Chapter Ten
Ransom
There were about a half-dozen people waiting around in line at the reception desk at the hotel, and I recognized one of the people Bethany and I had talked to at the dinner; clearly we weren’t the only ones from the reunion who’d decided to stay close to the center of the action.
“How are we going to do this?” Bethany asked.
I looked at Bethany, confused. Hadn’t we only just discussed that issue? “What do you mean?”
Bethany raised an eyebrow as we came closer to the line. “I mean, who’s going to pay?”
“I’ll cover it on my card,” I said, reaching an arm out and pulling Bethany closer for the sake of the visual. She fit just perfectly next to me--that helped, at least. She came up just about to my chest, the way we were standing. Ideal height for a woman: just tall enough. I hadn’t really noticed it before just because we were so busy making a show for everyone. “You can reimburse me after the mission, if you feel like you have to.”
“I’d feel better paying it myself,” she said.
I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “You’re my girlfriend, and I’m a guy with a decent job--an independent contractor and business owner. I should pay,” I insisted.
In truth, it was just that I didn’t particularly care. I had plenty of money to play around with, and looking around at the Clairmont lobby, it wasn’t an especially expensive hotel. If I remembered correctly, they had a decent ballroom--that would be a good setting for the reunion “prom”--but they weren’t the most up-to-date, and they were in a town where they really couldn’t afford to price themselves out of range.
“Fine, fine,” Bethany said. We were finally up to the group hanging out waiting for rooms, and Bethany said hello to one of her old classmates.
“I thought the two of you were staying at your parents’ place,” the woman--I thought I remembered her name being Chelsea or something like that--said.
“We decided it would be better to stay close to the action,” I told her.
“Besides which, we can always make a run to the house if we need anything,” Bethany added.
“That’s a good point. I was going to stay at my mom’s place, since she’s down in Barbados for the weekend, but it’s so cold and I don’t want to end up stranded there if the blizzard locks us all down,” the friend agreed.
I zoned out a bit, taking part in the conversation just enough to make it look like I was paying attention, and waited. I wanted to get our room, and get Bethany set up there, and get my stuff from her place--and sure, her stuff too, assuming I had any way of figuring out what she wanted me to bring. I was tired of being around a bunch of people I didn’t know, and pretending to be in love with Bethany. It wasn’t that it was hard to be around her, exactly, but it was tiring to keep up the facade, especially with all the socializing. It’ll get easier over the weekend, I reminded myself. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t done before, after all.
I also reminded myself that it would all be worth it. The information Bethany had access to would give me the final bits and pieces I needed for my personal mission. I’d come into town to work on a project--that much had been the truth in what I’d told Bethany. But I hadn’t told her that the project in question had to do with me. I’d hit the wall when it came to getting information in the normal ways, and I’d hoped that I could find something at my parents’ place--but the details that I could get when Bethany gave me access to her organization’s database would be even better than that shot in the dark. If I was lucky, I could get all the details.
By the time we got to the reception desk, more people had come in behind us, and I took my wallet out as the woman working--a dishwater blonde with sea-green eyes who had a look on her face like she was determined to stay calm--finished up something on the computer before looking up at me. “Are you with the reunion group?”
“I guess so,” I said, giving her a smile. I pulled Bethany close to me again. “We need a room for two.”
“Single king-sized bed, or twin beds?” the receptionist asked.
I looked at Bethany and put as much of an arch into my eyebrows as I could. “What do you think, sweetie? Do I need to be in a separate bed from you?”
Bethany laughed and pretended to tweak my ribs. I yelped and half-jumped away from her and then turned back to the front desk manager.
“We’ll take a single bed,” I said. It wouldn’t make sense for a couple like us--as we were showing ourselves to Bethany’s classmates--to have two beds. It’d just open up questions.
“I dunno, James. The way you snore I might want to put some space between us,” Bethany said, giving me a quick, hidden look.
“I guess we can just push them together for everything else we have in mind,” I countered, returning her look. What was she thinking? I’d thought the bed arrangement would be straightforward.
“That sounds like too much trouble, now that you mention it,” Bethany said. “Give us the single bed--and I’m sorry we’re holding you up like this.”
The woman behind the desk gave Bethany a warmer smile than she’d given me and I wondered if she was into women. Thoughts of Bethany and the woman behind the desk hooking up flitted through my mind and I had to cut them off fast before I started getting turned on by the idea. Maybe she just didn’t try hard enough with the girl she hooked up with, I thought idly. But no--I would have thought Bethany would have said something about it if she’d actually had any inkling that she was better off with women than men.
That reminded me about her shocking bit of information about having never had an orgasm with someone else, and I had to remind myself not to let my expression or body language show anything about it. Don’t knock off just yet. You still have an audience.
“Okay, we have a couple of single bed suites available still,” the receptionist said. “I assume you’re paying by card?”
