with Andy.
'So are you on a holiday?' asked Andy
'Yeah, my friend and I travelled here to see the Film Festival'
Andy just nodded, and seemed to tense up a little.
Desperate to break the deafening silence Tibby asked him if he was also on holiday.
Andy thought about it for a moment 'I guess you could say that, although it's sort of a working holiday'
Tibby just nodded not wanting to pry.
When they reached her room Andy smiled at Tibby and put his hand on her shoulder.
'Thankyou so much for taking my extra room Tibby, I guess this way we both win. I'll be here for a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll see you around the hotel, but if not have a great time at the Film Festival'
Tibby was so conscious of the warmth of his hand through her shirt that she forgot to reply and just looked at up at him with a goofy grin. He 'hoped' to see her around, he didn't just say 'see you round' he said he would 'hopefully' see her around. Tibby watched him walk into the room next door and sighed with bliss as she entered hers.