Bailey sank to the floor as the words echoed in her brain. She had seen it coming, she knew since the moment she walked into his office. There was no way she would mean enough to him to keep around. But her own reality outside of the hotel was creeping back into her consciousness.
“What are you looking at me like that for? Get out. Now.” He was cold and passive. He had found a way to hurt her, a way to dominate her. This was a version of revenge he could not wait to see through.
“Please, Jerome. Please…” She finally looked up at the man standing before her with his arms tightly crossed across his chest. A smile drew over his face as she begged from her spot on the floor. But he would not hear her further or acknowledge her pleas. He had gotten all that he'd needed. Instead, her brusquely took her out of the office, closed the door, and left her alone in the hallway
Bailey leaned back against the wall and pounded her head against the gold wallpaper. Why, she wondered. Why me? The last few months had only been about loss and sacrifice. And now, she was at the bottom of her spiral, the very end of the darkest tunnel of her life.
This job, out of the four total she had, was the best paying one of the bunch. It had kept some food on the table for her and for Lilly. It had put gas in her car. It had kept their heads from drowning. And now, she had no way to stay afloat, no way to fight back from the tide.
“Bailey?” A soft, familiar voice whispered to her from the end of the hallway. Bailey turned her head towards the call to see the figure of Millie waiting by the elevators unsure if she should proceed any further. Bailey motioned for her to join her at the end of the hotel rooms. The woman sunk to the floor next to her as she took Bailey’s hand gently in her own.
A small cry rose up as Bailey asked, “So, you heard?” Bailey knew that rumors spread quickly, especially with the hotel cleaning staff. There were ears practically everywhere.
“Maria was bringing up some towels and she saw the ambulances and squad cars in the service lot. Raul was bringing up towels to the 31st when he saw that boxer being wheeled out. Didn’t look so hot. What happened exactly?”
“I just walked in and there was this man covered in his own blood on the floor. The room was trashed. I asked him if he was okay, but he couldn’t even respond. He just…” She couldn’t explain what had happened in that one moment between the maid and the boxer. “He just was… there... needing my help. So I called 911.”
Millie made a sour face. She'd immediately seen the issue in what Bailey had done. “He fired you, didn’t he?” Bailey nodded as she continued, “That son of a bitch. I heard he put his hands on you earlier. Maybe it’s for the best. Go find another maid service job at a place that has a better boss or something.”
“I wish it was that easy, Millie. I don’t know what’s next. Rent was due a couple days ago, and I don’t even have food for Lily and I. I’ve got three other jobs, but they don’t pay squat.” Suddenly, Bailey’s eyes welled with tears as the weight of her situation came pouring out of her, “I don’t know what to do! I don’t know how I'm supposed to take care of her. I can’t be her mom when I can't even put her into preschool or feed her or give her a bed to sleep in. What am I going to do?”
Millie instinctively draped her arm around Bailey’s shoulders. “I’m gonna give you the same advice as I gave my daughter: If you can't help yourself, help the ones you love. If you can't take care of Lily, you need to find her a place or a home that can.”
“What do you mean? Like put her up for adoption? I couldn’t do that. She’s my baby.” Horror filled Bailey as she thought about permanently giving her to someone else. She could not live with herself if that is what she had to do.
“There are homes right here in Chicago that will take her while you make your decisions and get your life back in order. They’ll work with you. They worked with me when I couldn’t handle Yasmin, and everything turned out alright with that.”
“Would I still get to see her? Could I visit?”
“That’s up to your counselor. I couldn’t see her for a bit while she was settling in, but then I was granted visitation and it gave me motivation to work even harder.” She looked over to Bailey as tears trickled down her face, staining her blue uniform with dark pools. “Listen, honey. You’re a mom, and mom’s have to do everything they can to take care of their babies. This is the most motherly thing you can do for her.”
Bailey nodded. Millie’s advice wasn't the ideal situation, but it was a possibility. Millie stood and offered her hand out towards Bailey as she added, “Think about it some more. But for right now, go get your daughter. I have Geo watching out for her until you can get out of there.”
Bailey gave Millie one giant hug and then slowly walked towards the service elevator. Her heavy heart felt lighter and more troubled than ever before. But Millie had given her something that she hadn't had in a very long time: options.
Seconds after Bailey’s elevator’s door closed, the bronze doors of the one next to her opened. A man with circular sunglasses and a navy blue suit quickly ran from its doors. Spotting Millie as she dusted herself off, he yelled to her, “Ma’am! Are you the maid that was in this room here?”
Millie was taken aback. She figured he was a reporter or some paparazzi. They occasionally managed to sneak into the premium floors by bribing the downstairs staff. Yet, he didn’t have a camera and he certainly did not look the type. She took a risk by answering him, “No sir, I’m not. That maid just left.”
“Where'd she go? I've got to talk to her immediately.” He looked around frantically as if she may pop up at any moment if he just managed to look hard enough.
“She was fired, sir. Just now. She’s on her way out of the building.”
“Fired? Wh—” he stopped himself. It was none of his business, “I need to talk to the girl who found the man in that room. Do you have her phone number, email, home address? Something? I just need to get ahold of her.”
“I think I have her phone number in my cell phone,” Millie pulled a blue flip phone from her pocket and scrolled through the contents. Once she found the name and number, she wrote the info down on a napkin—but she leaned in before handing it over. “First, tell me who you are.”
“I’m Jonathan Winters of Winters Talent.” He reached into his suit breast pocket and fished out a blue and white business card. Millie flipped it over several times, studying the content. It looked legit to her. “I’m the man’s agent. I need to speak to that woman before it's too late.”
***
Lily hummed happily in the backseat of Bailey’s car. She was excited to be leaving the hotel early that day. The laundry room’s high heat and humidity had caused her hair to frizzly and fray. And she had managed to get chocolate from a stolen candy bar all over her pink and white t-shirt.
“Mommy! Can we go to the park since we have all day together now?” Bailey looked back at the girl from her rearview mirror and smiled deeply. She wanted so little in life, but she deserved so much more. More than she could ever know.
Bailey and Lily’s father Joe had been able to give that to her at one point. Her life was a pink and white nursery with delicate designer baby clothing and the fancy diapers. She had it all, but now that had changed and Bailey couldn’t do anything to get that life back for her. Everything she knew had seemingly come crashing down in just a few short years. And Lily had become been the collateral in the damage.
Her cellphone suddenly began to vibrate over and over again in her dress pockets. She did not dare to look at it. There was no one out there that could call and comfort her at this point. It had to be either Jerome or the hotel’s human resource department, she figured. Worse, it may be another bill collector. Her heart couldn’t take trying to explain to another agency on why she could not pay her electric bill or why she was behind on her credit card payments.
“Mommy?” Lily asked again. Her voice shook Bailey out of her own head.
“Sorry honey. We have to go somewhere this afternoon. We’re just going to run home, grab a bag for you, and head out again. Okay?” Bailey swallowed back her emotions as she tried to put a positive spin on the situation.
The road before her grew longer as the slow crawl back to their studio apartment seemed as if it was an eternity away. But Bailey managed to instead focus in on the playful sound of her girl singing to herself, the sun shining down upon her, the birds following the progression of her car.
Her mind had been made up. She was going to do the right thing for her girl.