CHAPTER 9 - MESS WITH ONE, MESS WITH ALL
Here's the long-awaited ninth installment, covering the moment when the groms' stand against Bummer after Lo declares "Enough is enough!" over his shabby treatment of Fin produces results, and when everyone, staff and guests alike, speak out against the much-despised Marvin family over their kids' behavior at the hotel. This chapter contains some suggestions made by Emperor of the Animal Kingdom, with a couple of modifications (see further down).
A few minutes later, Mr. Ridgemount arrived at the staff house at Lo's request, to discover the state of the building upon his arrival. "What in the world...?" he exclaimed when he checked out the staff residence's decrepit outer appearance. To his shock, the Ridgemount patriarch noticed decaying railings along the front porch, the second-floor walkway and the outside stairway connecting the two floors, a missing stairrail going up the front porch steps, peeling paint all over the outside of the house, rotting roof boards over the walkway, some boards missing from the house siding, two pieces of plywood covering a big hole in the roof at one end and another smaller hole in the roof noticeable at the other end.
"Hi, Daddy," Lo greeted her father from the top of the porch steps. "I'm glad you made it."
"Lauren, what's up with the outside of the..." Mr. Ridgemount began to speak as he started up the porch steps, but as he hit the second step, his right foot went right through a rotten part of the step, causing the hotel owner to curse.
Lo gasped when she saw what happened. "Daddy, are you okay?" she said with concern.
"I'm fine, Princess," Mr. Ridgemount replied as he pulled his foot out of the now-broken step. "No real damage except to this step." He continued surveying the front porch as he went to meet Lo there. "Good grief, what's the matter with the staff house? It looks like a run-down shack!" he then said.
"Wait'll you see what's inside," Lo said, just as Mr. Ridgemount heard a noise coming from above his head.
"Lauren, look out!" Mr. Ridgemount said abruptly as he pulled Lo out of the way, just before several ceiling boards came crashing down on the spot where Lo had been standing mere moments ago.
"Ohmigosh, Daddy, that was close!" Lo said, hugging her father with relief after seeing the boards where she had just been. "C'mon, let's go inside," she said while leading Mr. Ridgemount into the staff house living room. "There's some stuff I need to talk to you about."
"I know you said it was urgent," Mr. Ridgemount said, "but why not talk about it over at the dining lounge instead?"
"Because the condition of the staff house was one of those things," Lo said. "How long's it been since you were here last?"
"The last time I was here was some time before I promoted Andrew to day manager...which was over six years ago," Mr. Ridgemount realized. "He's been telling me everything with this place was fine the whole time and I took his word for it, sight unseen."
"Is that the Monday paper from Halifax you have there, Daddy?" Lo asked, noticing the newspaper her father had in his hand.
"It is, Pumpkin," Mr. Ridgemount said. "Why do you need it, though?"
"You know my friend Fin McCloud, the one from Housekeeping?" Lo said.
"Sure, she's one of my best employees," Mr. Ridgemount remembered.
"Her father was killed in a car accident last week," Lo explained. "His obituary appeared in the Monday Halifax paper and Fin got a clipping of the obituary by express mail from her grandma yesterday. She needed it to show to Andrew because she wanted to take time off to go back home for her dad's funeral and Andrew wouldn't let her because he thought she was faking it to get out of work and go surfing." As Mr. Ridgemount read the obituary in question, Lo continued, "But when Fin showed it to Andrew, he crumpled it up and threw it on the floor, then he threatened to fire her if she didn't get back to work. Fin got so angry because of it, she screamed at Andrew before she ran off crying."
"That's terrible!" Mr. Ridgemount said in response. "Why wouldn't he give Fin leave on compassionate grounds to let her go home for the funeral?"
"I found out the hard way over the summer that Andrew doesn't have any compassion when it comes to his staff," Lo said. "That reminds me, take a look at these," she added, handing her father the forms she and her friends retrieved from Bummer's office.
"Where did you get these?" Mr. Ridgemount asked as he checked out the hotel bank statement and the golf cart sales receipt.
"That's not important right now, but you told me once about seeing Andrew with a fancy new golf cart outside the hotel a few weeks ago, right?" Lo said.
"I did," Mr. Ridgemount admitted. "He was fawning over that thing like he'd just won the lottery."
"He might as well have," Lo then said, showing her father a picture of Bummer's golf cart on her iPhone. "Check this out," she continued, switching to another photo of the cart that showed a close-up of the BAUMER1 licence plate on the front.
