Initiating Amy (Dominion Hotel Book 3)

by Michelle Peters

  As he strode across the lobby he saw the elevator doors open and Eve step out. She immediately saw him and waved. He stopped, waiting for her to come across to him.

  “I was just coming to see you,” she said.

  “And here I am.”

  “Yes, there you are.” She smiled.

  A moment passed but Eve said nothing more. Tony prompted her, “What can I do for you?”

  “Oh yes,” she said, “is there somewhere we could sit and talk for a moment.”

  “Of course.” Tony gestured towards the bar, not yet open as it was still early in the day. “Over here.”

  “Perfect,” Eve said.

  The two moved across the lobby in silent unison. Tony gestured towards a booth just inside the door. Eve slid into it and Tony followed. Tony smiled at Eve, encouraging her to begin. Eve pulled out an old black-and-white still photograph, sliding it across the table to Tony. He looked down at it.

  “What a lovely couple.”

  “That’s Aunt Ev at her first Lover’s Ball.”

  Tony carefully picked up the picture. He held it up, looked at it, then at Eve. “I see the resemblance. Beautiful.”

  Eve didn’t seem to mind the compliment, smiling coyly and lowering her eyes.

  Tony looked at the picture again. “Who’s she with?”

  “William Lawrence.”

  “Evelyn never mentioned him.”

  “I’m not surprised. That was their one and only date. Not even a date really, just a dance.”

  Tony placed the photo on the table in front of Eve. “She looks happy. Happier than I have ever seen her.”

  “Me too.” Eve paused. “That’s why I showed it to you. Mr. Lawrence is the reason Aunt Ev has been so closely tied to the Lover’s Ball all these years. I think secretly she’s been looking for him, hoping he would attend, hoping he would come back for her.”

  Tony fingered the picture. “That’s a long time to be looking for someone. I always wondered why Evelyn stayed so close to the ball all these years. No matter what she was doing, or what part of the world she was in, she always made it back for the ball. She was always unescorted and never stayed very long. It always seemed like she was looking for something.”

  Eve interrupted, “Or someone.”

  “Or someone,” Tony echoed.

  “William Lawrence.” Eve tapped her finger on the black-and-white photograph that sat on the table between them.

  Tony picked the picture up again. He stared at the image of a happy Evelyn, thinking about all of those years gone by, all those years of waiting.

  Eve broke his train of thought. “Can you help me find him?”

  “I beg your pardon?” He placed the picture back on the table and looked at Eve.

  “Do you know somebody? I want to find him for Aunt Ev. She’s been so good to me all these years, and I’ve never known her to be happy. Then when I saw her with this photograph, I saw a happiness in her that I never saw before. I want to give that to her, I want to give her a moment of happiness. Can you help me?”

  Tony sat looking at Eve, then back again to the picture. “Maybe. I might know a guy.”

  Eve smiled.

  “William Lawrence?” repeated Tony.

  Eve nodded. Tony pulled a small notepad and pen from the inside breast pocket of his jacket. He wrote down the name.

  “Can I have this?”

  Without waiting for a reply, he picked up the picture and put it in his inside breast pocket, along with the notepad and pen. Tony, assuming the conversation was over, shifted in his seat, sliding along the bench to get up. Eve stopped him by placing a hand on his arm.

  “One more thing,” she said, eyes cast downward, coy.

  Tony looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. “I was wondering if you would like to have a drink with me later on this evening. Maybe dinner?” Eve paused. She looked up at Tony, no longer coy. She looked confident, a look he had seen in Evelyn so many times, the look of a woman who knows what she wants and goes out and gets it.

  Tony slid his arm out from under Eve’s hand. He smiled politely. “I’m with someone at the moment.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Eve’s expression changed instantly, looking a little embarrassed. “I didn’t know, I’m sorry. It’s just that my Aunt said you might be…” Eve truly was embarrassed now. “What was I thinking? Listening Aunt Ev.”

