Over the Rainbow

“Lane!” I cringed as my manager yelled my name from behind me. I scrambled up to my feet, nearly slipping on the marble floor I was just cleaning.

“Yes Cindy?” I flattened out my apron over my impractical uniform.

Honestly, if I ditched the apron I would look more like an airline stewardess rather than a maid.

Wanna bag of peanuts?

“Why aren’t you done with this yet? You still need to help Jen clean the top floor! Not to mention you’re on ground bathroom duty! God! You’re so lazy! How the hell you ever got hired at the fanciest hotel in all of Hawaii I’ll never know,” she looked at me disgusted, “Clean this up and get upstairs.”

I almost laughed when she shot her nose in the air a turned on her heel, stalking off to more than likely to sit and chill in the lounge room. I was so thankful she didn’t notice I wasn’t in dress code.

I was currently sporting black on black tennis shoes; we were supposed to wear heels.

“And Lane?” I turned back around quickly, “If I see you in those hideous bum covers you call shoes again, I’ll fire you.”

These shoes were brand fucking new!

She gave me a sickly sweet smile, one that matched the obnoxious voice she was just talking to me in, before she rounded the corner and left.

“Ugh,” I rolled my eyes before returning to cleaning the floor- a job I had been assigned to twenty minutes ago. Unfortunately it was tough job getting whatever this was off the expensive marble floor.

“Can she treat you like that?” I dropped the scrub brush and grabbed my heart in an attempt to keep it from beating out of my chest. I turned around wide eyed, “Oh jeez! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine,” I took a deep breath as I took in the stranger. He had tattoos and splotchy bleached hair with a nose ring. Not the type of person I would expect to see in a hotel like this, “I just didn’t know we had an audience.”

“Sorry,” he gave a sheepish smile, one that I returned. “Johnny.”

He had stuck his hand out for me to shake, I threw off the rubber gloves and wiped my hands on my apron.

“Delaney,” I smiled, “Call me Lane.”

“But really, can she talk to you like that?”

“She’s my boss, and I need a job,” I said, putting on my yellow rubber gloves once more and getting on my knees, “If she wanted me to fucking blow her I would as long as I got paid.”

“Really now?” I looked over my shoulder to see he had his eyebrows raised and a slightly shocked expression.

“Probably not, but I do need my job,” I chuckled then returned to the task at hand, it wasn’t often that guests made conversation with the staff. It was kind of refreshing.

“Johnny!” I heard his name being shouted, I saw a group of fairly buff men signal to him to go and join them.

“That’s my cue,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “nice talking to you Lane.”

I stopped, turned and smiled, “You too, Johnny.”

He gave a little two-fingered salute before joining his friends, I returned back to my work.

I ran my hand over my face before picking up the scrub brush and throwing it in the bucket. It was time to pack up, grab my cart and go upstairs. I was dreading the top floor; it’s where all the master suites were. They were the biggest, most time consuming rooms to clean, mainly because they had rooms with in themselves and more than one person generally shared the suite.

Finding my cart, I sighed and rolled my eyes to see that someone had been taking my stuff again. I always restock my cart before leaving for the night. It’s not like I can do anything about it now I guess. After grabbing everything I needed, and a few extras, I changed back into the agonizing, required heels and took the service elevator to the top floor to see that Jen had already claimed her half of the floor.

I was a little peeved that she had taken this particular half- I happened to know that no one was occupying the suites on that side, so she would just be vacuuming and dusting.

I guess I should be happy that only one of the suites on my side was being used- it just happened to be the biggest. Opting to clean the other three first, I finished them quickly, beating Jen out by a suite; now came the fun part- to clean the one that was actually being used.

Opening the door I gasped. It was a maid’s worst nightmare. It looked like a fucking tornado ripped through the place. I started picking up the beer bottles and empty snack bags, putting all the glass and aluminum cans in separate bags, I could take those to the recycling place later for some extra cash. Getting the living room type area done I moved to the very first bathroom.

It was utterly disgusting.

Not only was the vomit everywhere but in the toilet, I’m pretty sure the wet splotches on the floor weren’t water. Finding my resolve, I decided I would clean all the bathrooms first, getting the worst of it out of the way.

It took me three hours to get the place restored to our hotel’s high standard. Vomit, piss, condoms and their ripped packages littered the entire place- not to mention the scarring activity of getting mysterious stains out of the carpet, couches and mattresses. No amount of therapy will ever get the frightening scene out of my mind.

