Hotel Key

Chapter 14

RickyJo lifted her hand, knocking loudly on the open apartment door before she poked her head inside. She called out, announcing her presence. Then she stepped inside and set the hot pizza box down on the kitchen counter. She jostled around the other bag she was carrying, pulling the handles off her arm and setting it down on the counter next to the pizza. She smiled at Shane when he finally appeared from near the rear of the apartment.

"Hi," RickyJo said, lifting her hand and giving him a little wave. She gestured to the items on the counter. "I brought you a welcome bag, and I saw you and yer friend unloading your stuff from the moving van downstairs, so I thought you might be hungry…" RickyJo laughed when Shane surged forward and ripped open the pizza box, snatching out a large piece and devouring it in a few giant bites. He mumbled his thanks to her through a large mouthful of pizza.

"I smell pizza," Rick announced. He spotted RickyJo when he entered the room. "Nice to see you again," he said, grabbing a slice of pizza for himself. "No more disturbances, I hope," he added with a grin. RickyJo smiled back.

"Actually, the disturbance just married my cousin," she said. "So hopefully he'll be throwin' his fits at her house from now on." Rick laughed between bites.

RickyJo unloaded the bag of items she brought. It was pretty much the same things she brought to all her tenants when they moved in. Things people needed but didn't think to bring with them like toilet paper and paper towels. In case all their kitchen stuff was packed, she brought some paper plates and plastic silverware. And since she knew it was a single guy moving in, this time she added a couple six packs of beer. She had a copy of the elevator key for him. So Shane could get up onto the rooftop where the patio setup and the large hot tub was. Most of the people in the building had the bad habit of using the fire escape instead. But the elevator did actually go all the way to the roof if the master key was inserted.

"Beer! Alright!," Shane said. He thanked her again, grabbing the beer and putting it into his empty refrigerator. Before he shut the door, he retrieved three bottles from one of the six packs. "You've gotta have one with us," Shane said, twisting the top off the first bottle and handing it to her. RickyJo took the beer, clinking her bottle against his before she took a long cold swig. Like everything she ate or drank over the last week, ever since she went away with Daryl for the weekend, the beer tasted beyond amazing. Much better than a Miller high life had any right to taste.

Someone hollered hi to her from the hall outside the open apartment door. RickyJo turned towards the voice, seeing that it was the other tenant that lived on the same floor of the building. Shane waved the man in and RickyJo made some basic introductions between them. Davis was a paramedic. And he lived across the hall with his girlfriend Amy. Shane grabbed him a beer from the fridge and offered him some pizza. The four of them sipped on the beers and made some general getting to know you conversation, mostly about where the building was in the city and the difference in the views from Shane's apartment to the one across the hall. Davis and RickyJo offered to help Shane get some of his things brought up from the truck. He declined the offer at first, but by the time he finished his beer, they were all heading down in the elevator together. RickyJo giggled when the elevator doors slid open to reveal Daryl standing in front of them.

"Hey stranger," she teased.

"Lemme go up and change outta my work shirt," he told her, "...then I'll come back down and help." He shook his head as the doors dinged shut, blocking his view of RickyJo's butt in her cutoff shorts. She was supposed to be moving crap around in their apartment today. So it only made sense that she was downstairs moving someone else's stuff around instead. And upstairs, Daryl laughed when he found the inevitable tornado mess she left behind. They were trying to set the apartment up so that they were both sharing one bedroom instead of having separate rooms and just sleeping together. RickyJo's bedroom was the biggest. So she was supposed to be moving her stuff out of one of the closets in there. Then Daryl was going to move his stuff in. And in typical RickyJo style, she got about as far as dragging her stuff out of the closet and throwing it all over the place before she took off to go find something more fun to do. There was a huge pile of clothes on the bed, along with an odd array of other items, including a large rifle that Daryl was fairly certain was loaded, and an open bin full of sex toys. She also had a large duffel bag full to the brim with cash only shoved about halfway under the bed. Daryl decided the first thing he was putting in his closet was a gun safe. For not only all the guns that were stashed in odd locations around the place, but all the damn cash that RickyJo insisted on keeping in her apartment even though Daryl told her a hundred times that it was going to end up getting stolen.

"I'm going down to the bodega for a slushie," RickyJo said, fanning herself with her hands. "Anyone else want one?" The guys all shook their heads before they counted to three and lifted the large sofa, turning it sideways so that it would fit through the apartment building door. RickyJo already made three trips up, carrying all kinds of heavy ass boxes. She was sweating like a pig and panting like a dog. The small convenience store was only a few blocks down. She hurried there, trying not to give herself a brain freeze when she walked back out with her giant blue raspberry slush. Her boots were clicking against the sidewalk and her hips swung as she walked. It was a beautiful day out. And her body felt charged from the small bit of physical exertion she got moving the boxes. She was still feeling high on life from how perfect everything was going between her and Daryl. Overall, it was just a good damn day.

"Oh shit," she hissed as she approached her building, noticing that someone familiar was standing outside. She would know that woman anywhere. Her t-shirt was cropped to reveal a sliver of her tanned midriff. And her long dark mass of curly hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun on top of her head. There was a time when RickyJo thought she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Now, she had the strong urge to turn around and book it back the way she came. But it was too late. The woman already spotted her.

"Hi Laney," RickyJo said with a sigh.

