My alarm clock went off, waking me up from a pleasant dream. As I looked up at my new ceiling, lying in my new bed, waking up to a new day, I had the sudden urge to cry. Because my dream of being back home, surrounded by my friends and family, had been great, so much better than I could have expected it to be.

“I want to go back home,” I whined out loud to myself.

But no matter how badly I wanted it, I had no plans to head back to the hotel in Charlotte after I’d run away not that long ago.

I got out of bed and went and got ready for the day reluctantly. On the way to work I tried calling Emily, but my friend wasn’t picking up.

“Are you mad at me for leaving?” I asked, scowling at my phone. “Just pick up, would you! I could use a friend right now.”

By then, I’d made it to the hotel, and I had to put the phone away so I wouldn’t get into trouble. As soon as I walked in, I was taken to task.

“Hey, newbie!”

I started at the loud call and looked up at the reception. Two people stood there, a woman and a man. It was the woman who had called out to me.

“Yes?” I said timidly, shifting my feet, wanting nothing more than to turn and run off to work.

“You forgot the entrance again or what? And aren’t you a bit late? What, were you on the phone with your boyfriend so long you forgot when you were supposed to get into work?”

I tilted my head a little to the side. “I’m… late? But…”

I was reaching for my phone to check, but she scoffed at me, giving me a scornful look Trent would have been proud of.

“Just get to your station in the kitchen, would you?” the guy said. “You know what happens when you show up late, don’t you?”

It had happened to me a few times already in the past couple weeks since I’d been at the new hotel. I made a quick bow as my heart started to beat a little in panic, then I practically ran in the direction of the hotel’s kitchen. I prayed the whole way that I was in the clear. But then I got there…

“Jessi!”

I was startled for the second time that morning, only this time, the person called out my name. He wasn’t the head chef, but he was a guy that didn’t particularly like how I intruded on his life either. In his head, he probably thought I’d come to ruin any possible chance of him getting a promotion with my good performance. In the beginning, he’d hoped I would fail, and when I didn’t, he’d used every moment possible to give me shit just to try and put me down.

After years of putting up with it from Trent, not just anyone was going to affect me that badly. More than anything, he was annoying.

“Excuse me,” I murmured, keeping my head ducked down so he wouldn’t see the irritation in my eyes.

“Why are you late again?” he asked, voice sharp.

“I’m not late, sir,” I said quietly.

“You are late if you get here and half of the staff is already in here!” he snapped back. “Look around and tell me if half the kitchen staff made it here ahead of you.”

I looked around, and sure enough, it was true. I winced, knowing this wasn’t helping my case. But I hadn't been late! I had my schedule memorized, and I knew it was still some minutes until my official shift time.

Not that I could say that out loud because I knew these guys would just flay me over it.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I muttered.

He huffed. “You think an apology will make everything okay, huh? I don’t know what you did at the main branch, but things here are a little different, Jessi. You need to get your act together before you get your ass handed to you. Hurry up and get to work already. You’re late enough as it is.”

I watched his back as he walked away, then moved slowly over to my station. It was smaller than the one I used at the hotel back in Charlotte, and I had to share it. My new colleagues didn’t bother hiding their snickers and whispers as work went on, glad I’d gotten in trouble again. They were pretty tight-knit, a lot like the old guys I worked with. Of course they would give me a hard time, being the outsider. It was to be expected, but maybe not to the extent that I’d felt it already.

After working through the morning and stopping in midafternoon, I was feeling hungry and exhausted. I was a little fearful to go on my break without finishing my work for the day, so I stuck it out until I could leave for a breather.

The hotel itself was pretty beautiful, and just outside there was a nice view of the beach. I felt some longing, wanting to go down that way for a walk, but it was too risky while I was still on shift.

***

“I made a mistake, Emily,” I muttered, sighing wistfully. “I just want to go home, but why won’t you pick up my calls so I can tell you?”

It had been hard enough to push aside my pride so I could call her. I didn’t want to admit I’d made a mistake, even though I felt that way every day. I mean, dealing with Trent might have been hell for me had I stayed, but anything would feel better than knowing that everyone was bullying me for their amusement.

Two weeks felt like a long fucking time. As beautiful as the place looked, as great as being by the beach was, I hated my time at the hotel more than anything and wanted to run back home into the comfort of my mom’s arms.