"What?" Mr. Ridgemount said, surprised at the photo. "Where would Andrew get the money to buy his own golf cart?"
"That's what I brought you the sales receipt and the bank statement for," Lo said. "He bought that cart for himself using the hotel's money. He depleted most of the summer staff's food budget for the next month and a half to pay for that cart, so he cheaped out on staff meals to stay within budget by giving us nothing but barely-edible slop. Johnny told me Andrew had that sludge made with slurry he got from the fish plant in Campbell River."
Mr. Ridgemount was beginning to see red by that point. "What else has he done that you know about?" he asked.
"Andrew's also been ripping most of the staff off on our paychecks over the last month," Lo reported. "I don't know what's he's been doing with the money we were supposed to get, but most of us have only been paid in stuff like bar peanuts and hot dog coupons." She then produced the unused coupons in question, which were still in her most recent pay envelope, from her purse. "And I don't know about the others, but the only time I've actually been getting any real money of late was through babysitting, and that's only because my clients pay me directly."
Mr. Ridgemount was now fuming, but keeping his temper in check. "Anything else?" he said.
Lo then ran off a list of Bummer's other transgressions against the staff, including threatening to fire some of them for ridiculous reasons, allowing the Marvin boys to run wild in the hotel and terrorize staff and guests alike, and working her and her friends seven days a week without breaks. "But worst of all, when we went to support Fin after what he did to her, Andrew banned the staff from surfing when we're off-duty and threatened to fire everyone else and to get my Christmas vacay in Florida taken away - all because we supported Fin when she really needed us," she said. "He only did it to try and save face after Fin ripped him a few new ones for disrespecting her dad's memory."
"Well, I'm about to rip Bummer a few new ones myself after everything you just told me," Mr. Ridgemount said, steaming at how someone he had considered his right-hand man at the hotel, someone he had trusted to keep things running smoothly there, could cause such problems for him, his daughter, his staff, his guests and the hotel in general. When he looked back at Lo though, he noticed something that caught his attention. "Lauren, your right leg!" he said to his daughter, pointing in that direction.
Lo took a look and noticed two cockroaches crawling on her lower right leg. Creeped out and spooked by the appearance of the bugs, Lo screamed and shook her leg to get rid of the roaches, which Mr. Ridgemount then stepped on and squashed when they hit the floor. "Daddy, that was sooo gross!" a disgusted Lo said with a shiver. "I hate cockroaches!"
"All right, that tears it!" an irate Mr. Ridgemount then snapped after what happened to Lo. "I'm not letting my daughter stay in this roach-infested fire hazard waiting to happen one moment longer!" He then grabbed his cell phone from his coat pocket and speed-dialed Bummer's number. "Andrew, it's Mr. Ridgemount," he said as soon as Bummer answered. "As soon as you get back to the hotel, meet me at the staff house immediately!"
"Of course, Mr. Ridgemount, not a prob...wait a sec," Bummer said at the other end when he realized what he heard his boss say. "Did you just say the staff house?"
"Yes, the staff house!" Mr. Ridgemount said sternly. "I want to see you there the moment you set foot on the hotel grounds. Is that clear?"
"Y-y-y-y-yes, sir," Bummer said, his voice sounding as though he realized he was on his way to meet his fate.
When Mr. Ridgemount hung up, Lo looked at her father admiringly and smiled. "Thanks, Daddy," she said. "You just did me a huge favor, and Fin a ginormous one."
"It's not over yet, Princess," Mr. Ridgemount then said. "Just wait 'til Bummer gets here. When I heard him on the phone after I told him to meet me here, I think he knows what's coming for him."
Upstairs on the staff house's second floor, Fin, Lo, Broseph, Emma, Johnny, Kelly, David, Ripper and Lance were in the hallway near the top of the stairway, staying just out of sight from the main floor while listening to yelling coming from there, when Reef came along after using the bathroom. "Hey guys, what's going..." Reef began.
"Shhh," Lo said, silencing Reef as she put her index finger to her lips. "Daddy's downstairs reading the riot act to Bummer," she said quietly.
"Ahh, now this I gotta hear," Reef said as he joined the rest of the gang to listen to the show going on downstairs.
Down in the living room, Bummer was attempting to defend his decision to not tell Mr. Ridgemount about the state of the staff house. "B-b-b-but sir, it was your decision to send Lo to the staff house in the first place..." he said, trying to deflect some of the blame.