  Tony felt bad for her. He tried to ease her embarrassment. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Evelyn meant well. She wouldn’t have known. We don’t have that kind of relationship.” He slid around to get out of the booth.

  Eve was relieved. She slid around to get up as well. “No, really. I should know better. All I did was mention to Aunt Ev that I broke up with my boyfriend and right away she’s thrusting me forward on unsuspecting men.”

  “Really, don’t worry about it.” Tony moved close to Eve and offered her his arm. He wanted her to feel at ease, downplaying the incident, trying to relieve her of her embarrassment. Offering her his arm seemed to work. She took it and he sensed her relax as she did. As they strode towards the lobby, Eve put her head on his shoulder.

  “Are you sure you’re taken?” She was joking now, relaxed.

  “Pretty sure. Last time I checked anyway.”

  Eve chuckled. They reached the lobby and she released his arm. “Too bad, there aren’t very many gentlemen around these days.”

  She left Tony standing in the lobby as she made her way back towards the elevators.

  As soon as Eve left him, Tony was confronted by a most unpleasant sight. A sight that immediately clouded his mood and struck him the core. Anthony Racocco was standing at the reception desk. Tony knew that Racocco was arriving today, he knew all of the expected guests that were due at the hotel. Knowing Racocco was checking in today was not the problem. Seeing him was. Tony had hoped not to run in to him. It seemed he wasn’t so lucky.

  Ever since the incident with Amy a while ago, Tony had managed to avoid Racocco each time he stayed in the hotel. After leaving Eve Tony intended to go back to his office, but to do so would mean he would have to walk past the reception desk, crossing paths with Racocco in the process. He had no desire to do that. If Racocco wanted to stay at the hotel, fine, Tony would take his money, but it didn’t mean he had to speak to him.

  Instead, Tony reverted back to his original plan. He turned abruptly and headed towards the front door in search of fresh air.

  Anthony Racocco stood at the front desk of the Dominion Hotel. He was one of those people who saw more than most, noticing small details that slipped past other people’s attention. Like the flecks of pink in the granite counter that ran the length of the front desk, or the small scuff marks shoes make on baseboards as people walked by, unknowingly kicking them. He certainly noticed Tony Marino standing off in the distance, outside the lobby bar. He saw Tony as Tony saw him, yet nothing he did gave this away. As he signed the guest register he took mental note of Tony, and nothing more. His expression didn’t show the disdain he held for Tony, his smooth signature on the registration card didn’t falter.

  “Here you are Mr. Racocco, Penthouse Six.” The front desk agent’s arm was extended, offering him the key packet.

  Racocco looked at the key and then back to the agent. “I’d prefer a different suite?”

  The front desk agent stood speechless, not knowing what to say. Finally, when he realized Racocco was serious, he said, “But it’s the same suite you’ve always had.” The agent looked at his computer screen and then back at Racocco. “The same one you’ve had the last seven times you’ve been our guest.” Silence again between the two. “Mr. Marino personally selected it for you.”

  Racocco stood motionless in front of the agent. “I’d prefer another one.”

  The agent looked back at him, dumb founded, before moving a short distance down the desk and picking up the phone.

  Outside the hotel, standing at the front door, Tony’s cell phone rang. Tony answered. A look of
exasperation showed on his face as he listened.

  “Give him number four. No, I don’t want to come and talk to him and explain. Just give him the key.” Tony retuned his cell phone back to the breast pocket of his jacket. “Asshole.”

  The front desk agent hit a few key strokes on the keyboard and then returned to stand in front of Racocco. He offered him a new key packet, saying “Will Suite Four be suitable, Mr. Racocco?”

  Racocco snorted and nodded, taking the key packet. He walked across the lobby towards the elevator. If it were anybody else, Racocco knew Tony Marino would be striding across the lobby to greet him and escort him to his room, offering his extended hand and an apology. But Racocco knew that wouldn’t happen, given the history between the two. He was fine with that. He was pleased enough just messing with Tony, knowing how it would irk him.