The staff particularly acted as if I’d personally offended them by getting myself transferred here. I guess transfers were pretty rare to begin with, because finding employees with such high-level standards that the hotel would agree to transfer instead of just letting them go, wasn’t exactly easy. As far as I knew, there had only ever been two other transfers at the hotel in Charlotte for the past decades it had been running.

“Bastards, all of them,” I muttered. “They are such bastards, Emily. They’re all so damn greedy, and they’re mean to me because I managed to get a transfer. I’m such an easy target for them. What am I supposed to do?”

There was no Emily there to answer me, and after a few more minutes of taking in some fresh air, I decided to go back inside so I wouldn’t get into more trouble.

Why did I ever think this was a good idea? I thought to myself.

If I wasn’t at the hotel and taking shit from the rest of the staff, I was walking around and talking to myself because I couldn’t get a hold of Emily. I spent my free time in my tiny apartment, which somehow managed to seem even smaller than the one I’d had in Charlotte.

I regretted my hasty decision to leave, and then picking this particular branch hotel to head out to. If my friend would just answer me when I called… I could tell her everything, and she would help me, and I would ask to be allowed to go back home. I knew I could have just gone to the manager to tell him I wanted to go back… but the manager here didn’t like me either. I met him on the first day, and he’d looked down on me, probably thinking I knew someone high up at the other hotel which was why I managed a transfer.

Well, it was true, but I’d run away because of that person, and he sure as fuck didn’t help me. They knew I was at least good at my work. I’d been put in the hot seat the first few days, they were probably hoping to see me fail, and instead, I got praise. They’d halved my workload and a part of me was grateful while the other was disgruntled. I was pretty sure if they’d thought I was terrible, they might have kept things as they were so that I could get into even more trouble.

If only I wasn’t so good at my job.

Could I go back and face Trent?

That was the question that made me hesitate all throughout the first week of being there. I only started calling Emily in the second week because I’d been unsure of myself. I thought it would be easy to deal with Trent. What the fuck did I even run away for? I was mature, wasn’t I? Adults were supposed to deal with their problems, not walk away from them.

Finally, the end of my shift came, and I left the hotel feeling relieved. I was walking back to my apartment when my phone rang. It was so unexpected it made me jump, but when I pulled it out and saw Emily’s name on the screen, I was relieved.

Finally!

“Emily,” I said quickly as soon as I’d answered the call. “Emily, I need to talk to you.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “I need to talk to you, too.”

Her voice sounded so subdued I lost my urgency, wondering what had happened.

“I have something I need to tell you,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a secret, but I want you to hear it. It’s about my dad.”

“Is he ill?” I asked hesitantly. “There hasn’t been any news at all…”

“My father isn’t sick,” Emily blurted out. “He was never sick. He just wanted my brothers to come back home, so he made it up and had me help him. He’s putting off seeing them because he knows they’ll notice the moment they see him that there’s nothing wrong with him, and he’s worried they’ll leave again.”

That gave me pause. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Matthew Thompson was never quite so manipulative. This plan was something I would expect to see Trent using before his father. Was the man that desperate to have his children back? I knew for Trent to come back home, he had to have been worried about his dad. How would he react when he found out?

“That’s the kind of family that I have, Jessi,” Emily said, her voice sad. “So do you want to tell me why you were calling me over and over now?”

“No,” I murmured. “I’ll call you back, Emily.”

I cut the call because I had some more thinking to do. I’d been so ready to go back, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Was that really what I wanted to go back to? Did I want to have anything more to do with that family? Having heard what Emily wanted to tell me, I felt more like I’d dodged a bullet. The Thompsons had always seemed like the perfect family on the outside. I knew some of their secrets that made that image not entirely true. But this was even worse.

Behind all that wealth the family held, the glass smiles they gave to people in public, there were so many lies. So many hidden secrets and emotions they never let the world see. So much deceit. Trent was the perfect example of it all, and I had been in love with him for years.

Maybe… I was lucky, to be able to leave? Because in a way, I had escaped getting entangled with them. My heart felt heavy as I watched the sunset on the beach as I wondered, feeling conflicted.

Was it the right decision to leave home, in spite of everything?