"Which I never would've done if I'd known about the condition of this place!" Mr. Ridgemount fired back. "What were you thinking, letting Lauren continue to stay in a death trap that should have been condemned five years ago? This dump isn't fit for cockroaches to live in, let alone for my little girl!" The hotel owner then produced the forms he had received from Lo and showed them to Bummer. "And what's this about you spending hotel money without authorization to buy yourself a golf cart for your own personal use?" he demanded to know.
Bummer's eyes went wide when he recognized the sales receipt and the hotel bank statement that contained the record of the sale. "Sir, where did you even get..." he said.
"Save it, Andrew! It's not important where I got it," Mr. Ridgemount continued. "To make matters worse, you had to dip into the summer staff's meal budget in order to pay for that cart, and you spent the next few weeks afterward feeding pig swill to the staff - especially to Lauren!"
Bummer was now visibly sweating as Mr. Ridgemount continued to chastize him for his mismanagement of Surfer's Paradise. "I've also gotten complaints that you've been paying most of the staff in bar peanuts and food coupons that they couldn't even use because of restrictions on them! I want to know, Andrew - what have you been doing with the money the staff was supposed to be getting paid with?" Mr. Ridgemount said angrily.
"Sir, I-I-I-I-I-I-I..." Bummer stammered nervously.
"And here's something that really sticks in my craw," Mr. Ridgemount went on. "Fin McCloud, one of my best workers on staff here, loses her father in a car accident last week, and not only do you deny her leave to go home for her father's funeral, you treat her grief over the loss as a joke and threaten to fire her for requesting that time off!"
"Sir, Fin made all of that up!" Bummer insisted, sticking to his belief based on his past dealings with the groms. "She only wanted that time off so she could get in extra surfing on company time!"
"Is that so?" Mr. Ridgemount countered. "Then how do you explain THIS?" He then showed Bummer the classified pages from the Halifax newspaper, opened to the obituary section, and pointed to the obituary of Fin's father, circled with red marker - the same obituary Bummer had crumpled up like trash after Fin showed it to him.
The moment he saw the obituary, Bummer slumped his shoulders, realizing he was sunk. Oh crap, McCloud was telling the truth after all, he thought to himself. I am so screwed.
"And how can you threaten to fire my entire summer staff simply for giving Fin the emotional support she needed?" Mr Ridgemount said next. "Are you trying to make an example of her just to show you can do whatever you think you please with my employees? That is just plain disgraceful, Andrew!"
"And how about you banning them from surfing when they're not on duty?" the Ridgemount patriarch then told Bummer. "Don't you even realize by eliminating their recreational opportunities and working them every day of the week without breaks, you're only creating unhappy staff? Unhappy staff means unhappy customers, which means lost customers, which means lost revenue for the hotel - and that means the unemployment office for you! Not to mention that creating unhappy staff only creates an opportunity for rebellious staff!" Bummer, realizing that Mr. Ridgemount was right, said nothing.
"Speaking of unhappy customers," Mr. Ridgemount continued, "I've also heard of customers complaining about certain guests' unruly children running around my hotel misbehaving in destructive fashion while their parents do nothing to stop them, and neither do you! What do you have to say about that?"
"If I do so, the parents threaten to leave the hotel," Bummer said in his defence. "And that means lost revenue for the hotel..."
"Not as much as what we've been losing thanks to angry guests checking out early BECAUSE of those kids!" Mr. Ridgemount said. "Not to mention..." Before he could finish, Mr. Ridgemount heard his cell phone ring in his coat pocket and took it out to answer. Recognizing the number for the Pirate Ship, he answered it right away. "Hello?"
"Monsieur Reedgemount, I need you at ze restaurant queeckly," a French-accented voice replied in a panic, which Mr. Ridgemount immediately recognized as the hotel chef. "Eet's an emairegency! Ze keetchen has exploded!"
"WHAT?" Mr. Ridgemount barked when he heard the news. "I'll be there right away! Andrew, you're coming with me," he said to Bummer when he hung up his phone. "It's high time someone cleaned up the mess you created!" Mr. Ridgemount and Bummer then left the staff house for the hotel, with Fin, Lo, Reef and the rest of the gang following soon after.
The moment Mr. Ridgemount and everyone else from the staff house arrived in the hotel lobby, they were greeted by the sight of smoke pouring from the Pirate Ship, along with several of the on-duty wait staff emerging from the restaurant carrying fire extinguishers. "WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY HOTEL?" Mr. Ridgemount boomed when he saw the commotion.