“Yes,” I replied. I would get her to smile at me--and mean it--if it killed me. “Clean and easy. We’re staying here the duration of the reunion.”
“Sure thing,” the woman said. She took my card from me, and saw that it was an AmEx platinum. That got a smile from her. “We have a full room service menu, and multiple shops, as well as an on-property restaurant and concierge, for your convenience.” She swiped my card and glanced up at me, and sure enough, she looked a lot cheerier.
“Thank you so much for taking care of us,” I said, giving her as warm a look as I dared to without breaking character.
“You don’t have to charm her, you’re already getting laid tonight,” Bethany said, with just a hint of jealousy in her voice.
I rolled my eyes and the woman on the other side of the counter glanced at my pretend girlfriend with a quick look that told me that she would have been happy to be with us when that fictional sex went down.
“I hope both of you will enjoy your stay with us at the Clairmont Hotel,” the woman said, smiling at both me and Bethany. She gave me my card back and turned around to a key-card coder. I gave Bethany’s waist a squeeze and leaned in to kiss the top of her head, the way I’d done dozens of times with my real girlfriends.
The receptionist gave us two key cards in little folders, and I took mine and shoved it in my pocket. “Which room are we in?”
“Right there, on the outside. It’s room 3140,” the blonde said, standing to point out the information on Bethany’s key card. “The elevator is just on the other side of the front desk, and the stairs are at both ends of each hallway.”
We thanked her again and left the front desk arm-in-arm. I wanted to get up to the room already, and when we got onto the elevator I was able to relax a bit, since we were the only ones there. It would be good to get alone, even if we were going to be in close quarters for the weekend. At least I’d be able to make the run back to Bethany’s place and have some time to myself for about thirty minutes or so. I had nothing against companionship, but playing a role for half the night was getting on my nerves.
The room the front desk woman had given us was pretty spacious, which was a relief. There was no couch, but a couple of comfortable-looking chairs and a little breakfast nook-type table, along with a dresser, a closet, bed stands, and--of course--the big, sprawling bed. The attached bathroom contained the usual toiletries, and a pretty deep bath tub, along with the needed showerhead. It was as good as anywhere I’d been, at the end of the day, but the big, glaring problem was the fact that we were two people who barely knew each other, and there was one bed.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” I said. I’d hoped the Clairmont would at least have some kind of settee I could curl up on, but I thought I could at least arrange the chairs to make a decent camp bed.
“No, you paid,” Bethany countered.
“How many times have you slept on a floor before?” I crossed my arms and looked at her levelly. The weekend was going to be stressful enough for Bethany without her being up half the night, uncomfortable.
“Enough to know that I can manage,” Bethany said tartly, holding my gaze.
“I’m not going to make you sleep on the floor the whole time,” I told her matter-of-factly.
“How about we switch?” she said. “One night one of us gets the bed, the other night the other one does, however long we end up being here?”
That made a lot of sense, and I was happy to take the deal--after all, I could have the bed, guilt-free, at least one of the nights we were staying in the hotel room.
“How do we decide who gets the bed first?” I asked.
Bethany shrugged in response to my question. “Flip a coin?”
I grinned. There was a quarter in my wallet, and I took it out. I always keep a quarter, and usually a couple of dimes and nickels, just in case I need to make change for something.
“Call it,” I suggested. Bethany thought for a moment.
“Tails,” she said, and I raised an eyebrow at her unusual choice; normally people pick heads, though I’ve never really known why. I flicked the coin into the air, caught it, and slapped it down onto the back of my other hand. I left my hand covering it for a moment, letting the tension drag out just for the fun of it.
When I lifted my hand, I saw--at the same time that Bethany did--that she’d lucked out. The face showing was the back of the coin. “You get the bed first, then,” I said. “That’s fair, right?”
“It’s fair,” Bethany agreed.
“I’ll go get our stuff from the house,” I suggested, as Bethany looked around the room, almost seeming at a loss.
“You’re sure? It’s getting cold out there,” Bethany pointed out.
“Better to do it now than when the storm starts up,” I countered. “Besides, you’ll want stuff to sleep in, and all that.” Bethany nodded her acceptance of that fact and sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching over to the bedside table to grab the remote control. As I crossed the room, I saw that she’d already kicked her shoes off, and I smiled to myself. It was a weirdly domestic situation, even if I would be sleeping on the chairs at least one of the nights--almost like the real thing, if you ignored the fact that we barely knew each other.
Bethany settled in and I took the keys from her, leaving the room after I made sure that I had my key card in my pocket.
The temperature had dropped another good five degrees by the time I stepped outside and started toward the car, and I wished I’d grabbed my coat after lending it to Bethany. I hurried to the car, eager to get the heat going to thaw out my fingers, and thought to myself that I might snoop in Bethany’s room just a bit. Not her underwear drawer, of course--but I’d see what I could find out about her nonetheless.