"Marian! Come on" Emma Tutweiler couldn't wait to properly sit down and discuss her new status with her fiancée but Moseby couldn't sit still because of his old job being taken over, the hotel's new bell-woman and the stress of the future wedding. "Marian, please let's just sit"
"Emma. Why don't we just go for a stroll? You haven't seen the lobby in detail yet" Moseby just wanted a peaceful day. Nothing to bother him but that wasn't going to happen. "I know it's amazing that we are going to be married but my life has been so busy over the past few years. It's like my life is a sitcom or made just people's amusement or something" The hotel room they had been put in was one of the finest Tipton's suites there was. Moseby wasn't going to settle for any less. He had slaved for Mr Tipton for so long that he had forgotten when the last time he had a day off so he deserved a great suite with relaxation time.
"Ok Marian. If you don't want to sit why don't we go find one the kids and see how they are doing?" She knew that was a bad idea but watching him move around the room like that gave her motion sickness. He nodded to the idea grudgingly.
They stepped out of their room to find a girl struggling to put her key into the slot so Moseby jumped at the chance to get back to his hotel manager days. "You ok, Miss? Need some help?" She shook her head as to say 'no'. The couple were about to continue to the elevator when Emma noticed a single tear land on the girl's bag. "Marian, she's crying. Help her" So Moseby nicely reached out for the key and said "I know what I'm doing. I worked in this hotel for many years" He slipped the key in quickly and it made a monstrous noise. "Well that's not supposed to happen. Give me one second". He took to the side to fiddle with the key-card.
Emma didn't want to stand there whilst the girl was crying. "You know, I'm a great listener. I've learnt from my cats" The girl turned around to lean on the wall. "Maya?" The now-sobbing girl slid down the wall to sit down. Emma didn't want to trouble her with questions on why she was here and not Chad. "Oh, Maya. What's up?"
Emma knelt down and sat by her, giving her time to reply. "Oh Miss. I didn't need this. Not now. I'm leaving, it was hard back on the ship now we will have to do it all over again if we start acting like we used to" Emma caught on that Maya must have seen Zack on her way up. "The one relationship I got that worked out and was great and I have to say goodbye to it and him"
"As a teacher I would say you need to just think about your future in the sensible way and just ignore the romantic obligations and got to Chad but as a woman who was once a very lonely character I say if he likes you as much as you're clearly liking him then you need to think for a moment and decide whether it's worth staying and giving you and Zack a go" Moseby walked over at this time and tried the key again which now allowed the door to open and carried in her bags. He saw the tears and grabbed his handkerchief.
"Here. I have plenty more" As he said this another handkerchief popped out of his pocket in his jacket. "Maya. Where there's a will, there's a way"
Tutweiler was sat looking through a bridal magazine and talking to Moseby when she notices that he is totally ignoring her. "I think we should have a lovely walkway for me"
"Yeah. Huh huh"
"And get Elvis Presley to play a few songs as I walk down the aisle and get my alien cousin to be the vicar and speak in her beautiful Nargican language" She know he wasn't listening so sarcasm seemed to be the way to go.
"Sounds great" She looked in the direction he was and he was looking at the manager's desk. "Marian. This is supposed to be relaxation time for you and we are supposed to be picking our wedding details"
"I know, I know but he shouldn't keep the stapler and phone next to each other. I have had my own experience with that. You pick up the stapler thinking it's the phone…"
Tutweiler gets up and walks away saying "For God's sake. You of all people should know how much this means to me"
"Hello Mr Moseby. How can I help you?" Esteban loved how he could help My Moseby now. He'd been waiting for a time like this. He wanted to move up in life and he's finally got it. It's just that he didn't feel as good as he thought he would have. "Trouble with your lady friend? I have no problems with my wife since we no longer have arguments with my step-mother"
"I just don't think I have the experience when it comes to the ladies" Moseby wanted to be able to know what she was thinking. He had no idea what he was doing.
"There is only one man I know that can help you in this area"
"Oh No" He knew the man he was speaking of. The devil himself walked up to him and said "Can I call you Marian now? It's just that you aren't in charge of me anymore so… What do you say, Marian?"
"Hello Zack. Just call me whatever. Can I ask you something? It's a little embarrassing" Mr Moseby had been dreading the day he had to go Zack for help, especially in the romance department. He had done it once before to impress Mrs Tutweiler and Zack had helped him improve on his look. It worked out well then why couldn't I this time?
Bailey had been walking around with Cody and listening to his 'tour' on how everything was filthy and not actually learnt much about his young self (other than Zack's embarrassing stories). She needed an excuse for him to stop.
"Oh, and here's the elevator that probably doesn't get the buttons disinfected daily or at all" He know Bailey was more likely wanting to know other interesting stuff but he didn't know what else to show her. He was trying to change for her but he and everyone else knew that he hasn't changed much. Before he could even give her a warning about the entrance from the elevator to the lobby Bailey turned him around to face her and planted a huge kiss on him.
"What was that for?" He was stunned.
"Can't I just kiss my guy without it being questioned?" Cody looked at her. "Yeah. It was to get you to shut up. I don't care about the state the Tipton is in. We need to spend proper time together before I go to the place that shall not be named"
They grabbed each other's hands at the same time. Cody felt his knuckles crack but didn't squirm in pain even though she knows he has sensitive hands. Bailey twiddled with this thumb and finger. "Wow Cody. Your knuckles cracked and you didn't notice. Maybe you becoming manlier" She said as she gave him one more kiss ahead of the doors opening to the lobby.