"Ask these two little dudes," Zack, one of the Pirate Ship wait staff, said as he had a squirming Todd and Mark Marvin by the backs of their shirts. "Caught 'em coming running from the kitchen, laughing 'bout what they did. Chef told me he caught 'em setting off cherry bombs in the ovens and on the gas stoves."
"Let go of us, dork!" Todd protested. "You hurt us and we'll sue!"
"You're in no position to be suing anyone, junior! You're too young to do so anyway and you've been watching too many TV cop shows," Mr. Ridgemount stated plainly to Todd.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Mr. Marvin said as he arrived in the lobby with Mrs. Marvin, having been paged by the front desk moments earlier.
"Your two rugrats were caught damaging hotel property and harassing my staff yet again," Mr. Ridgemount said. "Which wouldn't happen if you and your wife would keep better control over them!"
"Hey, they're just being boys letting off a little steam," Mr. Marvin said dismissively, disregarding Mr. Ridgemount's concerns. "What boys don't get a little high-spirited once in a while?"
"Your boys 'letting off a little steam' has caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to this hotel, caused several irate guests to check out early and caused at least one of the hotel child sitters to quit out of frustration," Mr. Ridgemount countered, "not to mention frequent complaints from my staff about your kids - all of which went unheeded by our day manager for the sake of keeping you spending money here." Bummer gulped and adjusted the collar of his uniform golf shirt as Mr. Ridgemount glared at him while speaking.
"So let me make it short and sweet for you," Mr. Ridgemount continued as he turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin. "Your parenting skills STINK! Your boys have been running wild, terrorizing my staff and bothering our customers for two months now, and you've done absolutely NOTHING to stop their misbehavior! Someone has to say it - your kids are rotten little monsters and YOU NEED TO BE BETTER PARENTS! If not, the only future they can look forward to is having their mugshots on wanted posters and watching the outside world from an eight-by-ten prison cell!"
"Well, I nevah!" an indignant Mrs. Marvin snapped in her distinctive New Jersey accent, offended at having her parenting skills (or lack thereof) questioned. "What makes you think you can question our fitness to parent? You can't even prove that our boys did anything wrong!"
"That's where I beg to differ," Johnny then jumped in. "We have hours of security footage showing your boys getting into all kinds of trouble around the hotel and we have it archived for record-keeping purposes."
Soon, other hotel guests and staff joined the fray, voicing their complaints about the Marvin boys. "Those young whippersnappers fired me out of a cannon at your restaurant!" Chester Grizzle griped.
"Those brats pulled down our change tent while we were changing and they ruined our beach photo shoot!" one of the Tropic Tan models complained.
"Stone Seabreeze filed a complaint that his room was broken into while he was here and some of his stuff was damaged, including his guitar," Johnny added. "Care to guess who?" he said while glaring at Todd and Mark.
"Hey Dad," Ty said as he walked up to Mr. Ridgemount, followed by George, who was hopping around with his arms and ankles tied up while gagged. "I found George like this a moment ago in the broom closet near the public washrooms after I heard banging coming from there and I went to check it out."
"They stuffed salt and pepper packets into the kitchen microwave and set it on high," Emma said. "They also fired live crabs out of the cannons several times onto staff and customers, and they made me trip and spill several customer orders!"
"They tied my ankles and dragged me around the lobby with a golf cart and made me smack into the Lobbyquarium!" Wipeout Whale, the costumed hotel mascot, spoke up.
"My girlfriend got a goose egg on her head when those little punks knocked over some surfboards onto her!" one muscle-bound guest said.
"When I babysat them once, they took off on me while we were in town without telling me where they were going!" Lo piped up. "I spent nearly an hour looking for them afterward before I found out they took the bus back to the hotel! They also buried me in the sand and refused to dig me back out!"
"I'm not usually one to complain myself, bossman," the Kahuna joined in, "but they lured my pet skunk into the Whalebus one time, dumped water on him and made him spray the bus. Took three days to air the bus out afterward." Several guests also complained about being splashed with water at the hotel pool when the Marvin boys cannonballed into the pool and engaged in other horseplay there on several occasions.
"They bothered numerous customers in the DR by running around unsupervised between tables and playing tag!" Kelly complained.
"Thought you might like to check this out, Mr. Ridgemount," David said as he showed him footage filmed on his iPhone of the Marvin brothers wreaking havoc in the Pirate Ship during the times he ate there, giving more weight to the staff and guests' grievances against the bratty boys. "I spoke to the manager about it after I gathered enough evidence to show him," he added while looking Bummer's way, "and he said he'd look into it, but he left it at that and did nothing."