"Hi!?," Laney squawked. "HI? That's what you have to say to me? Where the hell have you been?" RickyJo took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she sucked in a large gulp from her slushie.

"We're not together anymore, Laney," RickyJo said, trying with all that she had in her to keep her voice calm and even. "It's not yer business where I am." RickyJo took another sip, willing herself to remain in control of her emotions. "...and I don't appreciate you calling the police and making a missin' person report on me.."

"You didn't answer ANY of my texts," Laney lamented, tears already forming in her eyes. "You didn't return my calls. You stopped paying the rent on my restaurant lease."

So that's what this is about, RickyJo thought. She's about to lose her restaurant. RickyJo almost felt a little sorry for the woman. But she only agreed to foot the bill on Laney's business lease for the first six months. Just to give her a fair chance at getting the restaurant going. Like she did for Daryl with the auto shop. She made the initial investment buying the shop for him, but now it was paying for itself. After the first six months, Laney was supposed to take over the lease payments. The six months ended three years ago. Laney always had some excuse why she couldn't pay. Some unexpected emergency or expense. And RickyJo always believed her. Even though Jessica told her she was being used and taken advantage of.

"Laney, you slapped me in the face and told me you never wanted to see me again," RickyJo said. "Do you remember that?"

"You know I was just upset," Laney said, wiping at her eyes. "You cheated on me! What did you want me to do?"

"Oh no!," RickyJo hissed. "I never cheated on you! I took my key back and broke up with you. We were not together when I slept with Daryl."

At the mention of Daryl's name, Laney broke out into a fresh round of tears. RickyJo glanced around, a little embarrassed at the scene they were making in front of her apartment building. But the alternative was for her to invite Laney inside. And if she did that, she would never get rid of her.

"How could you do this to me?," Laney sobbed. "Didn't our relationship mean anything to you? How can you just go and marry someone else like this? I know you're not really in love with him. You can't be!"

"What?," RickyJo asked. How in the hell did Laney know she was getting married? She only told her family so far. And she knew none of them talked to Laney. They hated her. "How do you know about that?" Laney stopped her tears momentarily. Turning them on and off at will was always a particular skill of hers.

"What do you mean, how did I know?," Laney asked. She pulled her phone out and swiped her finger around on the screen. Then she turned the phone around and showed RickyJo what was displayed there. It was the selfie RickyJo took of her and Daryl in her Nana's kitchen. The picture she sent to Jessica. RickyJo sighed. Jessica must have posted the photo online. And then somehow it got picked up by the local news. The headline read Local biologist and tobacco heiress Ericka King gets engaged to long time boyfriend. RickyJo cringed. She tried to keep her private life as private as possible. Especially the details of her childhood. She never gave interviews or posed for pictures. But she knew it was inevitable that the news of her engagement would eventually become public. She just didn't think it would happen so fast. It was a little funny that Daryl apparently had no name and was only being referred to as her 'long time boyfriend'. But now was not the time to laugh about that.

"Tell me this isn't really true!," Laney begged.

"I'm sorry," RickyJo said. She held up her left hand, showing the same ring that was in the photo. "It's true. Maybe when ya calm down a little, you'll see this is for the best."

"How can you say that?," Laney cried as she started turning the waterworks back on. " How is this for the best? You're about to marry that prehistoric caveman. And I'm going to lose my restaurant." Laney buried her face in her hands, sobbing a little more. Then she paused and glanced up at RickyJo, clearly hoping that the woman would give in to her tears and help her out.

"It wasn't right for you to ask me to pay your bills while we were together," RickyJo told her. "And I'm certainly not going to do it now that we're broke up." RickyJo took another sip of her frozen drink. It felt better than she expected to finally say that. She was honestly feeling a little proud of herself. And she was surprised that she really didn't feel much sympathy for Laney. If Laney was that hard up for money, she could always sell the car RickyJo bought her. That was worth at least fifty grand.

"You can't really mean that," Laney whined. "You know you mean more to me than money. I love you. I've always loved you."

"I'm sorry I don't feel the same way for you," RickyJo said. "I hope you find someone that does."

"Well can you at least help me out with my restaurant lease?," Laney asked between sobs. RickyJo raised an eyebrow at the woman. She really had some nerve coming here and asking for money in such a manipulative way. There was only one thing left to say about that. And she said it.

"No."

Laney's sobs suddenly stopped. She wiped her face as it twisted up in anger. RickyJo took a step back, worried the woman might swing on her like she did during their last fight. Laney was smaller than her. But RickyJo still had no interest in getting into a physical altercation with the woman. Especially on a public sidewalk. Laney pointed her finger at RickyJo, her face a mask of pure rage.

"You bitch!," she hissed. "I'm going to make you wish you never met me!" Laney raised her fist and took a step in RickyJo's direction. RickyJo cocked back her own hand. The one that was still holding the giant blue slushie. Then she threw it as hard as she could. The giant styrofoam cup hit Laney dead center in the chest, the contents exploding into her face and all over her clothes. Then RickyJo ran, skirting around the smaller woman and darting inside her building, slamming the door shut behind her and locking it. She turned, noticing that not only was Daryl on the other side of the window watching everything that just happened, the rest of their little moving party was standing there with him. Shane glanced at RickyJo, then looked back out the window at the woman outside who was now covered head to toe in blue slush and screaming her fool head off. Then he gave his opinion on the scene he just witnessed.

"I am so glad I'm moving into this building!"