As soon as they stepped out they were greeted with Zack. "Where have you been? You said that we were meeting here at 12 and it is now five past Cody Martin and Bailey Pickett. I got her one time for once"
"Zack. How was Maya?" Cody said to change the subject.
"You know. As expected. Awkward" He sighed. "But on the bright side. I know get to help out Marian with his woman problems again" Being especially sarcastic around the words 'help out'.
"Be nice. Hey honey, are there any good museums in our home town?" Bailey said.
"Not really. I mean we've been to a lot when on the ship so your expectations could be pretty high. But I'll take you to places that are up to our mental standard. Sorry Zack are arranged gathering will have to be cut short"
"No, it's fine. I want to go talk to someone anyway"
Maya decided that she would leave her stuff packed up and would just have to borrow or buy new stuff whilst she was here. It's not that long. A few weeks. She looked around her hotel room and thought that it wasn't the best room possible. She didn't see the point in getting a good room. Zack. His face. His voice. Was stuck in her head. Replaying and replaying, over and over again. How was she supposed to avoid him? There was a knock at the door.
"Staff. We are here to check that the room is to your liking" Weird accent.
She opened the door to a big vase of flowers blocking the person. "Come in"
The flowers were thrown down on the table. The staff were terrible here, she was surprised to see that the vase hadn't smashed. It was a man. With no uniform. He turned around.
"I thought you wouldn't open the door if you thought it was me" Zack. She thought he wouldn't be visiting for a while because of the awkwardness.
"And the flowers?"
"Well, there from the hallway. I stole them of this shelf outside. I needed something to hide me so that you would let me in"
They stood in silence for a few seconds. A few seconds too long, filled with more awkwardness. He stepped forward. "Can I just ask you one thing?" She nodded to reply.
"I know I didn't want an explanation on the boat. But I need to know. I regretted not listening to you straight away."
"Zack, I-"
"No. Listen. Before you, in the same situation I would have broken up with you. No discussion and I probably would have found a way to get you to break up with yourself to get me out of guilt. But you have to admit our relationship meant something. It was different. You just ended it because you would be in a different place and a few hours in front of me"
"I knew we wouldn't last long. Long distance doesn't work. Even the movies know that. I saved us from not being able to see each other, speak to each other… From heartbreak"
"You didn't even give us a shot. I was willing to"
"So let's say I never broke up with you. I go off to Chad and you stay here waiting for me to finally let you know I have arrived. Then months in you have given up on waiting for me to call you back and I have given up on looking for reception. You have started email. That doesn't work out because I can't get hold of a computer" She was explaining slowly to get it into Zack's head. He needed to understand why she did it at least. She could see in his face that he still wasn't seeing it the wa she did "Writing letters now. This means we'll be getting each other's letters weeks or months later and losing touch more and more because of the difference in land and time. We'll finally be on the same page at one point and decide to break up but we'll be hating each other because we'd both be thinking the other one didn't try harder. At least I 'ended' it in person so we could save the full hatred"
Zack shook his head. He thought it was stupid that she planned it out and only saw it in the bad way. He grabbed her hand. She wanted to pull away but he was holding it tight so she couldn't but not so tight that it was painful.
"So you dumped me because you had planned out in your head how our relationship would have gone if we had stayed together. The way you saw it ending so badly shows that you never believed in us"
"No Zack. Fine. I just couldn't take any more heartache. There was too much before I met you" She sighed. "I don't know. I just wanted to prevent more damage to myself"
He grabbed her other hand. Leant down to make eye level and kissed her cheek, catching a loose tear. "How about we go to more a cheerful subject? It's not like we can change anything"
It took all the power inside him to not kiss her like he did on the boat but he thought that she needed him as a friend. Maya didn't know how she managed a whole afternoon with Zack filled with laughter and playful chatter without kissing him. But 4 hours had passed with them sat there just watching TV and Zack had to leave.
"Woody wants me back. So does my mum. Want to meet up tomorrow?"
"… Yeah, sure. How else will I pass time here?"
As Zack got up to leave, she did too. As he walked to her door, she did too. As he grabbed for the door knob, she did too. They got hold of the door knob at the same time and turned to look at each other. It was that 'look' that many people had. That one sure sign of love. But they ignored and Zack opened to the door stepped out and turned to face her. "You going to ok by yourself? I could stay on the couch or you could come back to-"
"I'll be fine Zack" Just before Zack turned to leave Maya reached for his hand and swivelled him round. He leant down slightly to make them once again eye level and Maya kissed him on the lips just like their first kiss on the boat, without the cake. Zack leant out of the kiss and walked away to the elevator.
Maya was… She didn't know how she felt. She had made a move (that was stupid, she knew, but couldn't help herself) and he had turned it down. She kept replaying it in her head for a few minutes. Over thinking about it. But he had lingered! Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
'Well that was something wasn't it, Maya Bennett'
A text from Zack. It calmed her nerves. Followed by another.
'How about we keep the evening going through text then you won't be fully alone in that hotel room, will you? ;)'