I pushed myself out of bed, and headed to the bathroom, groaning as a yawn cracked my jaw. I scratched through my blonde hair not even realizing that it was sticking up in all directions. I shouldn’t complain, it wasn’t so long ago that I didn’t have any at all. I never thought that I would get up again, and here I was staring in the mirror being thankful that I was getting to live another day.

My one-bedroom apartment and match box bathroom was all I needed, I thought when a sunbeam turned my hair to fire as I looked in the mirror. My hair looked like little rays of fire and it always made me grin. That was what everyone called me at the hotel, little ray of sunshine.

If only they saw me when I woke up in the mornings, I thought with a grumble, they would think the complete opposite. I looked like a mess, which would have been fine if I’d been out all night and had a man in my bed to show for it. It had more to do with how much work I had to do than how much time I’d spent in bed, however.

I think that the guests in the hotel, get worse every day. Cleaning up after them gets harder by the minute. My job was never easy, but at times, it feels completely out of my league.

I didn’t bother taking another glance at myself in the mirror before stripping out of the t-shirt and shorts I’d slept in and under the spray of my shower. I didn’t wait for the water to warm up, and yelped when the freezing water hit me at first. At least it woke me up a little.

Five minutes later, I was back in my bedroom, a towel wrapped around my body as I rubbed my hair dry. I found some clothes and put them on quickly, then made breakfast and sat down to eat. There was nothing exciting about my mornings, nothing at all.

I glanced down as a blob of my egg fell onto my chest. Even though it had been a while, I still couldn’t get used to them. I found myself at times, wondering if someone knew the truth behind the firm globes that greeted me. My breasts. The new ones, rather, the old ones I lost to breast cancer and had been replaced by perky new ones. Well, I’d lost one to the cancer, the other one had been operated on to make them look similar.

Whenever men eyes rolled down them, I wondered if they knew that they weren’t real. Jessi, my best friend, would laugh saying that men didn’t care about things like that. If they did, then there wouldn’t be things like Playboy which were full of them. I laughed to myself, trying to think of the brighter side of life, the way I did back then which helped me get through it all as I quickly scraped the egg away and wiped my shirt clean.

A few minutes later I picked up my purse, and my phone, and walked out of my tiny apartment. As soon as I did, my phone rang. I saw her name flashing on my phone. It was my best friend, Jessi.

“Hey Jessi,” I chirped, a little skip in my step as I walked down the street. Hearing her name had put a smile on my face and finally getting out of the apartment made me feel better too.

The distance from my place to the hotel was short enough that I could walk, and the exercise was good for me. Though I’d be on my feet for most of the day, anyway, walking was still way cheaper than taking a taxi.

“Hey girl, where are you?” She asked through the phone, and I picked my pace a little more.

“I don’t know what got into me this morning, or rather didn’t get into me. I couldn’t get up this morning, and now I’m running behind,” I sighed as my stride and skip started to turn into a mini jog, and I glanced at the time.

I knew I should have told her that I’d call her later so that I could flat out run to the hotel, but curiosity got the better of me. So, I asked what had been playing on my mind for the last couple of days. The thing that she’d been so quiet about and one thing she knew about, I was shy but I ain’t too shy to ask about her love life.

“What’s going on?”

She sighed over the phone, so I figured it wasn’t good news and regretted asking the question.

“I’m still keeping out of his way. He's a big help there. I’d rather not have another run in with him again.”

“You ran into him?” I asked as I stopped dead in my tracks. There was silence. My eyes narrowed in suspicion and I forgot about my tardiness as I started to wonder.

“Jessi,” I said, my voice lowered. “Is there something you’re keeping from me?” I didn’t get a response, and I gasped, loudly and dramatically. “Jessi! We’re supposed to be best friends! Don’t tell me you… dumped me for him!”

I finished the words with a whimper, and I heard Jessi laugh on the other end. That had me smiling, a little softly, but she wasn’t there to see anyway. Besides, her soft sigh ended on a plaintive note.

I’m so sorry, Jessi, I thought to her silently. So sorry you have to hurt like this. Sorry, that I’m so little help to you that you don’t even come to me. Sorry… that all you can think of is running away.

Whether she’d put in for the transfer already, or would soon enough, I would miss her once she was gone. Jessi thought she was good at keeping secrets, but she wasn’t. She felt things too strongly for that.

