The Hotel Manager and the Witch

Part 1

Aaron Hotchner stared at the beautiful woman, that had seemed to just appear in front of him as he was at the checkout desk of the Rosewood Villa. Aaron had been manager of this hotel for a very long time. It was a reproduction of a hotel in Italy, also called the Rosewood Villa. The owner was of course, Italian and he had lived in the Italian version of the villa as a child and young man, so when he had struck it rich he had built a copy of his favorite place in New York. It was a fine hotel, though expensive, as they had every possible service and were constantly rated as one of the top hotels in the States, which was quite an endorsement. Only the wealthy and the ultrarich stayed here, though they'd had a couple on their second honeymoon once, that were of more modest means, a trip of a lifetime.

Aaron Hotchner had been around much longer then would be expected, as he had been cursed by a witch to live forever, just because he had been rude to her. He had come from a privileged family and had been rude to almost everyone back then, except for those in his class, but that witch had taught him about being rude to the wrong person. The beautiful woman in front of him could be that witch's exact duplicate, which meant that she had to be a descendent of the original witch that had cursed him or was perhaps reincarnated. Aaron knew very well that most people didn't believe in reincarnation, but he certainly did, as he had seen it multiple times over the last few hundred years. He had seen things that most people would scoff at nowadays, except perhaps, for witches.

"Can I help you ma'am?" Aaron asked politely, recovering from his shock relatively fast.

"Are you okay, sir?" Alex asked in concern, having seen the guys eyes widened in shock. At first she believed he was having some sort of an attack and then recognized his look for what it was flabbergasted astonishment. Why she would cause such a reaction in this handsome, distinguished gentleman Alex didn't know.

"I'm fine, it's just that you look like somebody I knew a long time ago. You just took me by surprise that's all," Aaron said recovering swiftly from his shock.

"Do I really look so much like this person?" Alex asked curiously.

"Ma'am, you could be her twin," Aaron told her. "I've often heard that everyone has a twin, but I've never met anyone that looks so much like the woman I knew."

"I'm Dr. Alex Blake," Alex said shaking in the manager's hand.

"Aaron Hotchner at your service, ma'am," Aaron introduced himself briefly. "I'm the manager of this hotel."

"The manager and yet you're working the front desk," Alex raised her eyebrow curiously

"Our main receptionist for this shift is home with a new baby and our backup is sick. We all do what we must," Aaron shrugged. "I just offered to take over temporarily for a few days instead of going to a temp agency."

"Well, that was really nice of you," Alex said. "I'm sure you have your own duties."

"That the assistant manager is taking care of for a few days," Aaron said. "We've just had several bad circumstances, as everything always seems to happen at once."

Alex was nodding at this, because the same thing had happened to her once or twice, as bad things always seemed to happen in threes.

Aaron checked the computer and saw that Alex had one of their best suites.

"I'll have the bellhop escort you to your suite where you can freshen up. I hope you'll join us in our restaurant for dinner in a couple of hours."

"That sounds lovely," Alex said smiling. "I skipped lunch so I'm starving."

"As a doctor you should know better than to skip meals Ms Blake," Aaron gently chided her.

"I'm not that kind of doctor," Alex told Aaron. "I'm a professor for linguistics, at Georgetown University and I also help the police when they have a potentially difficult case. Still, you're right I shouldn't be skipping meals and normally I don't."

"But things happen sometimes, you get busy and don't realize you're hungry or what time it is," Aaron said and Alex nodded.

"That happens to me occasionally, if I'm busy doing paperwork or something," Alex said.

The bellhop arrived and Aaron gave him his orders.

"This way miss," the bellhop gestured towards the elevator. "Your suite is on the 10th floor."