  If it weren’t for Tony, Racocco would have owned the Dominion. Racocco had a deal in principle to purchase the hotel from Evelyn. It was Tony’s eleventh hour offer that stopped the deal from going forward. Even worse, it was Tony’s arrogant friend Matt Warrington who put the deal together. No, Racocco was fine not being escorted to his room by Tony.

  As he arrived at the elevators, Racocco smiled at the very attractive woman who was waiting there. He spotted Eve a long way off and was hoping she would still be there by the time he got to the elevator bank. He could tell she had already pushed the call button as it was lit. Instinctively, he reached over and pushed it again.

  “Funny how we think it will come faster if we push it again.” Eve was smiling at him as she said this.

  “I guess we all need to feel like we’re in control,” he said.

  She smiled at the remark, and as she did so, the car arrived. “Maybe you’re right.”

  She stepped into the elevator car and he followed. She pushed the button for the penthouse level. Racocco pushed the same button, and they both laughed.

  “Maybe we’ll get there faster,” he said.

  As the elevator car rose, the cell phone in his breast pocket buzzed. He reached in and pulled it out. With his thumb, he punched in the four-digit password and the screen on his phone came to life. The message was a confirmation of the ticket he purchased for the Lover’s Ball.

  “Good news?” Eve asked.

  Racocco began to think that this elevator encounter may more than just a passing, pleasant moment in his day. He slid the phone back into his breast pocket and turned his body to face her.

  “Nothing monumental. Just confirmation of a purchase. A ticket to a ball here, at the hotel.”

  “The Lover’s Ball?”

  “Yes. Do you know it?”

  “I’m one of the organizers.”

  “If I’d known that, maybe I wouldn’t have had to buy a ticket.”

  “No, you’d still have to buy a ticket.”

  He reached out a hand to her. “Angelo Racocco.”

  “Eve,” she said, shaking hand.

  Racocco immediately turned her hand over, raised it and pressed his lips to the back of it. He held it a moment longer, looking up at her with his lips still puckered and poised above her hand.

  As corny as this all seemed, Eve was charmed.

  The elevator jolted slightly, stopping and opening its doors. She slipped her hand out of his. “So, I guess I will see you there.” Eve lowered her eyes.

  “Until then,” he said, straightening his back.

  Eve exited the elevator and went towards her aunt’s suite at the furthest end of the hallway. When she got there she stopped and looked back, but Racocco was nowhere to be see. Eve entered the suite and quietly closed the door behind herself.

  “Eve is that you?”

  “Yes, Aunt Ev.” She moved through the suite and found her aunt where she left her, sitting at the desk sifting through photographs. She sat on the couch across the room, pensive.

  “I met the most charming man just now, Eve said.”

  “Mr. Marino?”

  “No, another man, somebody else.”

  “I thought you were going to meet Mr. Marino in the lobby?”

  “I did. Then I met someone in the elevator coming back up. He got off on this floor.”

  “I don’t think you want to meet a man like that.” Evelyn spoke idly, not turning away from her photographs.

  “Like what? Like someone you meet in the elevator? He seems harmless enough.”

  “Not if he got off on this floor. No one who stays on this floor is completely harmless.”

  “You’re on this floor.”

  Evelyn put down the photograph she was holding and turned around to look at Eve. “I’ve never been described as harmless, my dear.”

  Was that such a bad thing? Maybe she did want that sort of man. Lord knows she could use some excitement in her life. “Doesn’t Tony stay on this floor?”

  Evelyn went back to her photographs. “He does.”

  “Is he any different from anyone else who stays here?”

  “Not completely. But in some ways, yes.”

  “Yet you sent me to see him.”

  “We know Mr. Marino. We like Mr. Marino.”

  “Maybe you’ll like this man.”

  “I don’t know him; therefore, I can’t like him now, can I?”