Of course, I’d heard the rumor about her and Trent back when we were just starting to grow to like each other. I’d dismissed the ones that said she was a gold digger and not ashamed because he abandoned her for it. I could always go to Emily for the information, Trent’s younger sister and a friend I’d connected with through Jessi, but I got the sense Emily didn’t know much about her elder half-brother. I couldn’t exactly ask Mason, the second oldest brother.

I still didn’t know just how deep their relationship had been, but the look on her face when he found us in the staff room that day…

Her expression had been so fucking complicated. There was hope in it, one I wondered if she knew she still felt. There was also an old wariness there like he’d been careless with her before and she was bracing herself for him to do the same to her once again. Most of all, there was so much pain—hers—and sadness—for him.

It all made me very curious, but the furious, and hurt, look on her face after he left made me think better of asking.

After all, I couldn’t expect her to tell me all her secrets when I was still keeping some from her myself.

“Seriously, though,” I said, sighing. “Jessi! You know if you need something, I’m here for you, right? If it’s too hard, you don’t have to keep things to yourself. If you’d like, I could share something, and you could share something…”

She sighed. “Do you mean another girl’s night? Honestly, I’m not sure I can handle another night like that, Laura.”

I frowned at the scenery before me and blew air out between my lips to calm myself. “You know, I’ve been wondering this for a while, but something happened on that night, right? And don’t bother trying to lie. Tell me if you’ve been back to your apartment since that night.”

“I… was at my parents,” she admitted, hesitantly, with another sigh. “I’ll go back to my apartment eventually; I’m just… afraid of what I’ll find there.”

“What could you possibly find in your apartment beside your things?” I asked with a growing suspicion once more.

There was a short silence. “I guess I’m trying to avoid someone,” she admitted, but then she continued hurriedly. “It’s nothing to worry about, though. I wanted to find Emily so she and I could have a chat. I haven’t talked to her in a while, but I think she’s still busy with her dad.”

“Would you rather talk to her than me?” I asked, with sadness that wasn’t entirely an affectation.

“I’ve known her longer, and it’s to do with her father. I’m not sure if you heard, but he had a heart attack, or so my mom heard.”

“There were rumors,” I said vaguely, figuring she didn’t need to know if she hadn't heard them yet.

Hopefully, Emily hadn't heard them either, though I did want to know the source of that info when the Thompson family was pretty good at keeping their secrets under lock and key.

“It’s because he’s sick that his sons are all back, after all. I wanted to know if he had any plans of getting better, or if the guys will be sticking around more permanently.”

“Oh well,” I muttered. “I guess there’s plenty more of cleaning up after Mason in my future, then. Hopefully, the guy tones it down a bit.” I deliberately didn’t mention Trent’s name, even though I knew he was the one son she would have been glad not to have come back.

“He’s been behaving so far, from what I’ve heard. Maybe he’s changed?” she mused.

I chuckled. “Oh, honey, no. A guy like that wouldn’t just out of nowhere change so much. I bet he’s just biding his time. I’ve had so much good luck lately. Maybe it’ll happen today.”

“You probably just jinxed yourself with that.”

“Better to get it over with, anyway, than stick with this suspense of ‘will he, when will he.’ Everybody’s feeling it.” Then I grinned. “Though I can't say I’m not looking forward to it just a little.”

She hummed. “Because there’s a slight chance you get to see him at least half naked? Along with some of the pretty friends, he’ll be dragging along with him?”

“There’s definitely that,” I agreed. “It makes me feel a little jealous sometimes.”

Other times, it left me so angry that there were people like that, while there were people like me that had to struggle with everything living in the same country.

“I know the feeling,” Jessi sighed. “And now, I’m afraid I need to go, I’m even later for work now. You should probably hurry, too.”

At her pointed statement, I checked my watch, and my eyes widened.

“Shit!” I didn’t realize I’d slowed down so much while we were talking, I’d wasted more time than I’d thought. Immediately, I picked up the pace. “Will I see you today?”

“I’ll be in the kitchen. If you have the time, come by. I’ll have something for you.”

“Thank you, Jessi! I love you!” I chirped, then hung up the phone.

I ran most of the way, stopping when I was within sight of the staff entrance before slowing down to catch my breath. I paused outside for a moment, hoping for a good day at work, then walked in.