Hotel on a Hill

Once again the place was dead. The most recent customers had just left and I again was alone. I work at a small inn located in Connecticut and business has been more than slow; it felt like I was the last person living on planet Earth. The inn is located at the top of a hill, overlooking the vast ocean. It has beautiful scenery and at one point in time the place was crawling with people inside and out. Now it is just me, the cooks from time to time, and the maintenance crew, who also doubled as the cleaning crew. We had our occasional guest, but it has been eerily slow this past winter.

I’ve worked at the inn now for almost three years; I started when I was 18, me being 21 now. I had visited it many times though during my summer breaks as a child and my mother and step-father had known Steve and Molly York, the owners, since before I was born. The inn was named after Molly; it having the name Molly’s Oceanside Inn. Three and a half years back Molly had gotten sick and Steve had asked if I could help with the inn since I had decided to take some time off of school after I had graduated. Originally it was only until Molly had gotten better, but that hadn’t happened. A few months later she passed away, leaving Steve to deal with her death and him running an inn all by himself. That takes me to now; three years have gone by and I was almost running the show by myself. Steve took care of all of the accounts and such, but I was in charge of the place when he wasn’t around.

It was the end of spring and summer was just around the corner. I looked at the registry list for the following months to come; it was looking somewhat more promising than last year.

“The fourth and fifth bedrooms are cleaned and the sheets are in the wash right now. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind folding them for me.”

I looked up from the book and saw Rosemarie, one of the maintenance and room keepers, descending the stairs. Her hair was full of beautiful ringlets, brown and black spun together to create a pattern that was unique just to her. “Do I look like I’m busy?” I questioned sarcastically.

She cracked a smile at me, “Not at all. Anyone coming to stay anytime soon?” Rose joined me at the desk, leaning on the hard chunk of woord for support while she looked down at the same pages my eyes were scanning over.

I shook my head, “We have a party of five coming in a few days, but they wont be here too long. It looks like we will be getting steadier toward the end of June.” I shut the book that we kept all of the upcoming guests in and looked at Rose. “You can leave if you want. I will be fine.”

Her face had said it all. Rose’s grin grew wide and her eyes lit up like a dozen fireflies in the night. “Thanks Rae! Are you sure you don’t mind being here alone?”

“Thank you for caring,” I said with a warm glance, “but I am used to it by now. I doubt I will have anyone coming in and if I do, I can take care of it myself. Go see Ryan. I know you have missed him.”

Rose reached over the counter, gave me a fleeting hug, and dashed out of the door before I could even say a small goodbye.

“What to do now?” I asked aloud. My thumbs circled each other as I watched out the screen door of the inn, letting my mind wander. It went to a time when I was about 11 and we were at the inn for the 4th of July weekend. My parents had invited their friends Leann and Henry and their son Joshua.

“You will never get me Josh!” 11 year old me ran screaming as the brown haired boy chased me around the porch of the inn. My feet pounded against the wooden steps that led to the door. I stopped to catch my breath for a second, but Joshua grabbed a hold of me. He squeezed my stomach as he giggled with laughter.

“Got you!” he shouted as his grip loosened from my waist and I wiggled free from his arms.

My dark green eyes narrowed at him as I pouted. “That wasn’t fair! I couldn’t breathe!” my words were separated by the deep breaths I took to slow my heart rate.

He just stood there with a cheshire cat grin on his face. Young boys were so devious with their ways of thinking, but the next thing that Josh did amazed me. He placed his hands onto my shoulders as I glanced up at him. Then, without a second thought he leaned into me quickly, pecking his lips against mine before running back off of the porch.

I stood in the same spot for a few minutes, my fingers brushing against my lips, thinking of what had happened.

That had been my first kiss, right on that same porch I was staring at, at that moment. I hadn’t actually been staring at it though or else I would have noticed the man that stood at the desk in front of me.

I heard a faint ‘Hello’ before my mind raced back to reality and right to the person waving their hand in my face. “Sorry. I was having a moment,” I blushed quickly.

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” the man said sarcastically.

“What can I do for you?” I asked as I looked him over. His hair was a sandy blond, tossed every which way, but it worked for him. His eyes were an ocean blue, deep and intense, but there was also tenderness hidden in them.

His grim expression brightened slightly to where his lips held a subtle smile that showed his perfect teeth. “Actually, yeah, I was wondering if you had any rooms available for a week or two?” he asked with an English accent.

My smile grew wider as I paid attention to his voice the second time he spoke. I laughed a little as I took in what he had said, but after I had, I wished I hadn’t because the man’s expression went stern again.

“Something funny?” he grumbled in a low voice.

My head shook back and forth forcefully as I stuttered out my explanation, “NO! No, sorry. It’s just,” I paused and looked around the inn for a moment. It was so quite that you could hear the light waves crashing on the shore. “Does it look like we are very busy?”

This time he looked around and shrugged his shoulders, “Not really.”

“So you said a week or so? Let’s see…” I trailed off as I opened the registry book again to scan which rooms would be occupied within the next two weeks. “Hmm…it looks like room 8 is available. It has a king sized bed, a full bathroom, and view of the ocean. Sound good?”

His grin grew wide as he looked at me. “I’ll take it!” he stated instantly.

“Okay. Let me show you the way.”