"Okay, I've heard enough," Mr. Ridgemount called to everyone in the lobby. He then turned back to the Marvin family and said, "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Marvin, you and your boys just made history here. Thanks to the trouble your kids have caused here since you checked in at the start of the tourist season, the four of you are the first people to make it onto a new creation of mine - the Ridgemount Resorts blacklist."
"And what do you mean by that?" a perplexed Mr. Marvin said.
"It means you, your wife and your two kids are now banned from returning to this hotel and to any other Ridgemount Resorts property for life," Mr. Ridgemount told Mr. Marvin, stressing the "for life" part. "In other words, you and your family are never to set foot in any of our hotels ever again. Now, you have twenty minutes to pack your things and get out of my hotel. And," he added, "to make sure your boys don't get any ideas and do any more damage on your way out, hotel security will accompany you and keep a sharp eye on them."
As three security guards accompanied a chagrined and resentful Marvin family to their room to pack their bags, the gathered crowd of guests and staff began cheering and applauding, celebrating the eviction of the most notorious guests in Surfer's Paradise history. Mr. Ridgemount was not finished, however, as he turned his attention back to Bummer. "Well, Andrew, this is the limit!" he said to the now-disgraced day manager. "Everything else you did to my staff was bad enough, but allowing those bratty kids to do as they please in my hotel is the icing on the cake! And subjecting my daughter to your deliberate mismanagement and incompetence just makes things worse!"
Mr. Ridgemount paused a moment before he continued chastizing Bummer. "By all rights, Andrew, I should fire you from the hotel for what you've done and what you've allowed to happen here, and I should also press charges of embezzlement against you for taking hotel funds for personal use by buying yourself that golf cart with the staff meal budget." Bummer, meanwhile, continued to sweat as he faced the proverbial hangman's noose. "Yes, I should do these things - but I'm not going to," he continued.
Bummer was caught by surprise by Mr. Ridgemount's statement. "You're...you're not?" he said, sounding astonished.
"No, I'm not, but I do have something else in mind for you," Mr. Ridgemount then said. "I made a mistake by making you the day manager at Surfer's Paradise six years ago because you've allowed that power to go to your head and influence the way you treat the staff working under you, but now I'm about to fix that mistake. For starters, you will no longer be the day manager here because I'm demoting you down to concierge."
"C-c-concierge?" a stunned Bummer said.
"That's right, concierge," Mr. Ridgemount said. "You'll be assisting Johnny at the front desk from now on. Second, you're going to repay every penny of the money you took from the staff food budget, so twenty percent of your paycheck will be deducted each payday until you've fully repaid the full amount you paid for that golf cart you bought - which, by the way, is now no longer your property, but the hotel's."
"What? That's not fair!" Bummer protested.
"You're in no position to be talking about fairness when you treated my staff unfairly for who knows how long, and especially Lauren for the past two months!" Mr. Ridgemount said. "On that account, I'm going to let the staff deal with you as they see fit within reason."
Bummer then felt a tap on his shoulder from behind and he turned around to see Lo. "And by the way - Bummer," Lo said, "as your boss's daughter, let me tell you that Fin McCloud is my friend, and as such, she's under my protection. Cause any trouble for her ever again, and you're going to answer to me. Got that?"
After facing Lo, Bummer turned around...only to face Fin, Reef, Broseph, Emma, Johnny, the Kahuna, Kelly, David, Ripper and Lance, all of whom were staring down the now-ex-manager with angry glares as they walked slowly toward him with a purpose. "Wait a sec now, guys, let's be reasonable about this," Bummer said while backing away.
David removed his sunglasses from the pocket of his polo shirt and put them on. "You want reasonable, this is as good as you're getting with us," he said. "Your time's come today, Bummer."
"Come on now, don't do anything hasty..." Bummer, becoming more worried, said to the mob he was facing.
"You tell me to be reasonable?" Fin then said. "By making me miss my dad's funeral, you cost me something I can never get back! You got payback coming for all the trouble you caused us since mid-June!"
"Guys, PLEASE! I'm begging you, show some mercy!" a desperate Bummer then pleaded.
"Like you showed us mercy when you started working us like dogs seven days a week six weeks ago?" Broseph spoke up. "You know what I say to that, bra - you live by the strike, now you wipe out by the strike!"
