Stormy Weather

by Marie Rochelle

  “Thank you again for doing this for me. I promise I will give you the money I owe. Truthfully, I thought I might have to sleep on the streets tonight,” Cash confessed.

  She gave him a small smile. “You’re welcome. Let’s get back inside so I can get your room ready. After you have settled in why you don’t come back downstairs and we can find you something in the kitchen? Ron, our chef, always has leftovers in the refrigerator for the staff to take home.”

  Turning on her heel, Rachelle walked away from him and went the short distance to Luxury. Cash didn’t waste a second hurrying behind her. Back at the front desk, he watched Rachelle as she grabbed an electronic room key. She looked down at it and then back over her shoulder and at him.

  “I think this is pretty funny after the night you have been having.” She held the card out, waiting for him to take it.

  He glanced down at the card, noticing the number thirteen in black. “Despite the night that I have been having, I don’t believe in bad luck,” Cash said, taking the keycard from Rachelle.

  “Room Thirteen will be perfect. How can I be picky when you are doing something so nice for me? All I want to do is get something to eat because I’m starving, take a hot shower, then hit the bed and sleep for hours.” Cash didn’t realize how worn out he was until now. He wasn’t in the mood to do anything else but get his basic needs taken care of.

  Rachelle nodded. “Wonderful. There are two conferences next week and all of the rooms are booked then except for two...”

  Suddenly, the intrusive ringing of the telephone prevented Rachelle from finishing her conversation with him. “Let me get this and I’ll be right with you,” she told him, reaching for the phone.

  “Not a problem. Take your time. I’ll give you some privacy,” Cash said, moving away.

  ****

  Before answering the phone, she peeked at Cash’s retreating figure from the corner of her eye. She couldn’t help it as her gaze wandered over the fabric of his slacks and how it cupped his tight ass.

  How could she be attracted to a man who got robbed on the Greyhound bus?

  He didn’t have any money to pay for a room. Hell, she needed to get her act together fast! She wasn’t the impulsive sibling and she never allowed a handsome face to sway her mind when it came to Luxury.

  Had it really been that long since a hot guy had come within twenty feet of her?

  The phone rang again, but she wasn’t in any hurry to answer it. She already knew who was on the other end because her sisters called at the same time every night she worked. She swore her baby sisters acted like they were older.

  “Hello?” she answered on the fourth ring.

  “Hey, big sister, how are you doing?” Sasha asked cheerfully. “What took you so long to pick up? Were you doing something that you shouldn’t be? I knew you were ready to strip that good girl image away and become one of us.”

  She laughed. “I could work at it for a lifetime and never become like the three of you. I need a manual to follow the half of the activities my little sisters do on a daily basis. Do you have me on speaker phone with Akisha and Genise?”

  She hated when Sasha did that because when her sisters, who were triplets, all started talking at once it was hard to keep up with them.

  “You know that we do it all the time,” Genise replied, interrupting the conversation. “Why do you constantly ask that? We aren’t ever going to change because we know that you love us just the way we are.”

  “I know the three of you aren’t,” Rachelle sighed, “but I can always dream that one day my little sisters will grow up and act like adults.”

  “Rachelle, will you stop talking to Genise for a minute,” Akisha said, “so I can ask you something? Why am I always the last one who gets to talk to you? Maybe sometimes I want to be first.”

  “If you weren’t so slow maybe I wouldn’t beat you to the punch every single time,” Genise snapped back.

  “Shut up! I don’t want to hear you,” Akisha screamed back. “I’m still mad at you for what you did yesterday when we went out shopping. You knew that I wanted those pair of black leather boots, but you snatched them just as I was about to reach for them.

  “I’ve been waiting months for that exact pair to go on sale. I told you more than once how much I loved them. You knew it and didn’t care at all. Sometimes I hate that you’re my sister.”

  “I hate you, too,” Genise added. “It wasn’t my fault I was faster than you. You shouldn’t have glanced at the cute guy that walked past us or they would be yours instead of mine.”

  “Ladies, stop fighting with each other,” Rachelle interrupted. “I’m not going to listen to this much longer because I’m at work. Now, Genise, be quiet for a minute so Akisha can ask me her question. Akisha, what do you want to ask me?”

  As usual, she was trying to be peacemaker between her bickering siblings. Sometimes she wondered when the three of them were going to grow up and start taking responsibility for their actions instead of always blaming each other for their problems.

  “Is there anyone there with you? I know that a couple of guests for the conferences were planning to arrive early. Have any of them shown up yet?” Sasha asked. “If not, I can tell Sterling that I need to leave work early and I can come on out there to be with you. I hate it when you work the night shift alone.”