  Eve thought her aunt was probably right, Eve knew that Evelyn didn’t like anyone really. She was surprised she liked Tony.

  Evelyn continued, “How did you make out with Mr. Marino?”

  “I got nowhere. He’s with someone.”

  “Yes, so?”

  “So, you knew he was with someone?”

  “Of course, my dear.”

  “And you sent me anyway?”

  “That’s never stopped him in the past.”

  “Well, it did this time. Either that or he just wasn’t interested.”

  Evelyn got up from the desk and came to sit beside Eve in the couch. “Nonsense my dear, what sane man wouldn’t be interested in you? You’re smart, you’re gorgeous. You look so much like your mother, and she was gorgeous.” Evelyn was silent for a moment. “Not to worry love. Not to worry.”

  “He’s with Carmen,” Amy said as she buckled herself into the back seat of Miranda’s car, the car pulling away from the curb seconds after she closed the door.

  Amy settled in as Miranda accelerated, driving her home from work. It wasn’t often that Miranda drove Amy home, but it was raining and Amy had asked. Besides, Miranda didn’t have any rides pending. If nothing else, she wanted something to do.

  “Who’s Carmen?”

  “Chef Carmen, you know, that pop-up chef. The one Warrington hired to run his culinary program.”

  “Oh, yeah, the cute one.”

  “Yeah, the cute one,” Amy replied, sarcastically.

  “So why is that a problem?”

  “You don’t see a problem?”

  “Not really.” Miranda flipped on the windshield wipers fully, shifting them from intermediate. Suddenly the rain was falling in sheets. She leaned forward to see better.

  “I do, even though Lance says it’s not. He told me to forget about her?”

  “So, forget about her then.”

  “How?”

  “What do you mean how? You just do. You don’t think about her, you don’t worry about her, you just forget about her.”

  “Easier said then done.” Amy sank back into the plush leather seat, crossing her arms, turning to watch the rain come down as she was chauffeured through the city.

  “It’s only difficult if you make it difficult.” Miranda paused, but when Amy didn’t reply she carried on. “If he’s telling you to forget about her, then that’s a good thing, don’t you think?”

  Amy brought herself back into the conversation, looking at Miranda, seeing the side of her face as she sat behind and across from her on the passenger’s side of the back seat.

  “I really don’t know what to think.” This was true. All this was confusing. Was she the other woman? Was she now the main woman and Carmen
was the other woman? She had never been in this position before, in a relationship with a man who was also with another woman, not knowingly anyway.

  “Don’t overthink it. Just go with it.”

  “Really? First you’re telling me to be careful, think about it, don’t jump into things. Now you’re say don’t think about it?”

  “I didn’t say not to think about it, I said don’t overthink it. You’re in it now, so go with it. Don’t make it complicated. If he says forget about it, forget about it. If it’s you, it’s you; if it’s her, it’s her.”

  “And what if it’s her?”

  “Then it is.” Miranda punched her horn three times, then carried on as if nothing happened. “Are you having fun?”

  Amy uncrossed her arms and smiled. “Yeah.”

  “Then just have fun for now. See where it goes. See where he takes you.”

  ‘See where he takes you.’ Amy repeated the words in her head. He was certainly taking her places she had never been before. Her belly tingled just thinking of it.

  “I am having fun.”

  “And you should. Are you happy?”

  “I am.”

  “Good. You deserve to be. So, for now, have some fun and just be happy. As long as he’s making you happy, what more do you need? Too often we try to make sense of things when all we really need to do is have fun and be happy. Things will sort themselves out, they always do.”

  Amy turned to look out the window again. The rain was coming down so hard she could barely see through the glass. The car was stopped at a light and she could hear the rain pounding on the roof of the car. She cracked the window slightly and smelled the warm summer rain. She was enjoying the moment, the sight, sound and the smell of the rain. She decided that Miranda was right, she needed to stay in the moment with Lance.

  “Roll up the window.” Miranda’s voice broke her thoughts. “You’re getting the seats wet.”