Alex followed the bellhop looking around at the fancy lobby and wondered about the intriguing man she had just left. There was a certain sadness in his eyes that was intriguing. She was determined to find out why this Aaron Hotchner was so sad and she couldn't even explain to herself why she was so determined.

~~~Aaron, Dave, Alex~~~

Alex woke in her nice soft bed. The mattress was perfect, soft but firm and she had slept like a baby. Alex lay there for several minutes finally deciding she couldn't go back to sleep, so she stretched and rose from the bed, noticing it was only 5:30 in the morning. An early riser by nature Alex felt well rested. She had gone to bed relatively early for her, right after dinner at 7 o'clock. Dinner had lasted for over an hour but the food had been exquisite. The beef roast she had chosen had been superbly prepared. It had been nice and succulent, practically falling apart as soon as her fork had touched it. It had gone well with rice, collards and some fruit. Real fruit not canned. Apparently, they didn't believe in canned fruit here at the Rosewood Villa, which was just fine as far as Alex was concerned. She never had liked canned fruit anyway, as it often tasted metallic, like the can, and was often not fresh or very good.

Alex's stomach growled telling her, she was hungry for some breakfast, though she doubted the restaurant was open this early. Still, it wouldn't hurt to call the front desk and ask. So far this trip to New York was well worth it. She had been brought here to lecture about linguistics at Columbia University and she had decided to stay in one of the cities landmarks. The Rosewood Villa had been here the past 300 years and had been started by someone named Rossi, David Rossi if Alex was remembering correctly. The history of the hotel was fascinating, as it had survived bad times, financially and economically, including several wars.

Alex used the restroom before calling the front desk.

She learned that the café opened at 6 o'clock, which was in 10 minutes and the kitchen also opened at the same time if one wanted to order room service. There was a mini fridge in the room with various snacks, drinks and a bar, but Alex wanted more than snack food. Alex had been wanting to stay here for a long time but it was so expensive, as it was $800 a night. It might not be the most expensive hotel in the world or even in the city, but $800 a night was nothing to sneeze at. Luckily, for her she had written some books, so had enough money to do whatever she wanted.

She might as well enjoy herself while she was in the city doing a series of lectures on linguistics, so why stay in some cheap motel that had poor service, roaches and worn out sheets and mattresses? Usually she was pretty thrifty, lived well within her means from her pay from the university, but in this case, she felt she deserved to treat. Splurging every once in awhile wasn't going to cause her any hardship.

Alex took a nice long luxurious shower, then got dressed for the day. It was nearly 7 by the time she was ready to go downstairs and have herself some breakfast.

"Good morning," Aaron Hotchner greeted her with a smile, as soon as she emerged from the elevator.

"Good morning, Mr. Hotchner," Alex greeted him cordially returning the manager's smile. "I hope you got to sleep at a decent hour."

"I'm afraid not Ms Blake. There were too many things to handle before I could take my own rest," Aaron answered with a smile.

"I hope it isn't like this everyday, as the human body can get worn done if you work all the time," Alex said.

"No, it's not. An assistant manager handles it when I am not available. Either the morning, afternoon or evening shift. It takes a lot of staff to run a hotel efficiently."

"Would you care to join me for breakfast Mr. Hotchner? I'm sure you could use something in your stomach other than coffee. Of course, if you've had breakfast..." Alex suggested her voice trailing off suggestively.

"I would love to join you for breakfast Ms Blake," Aaron said smiling. "Having breakfast with a lovely, intelligent woman is hardly a hardship."

Alex blushed at the sincere compliment. Not that she hadn't had any compliments before, but most of them were not sincere and those men just wanted to get her into their beds and didn't care about her personally. They just wanted to have sex with a beautiful woman. That's not to say she hadn't dated, quite a bit actually, she just hadn't met Mr. Right. Aaron Hotchner, on the other hand, could be the one, but she wasn't about to rush into anything. She was certainly more attracted to him then she had been to any of those guys she had dated in the past. His compliments were sincere, which was pretty unusual in men in general and he had a load of natural charm and charisma, which many men did not. Either that or they were so slimy they left a trail of it behind them. She didn't get that kind of vibe from Aaron Hotchner, and he looked not much older than she was, a few years perhaps.

"Thank you for the compliment Mr. Hotchner and I insist you call me Alex," Alex said smiling.

"Alex, what a lovely name for a gorgeous woman," Aaron complimented. "Is that short for something? Alexandra? Alexa? Alexis?

"Just Alex," Alex said. "I'm afraid it's not short for anything really. I think my father wanted another son and I do have have two brothers. Luckily, for him Alex can be either female or male."

"So you're brothers names..." Aaron asked.

"Scott and Danny," Alex said smiling. "My father is Damon and my mother Alyssa. I'm the baby of the family. I know my mother was glad to finally get a girl."

"Well, most women want a little girl to love while fathers want sons," Aaron said. "That's not the way it is all the time, just on average."

The two of them chatted cordially while they sat down together after Aaron had called someone to take over the front desk while he had some breakfast."

"So how long are you here for Miss Alex?"

"Oh, a few weeks. I'm giving a series of lectures at Columbia about linguistics. They've been wanting me to do a series of lectures for several years. I finally gave in," Alex said.

"Sounds like you're quite well known and respected in academic circles," Aaron said admiringly.

"I suppose I am," Alex admitted. "I don't think of myself like that, but I suppose other people do. I don't mind that so much really, so long as some of the students don't try to get me to sleep with them just so I'll give them a decent grade."

"Unfortunately, a lot of that kind of thing goes on," Aaron said sympathetically.

"Yes, it does, but I'm not about to ruin my reputation, by sleeping with a student whose at least 10 or 15 years younger. It's not on me if they don't study like they should. I know very well where that kind of thing leads. Even if the teacher and student in question aren't caught the student can still try to blackmail the teacher and then it all comes out. The teacher in question loses their position most likely and the respect they have earned once word gets around."

"And it always does, because of the school grapevine," Aaron suggested.

"Yes, it does," Alex agreed. "That kind of thing doesn't happen in a vacuum."

"No it doesn't," Aaron said in respect. "You certainly have a lot more ethics then some professors. You hear things, even if you are not specifically listening for it."

This was true so Alex nodded.

"That kind of thing is on the news, or in the paper all the time. If you watch the news or read the paper like most people do then you're bound to to know about such things," agreed Alex.

The two of them talked, but when their breakfasts arrived and they concentrated on their food. The food was stellar just like last night and Alex enjoyed it immensely, as it was way better then her own feeble efforts by miles. She knew very well that she would start to gain weight if she didn't watch what she ate, but she was kind of on vacation, even if she was giving a series of lectures as well, so why the hell not?

"Well, I have enjoyed myself Miss Blake, but I need to get back to work," Aaron said after he had taken the last bite of his breakfast. "How about I take you out to dinner tonight if you have nothing planned?"

"As in a date?" Alex asked him teasingly.

"If you want to look at it like that," Aaron said with a smile.

"Sounds good," Alex decided. "I should be free by three or so. I need to get going or I'm going to be late."

Alex had looked at watch as she finished her food and realized how late it had become. It was nearly 8 o'clock now. She had just enough time to grab her purse from her room and then she could be on her way.

"My first lecture starts at 8:30. I just have time to make it. I suppose I could've gotten a hotel room closer to the university, but I've been wanting to stay here forever, as your hotel is very famous."

"I'll see you tonight for dinner around six," Aaron told her and Alex nodded smiling.

"I'm looking forward to it," Alex said.

The two of them parted, going their separate ways, though both were looking forward to dinner.

~~~Aaron, Dave, Alex~~~