* * *
I could tell by the look on Gail’s face that she was dreading whatever she had to tell me. Steeling myself, I attempted a smile to give her confidence.
“Hi, boss.”
“Gail… so, what’s up?”
She inhaled deeply for courage. “Okay, first thing is the party from Switzerland is complaining that we don’t offer mineral baths. They’ve booked eight rooms for a month, so thought you might like to deal with them. Second, there seems to be some issue with liquor shipments and accounting keeps looking for you. Third, the heater is out in the pool and even though it’s still eighty-five degrees, some of the guests are claiming to be chilled. Last, the man who says he’s your brother is in the Cabana and has had too much to drink. He’s insulting guests and they’re leaving. I called security but they won’t touch him without your approval, since he’s your brother and all.”
Her nose was scrunched as if preparing for a bomb to explode. I switched into my ultimate efficiency mode and took it off her shoulders. Gail acted as more of a concierge than in guest booking. “Okay, see where you can find the nearest spa offering mineral baths and have the limo shuttle take our Swiss guests there for a visit on us. Please call maintenance on the pool and tell them I said I want it fixed yesterday, but in the meantime, post a small, but conspicuous sign out there that says we’re letting the natural elements maintain the pool temperatures for the short-term due to the seasonal heat. Call accounting and tell them I’m on my way in thirty minutes, to sit tight. Then call security and ask them to escort my brother to my office.”
She nodded and stepped back into the office to carry out my orders. I stopped by the tearoom to pick up two cups of strong coffee and went back to my office to wait on Collin. I didn’t have to wait long.
I made a mental note to get a secretary, or maybe move Gail to a desk area outside my office door as Collin unceremoniously barged in. The security escorts looked uncomfortable, but I nodded my thanks and they seemed grateful to leave.
Collin wasn’t alone. Harper’s sister, Stephanie, was hanging on his arm.
“So, brother, you finally decided to show up for work, have you?” Collin blustered, and Stephanie affixed a non-committal face. I wondered what she was after. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Collin, Stephanie, have a seat. Here, I’ve gotten you a cup of coffee,” I said, holding one out to Collin and then proffering the second to Stephanie, who shook her head.
“Don’t want coffee.” Collin’s headshake was slow and cockeyed, demonstrating just how badly he needed it. “Want money.”
He’d come straight to the point, and I cussed inwardly at myself for hoping it would be uncharacteristically something else.
“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?” I asked.
Collin looked at Stephanie and the two burst into laughter. I could feel myself flush as I realized their little double entendre. This was out of hand. I could argue with two drunks or hand over some cash and get rid of both of them. Pulling out my personal checkbook, I looked Collin straight in the eyes. “I hope you’re sober enough to understand what I’m about to say, brother dear, because I won’t repeat myself. I’m going to give you a check right now, and once a month for the next eleven months you’ll get one just like it. On that twelfth month, one year from today, you’re on your own. No more money from me, no more staying at Utopia except as a paying guest and starting today, this minute, do your drinking somewhere else. Leave my guests alone. You continue to harass my guests and the checks end immediately. I’m serious, Collin. This is it.”
“I’m serious, Collin,” he mimicked me in a feminine voice. “And just what are you planning to do to enforce that, little brother?” He was trying to bully me. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed that I’d grown up in the meantime.
I drew back the check I’d been holding out to him. “Okay, then we can stop it now.” I put my checkbook back into my inner pocket.
“I wouldn’t do that, bro,” he snarled, suddenly dead sober. Collin had always been able to snap out of a drunken state, valid or not, within an eyeblink.
“I gave you the rules.”
“Give me the damned check. Don’t want to hang out at this pansy-assed joint any more than I have to.” He snapped it from my fingers and looked toward Stephanie, pulling out the top of her tube top and looking down at her pancake tits. “Hmmm… Looks like Steph here and I might spend a little time in the room,” he commented, knowing fully well it would make my skin crawl. Housekeeping had already been placing subtle comments with Gail that they’d cleaned up non-stop parties and residual vomit from Collin’s room.
He rolled to his feet, pulling her with him and headed to the office door. Opening it, he turned back toward me. “By the way, bro… you’re laying them a little young these days, aren’t you?”
I was puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, just that I saw you gave Harper a pretty little convertible and she brought a young chickee with her to ride in it. The way I see it, you’ve got your dick in Harper and the young one is lickin’ your ass so you can get off.”
I froze. As I realized he was talking about Meghan, a cold, white sheet of absolute hatred descended over me. I couldn’t even think straight but luckily, I’d developed a poker face over the years at school and fell into that now. “Whatever,” I said casually and pulled out some paperwork from my drawer to divert the intense rage I was trying to submerge. There was no way Collin could learn about Meghan, or the fact that the two most important people in my life were living on a nearby island. I knew he didn’t know about that—he’d have added it to the stinger he served me.
Collin saw he’d missed the target so he pulled Stephanie’s top down to her waist, bent and sucked one of her meager tits. Smacking his lips loudly, he said, “C’mon, Stephie. Thank God I’ve got the better of the sisters.”
They stumbled out and I prayed Stephanie had the good sense to pull up her shirt before they got into the lobby. That didn’t measure up, however, to the seething anger and fear I was feeling. Collin was spying on me and now Harper, it appeared. If he’d been close enough, he would have seen how much Meghan resembled Cory and the worst thing imaginable would have become my daily nightmare. I immediately made arrangements to have Harper’s car garaged at a nearby facility that also had boat dock access. I had to protect Meghan.
I dealt with the details on my list, including the balance in the liquor order. Something was very wrong. Our supplier had cut us off due to lack of payment, which was completely unbelievable. The supplier was showing as having delivered more than twice the liquor we acknowledged receiving. Where had the rest gone? I authorized immediate payment to the supplier and assigned one of my bookkeepers to track down the missing shipments. I dreaded discovering the culprit. My employees were valued and loyal.