“You’ve been up here for hours Lane,” my manager said monotonously. “And it’s still not clean.”

I went slack jawed as I looked around me. Not only was this place more sanitary than a hospital surgical room, it fucking sparkled.

SPARKLED!

“And your shoes,” her lip curled back in disgust. “Just because they’re heels does not mean they meet standard.”

Oh, HELL no!

“They’re Louboutin!” Oh my god. I just cleaned a hazard area in Louboutin.

I’ve lost it. I’ve lost my mind; who fucking cleans in six hundred dollar shoes?!

“Sure, you just keep telling yourself that,” she said mockingly.

“Whoa,” a tall man entered the room carrying plastic bag from the local mini-mart.

“Fucking hell,” a buff dude with snakebites said, looking around; he also had bags in his hand.

“Shit!” A man with spiky black hair and a nose ring dropped his bags and looked around in aw.

“Damn it Brian! Mo- wow,” I recognized Johnny from earlier.

“Damn short shit! Move,” a tall muscular guy with a lip ring walked into Johnny. He didn’t say anything as he to looked at my handy work in aw. My heart skipped a beat as his eyes landed on me.

“Jimmy, you were supposed to call in and tell them not to clean up,” he never took his eyes off me. A crooked smile making its’ was on his face, I don’t think he realized he was doing it. I adverted my gaze to my manager who was looking like a dear caught in headlights. Bitch made me clean it anyway.

I looked at the man with spiky black hair, I’m assuming his name is Brian, before dropping my gaze to the floor where he dropped his bags. Cleaning supplies had spilled out. Supplies ranging from Comet to SHOUT!

Aw, they were going to clean up their own mess! That’s real cute.

I looked back up to see the man still looking at me; I blushed under his gaze. I missed Johnny looking from me to his friend.

“Lane!” I looked to Johnny who looked like he had just realized I was in the room, before grimacing as I caught my manager’s pissed expression in the corner of my eye.

“Right, we’ll be on our way,” my arm was grabbed and I was dragged out of the room.

I grabbed the bags of recycling and garbage and put them on the cart, following Cindy to the service elevator at the other end of the hall. Cindy pressed the button and we waited patiently for the doors to open. Upon entrance, my manager crossed her arms and tapped her foot looking at me expectantly.

“What?” I didn’t bother looking at her.

“That man knew you,” she narrowed her eyes at me.

“He stopped to talk down in the lobby when I was cleaning th-“

“Don’t talk to the guests Lane,” she pointed at me, then threw over her shoulder as the elevators dinged and opened, “They’re too good for you. Ground bathrooms- now.”

I sighed and groaned. After restocking my cart again, I headed to the bathrooms in the front. Starting with the women’s I cleaned each stall to perfection, it really wasn’t that bad; it was the men’s bathroom that nobody wanted to clean. I knocked on the door, listening for a response, then started when I got none.

“You’re just all over the place today aren’t you?” I dropped the toilet brush and almost fell into the toilet when I spun around. “Sorry!”

I put my arm to forehead and leaned against the stall wall, “Of course you are Johnny.”

I let out a deep breath and opened my eyes to theperson people behind me. Johnny was standing there with an apologetic smile, while the man who kept staring at me in the room stood behind him with a raised eyebrow.

“Ugh,” I blushed again, “I’m done. Just let me pack up my stuff, then the bathrooms all yours.”

“Lane,” I turned back to the men pulling off my generic yellow cleaning gloves and throwing them on the cart. “This is my friend Matt.”

“Hello Matt,” I smiled and shook his hand, “If you boys will excuse me.”

I exited the bathroom, knowing full well that Cindy would be looking for me soon.

And wouldn’t you know it, I was right.

“Lane,” I looked at Cindy, she was actually walking like a manager, not a bitch; “The hotel is going on lockdown. Reports just came in of a hurricane forming just a few miles south of here. Staff meeting in the employees lounge in ten- tell guests that they need to go back to their rooms and tell employees about the staff meeting.”

“I’m on it,” I said, as we parted, each making our way briskly to what ever our destinations were. I looked outside and saw the blackened sky. It was starting to rain and looking at the trees, I could already see how strong the wind was.

God I hope it doesn’t reach the shoreline.