Bummer soon realized that the angry gang was not going to back down from him anymore. "I'm screwed," he said resignedly while rolling his eyes upward.
"LET'S GET HIM!" Kelly then yelled, causing Bummer to scream and run off frantically as the gang began chasing him around the lobby, out to the pool area and around the hotel.
"Okay guys, a joke is a joke, but SERIOUSLY?" Bummer said as he struggled with the ropes he had been tied to the lobby's Wipeout statue with. "C'mon, untie me already!" Of course, Bummer's pleas to be released from the ropes did not come out sounding that way, but as muffled sounds, thanks to being gagged with duct tape as well as bound to the statue on top of the lobby fountain.
When Fin, Reef and the rest of the gang finally caught up to Bummer when he slipped and fell into the pool during the chase around the hotel, Reef, Broseph, Ripper and David carried him back into the lobby and tied him onto the Wipeout statue, then gagged him. As a bit of added revenge for herself, Fin taped a paper sign that read "I'm a selfish dork" onto Bummer with duct tape, visible for all to see as they passed by in the lobby.
Two of those passers-by, Fin and Emma, were just coming into the lobby from the pool area after a night surfing session at the Office when they saw Bummer, who had just spent his eighth hour tied to the statue. While the ex-manager continued struggling with the ropes and letting out muffled screams to be untied, the girls had a little fun at his expense, waving at him and calling "Hi, Bummer!" "Still comfortable up there?" Emma added, then she and Fin giggled.
While Bummer continued thrashing in vain to get free of the ropes, Emma called up Lo on her iPhone and put it in speaker mode. "Hey Lo, sure wish you could've joined us at the Office tonight," she greeted the rich girl.
"I know, sorry about that," Lo replied. "I've just been getting settled back in the penthouse. I'm really happy that Daddy finally let me back in after he saw the staff house's condition first-hand."
"You're not the only one," Fin joined in. "Since your dad announced he was closing the 'Roach Motel' until further notice to allow building inspectors to check it out and he allowed the summer staff to move into open guest rooms in the hotel, we've all been feeling stoked. It's great to finally have roach-free rooms with our own bathrooms with hot running water, our own TVs and comfortable beds to sleep in."
"How's Bummer doing down in the lobby?" Lo asked.
"Listen for yourself," Emma said, then she held her phone in Bummer's direction, allowing Lo to hear her ex-boss's muffled protests while tied to the lobby statue.
Up in her spacious bedroom in the Ridgemount penthouse, Lo giggled happily as she heard Bummer over her iPhone. "That is sooo priceless!" she said. "I sure hope you got some pictures."
"Hang on a sec, I'll send you some," Emma said. Moments later, Lo got a picture file sent to her phone and opened it to see shots of Bummer tied to the Wipeout statue, sending her into a fresh gale of laughter.
"That one's a keeper, Em," Lo said in between giggles. "He's had that coming to him for weeks."
"Couldn't agree more," Fin said. "He'll think twice before he messes with the Surfer's Paradise gang again." After another shared laugh between the girls, she added, "Well, we gotta turn in. Duty calls tomorrow and it's gonna be a whole lot sweeter without Bummer calling the shots."
"Yeah, Daddy said the night manager would be taking over temporarily on day shift until a permanent replacement arrives," Lo said. "From what I hear, the assistant manager at Daddy's hotel in Edmonton looks like a front runner for the job. What makes it even better is that he's Johnny's cousin."
"Cool, can't wait to see that," Emma said. "Okay, 'night Lo, sleep tight."
"'night, Emma, 'night Fin, see you in the morning," Lo said. After hanging up her phone, she went into her ensuite bathroom to enjoy a bubble bath, then she changed into her nightie and hopped into her cozy queen-sized bed.
As she snuggled with her teddy bear, which she had brought back with her from the staff house along with the rest of her luggage, Lo began thinking about Fin and Emma. While she was happy to be back in the penthouse again, she missed the idea of having roommates and spending the evenings before bedtime gossiping with them. It's just not the same without having Fin and Emma in the same room to talk to, Lo thought with a sigh. Maybe a sleepover tomorrow night could fix that.
And, of course, everyone who's read A Stoked Christmas knows what the eventual fate of the staff house was following that further notice. :D
The story wraps up next chapter when Fin gives her thanks to Reef (ReeFin fans, you'll want to check this out), then to Lo, for their part in avenging her and bringing down Bummer and ending his rule as hotel manager.