  “I’m fine,” she answered. “It isn’t the first time I’ve been at Luxury by myself.”

  “No, it isn’t fine with me,” Sasha cut in. “It’s the weekend and you shouldn’t be alone. We are worried about you. Did the electrician ever get the lights fixed? I called him last week about it. They kept going off and on most of the day when I was there last Friday. The phone started acting up on me, too.”

  She was touched Sasha wanted to be her protector. It surprised her how Sasha allowed certain things to affect her more than others. Her sister needed to comprehend she was a grown woman and more than capable of taking care of herself.

  “Rachelle, are you there?” Genise said. “Answer me.”

  “Yes, I’m here. Where else would I be?” she answered. “Now, let me assure all of you that I’m perfectly fine out here by myself. Sasha, there is no reason for you to leave work early. I know you’re working towards a promotion and checking out early won’t help you achieve it.

  “Yes, the repair man came about two hours after I got here this afternoon. He fixed the lights and everything is working fine now. Nobody from the conferences has showed up yet, but I’m fine. There is no need for you to leave work early.”

  “Rachelle, you always say that, even when you do need help with something,” Sasha said, worried. “I don’t care what you tell me. As soon as I get off the phone with you, I’m going to call Sterling and tell him I won’t be in tonight. I’m coming there to be with you. I know you are probably out there all alone and too stubborn to ask for any help. I still don’t see why you let the staff have the night off. They should be there with you.”

  “Don’t you dare hurt your chances of getting that promotion. Besides, why would you want to skip any alone time you can get with your boss? This will be your chance at finally getting him to see you as more than his hardworking employee. Anyway, I’m not here by myself. I have a guest here with me. He just signed in a few minutes ago. I was about to show him to his room when the three of you called.”

  “You have a man there with you?” Genise asked. “Is he cute?”

  Rachelle couldn’t believe this. Not a second ago her sisters was concerned about her being her all alone and now Genise wanted to know if Cash was attractive.

  Lord, what was she going to do with Genise?

  One thing was for sure: she wasn’t about to tell her little sister about how handsome Cash truly was. Taking another peek at him, she found him standing with his back against the wall watching her. She held up her hand, signaling for him to give her another minute and focused her attention back on her meddlesome siblings.

  “Genise, I don’t
care if he’s cute,” Akisha snapped. “I want to know more about this guy. Does he look dangerous? Maybe since Sasha can’t come over there, I can drop by. You really shouldn’t be there by yourself. I’m just getting a bad feeling about all of this.”

  “God, don’t you start in on me, too, Akisha.” Rachelle sighed. “Nothing is going to happen with me being here with Cash. He is very harmless.”

  “Care to tell us when you started calling the guests by their first names?” Sasha questioned her. “Is there something going on there we should know about?”

  Rachelle cursed her slip of tongue. Of course, Sasha would be the one who picked up on it. Lord, she needed to have a talk with all of them when they all got a chance to be in the same room. It was way past time her siblings understood who was the leader. They treated her like she was the youngest one in the family, just like their parents.

  “Nothing is going on,” she replied.

  “Hey, there is nothing wrong with her calling him by his first name,” Genise interjected. “I’ve called guests by their first names before while at work, especially if they are cute. They seem to love it, so why shouldn’t Rachelle be able to do the same thing?”

  Great…she didn’t know that Genise was flirting with the male guests.

  It explained why so many of them had inquired about Genise when she wasn’t working. Lord, her sister needed to burn off the flirtatious gene she inherited or she was going to end up giving the wrong man some attention.

  “Genise, stop flirting with the guests,” Rachelle scolded. “I don’t want them to get the wrong idea about our establishment. When you are here at Luxury it’s for work and nothing else.”

  “You tell her, Rachelle,” Sasha snickered. “See, Genise, I told you that she would tell you to stop, but you didn’t want to listen to me.”

  “Shut up, Sasha. I don’t need to hear your opinion or Rachelle’s. I can do what I want. There is nothing wrong with some harmless flirting. Maybe if you did it more instead of constantly acting all prim and proper you could have Sterling Hamilton in your bed instead of going home to a goldfish.”

  “You bitch!”

  “Sasha and Genise, stop fighting,” she snapped. “I’ve heard enough from the both of you.”

  “Sorry,” Sasha and Genise mumbled together.

  “See, Rachelle, you are always getting on me and look who’s fighting now,” Akisha pointed out to her. “I haven’t said a word about how strange it is for you to call one of the guests by his first name.”

  “Akisha, why don’t you keep it that way?” Rachelle suggested. “I want us to move on to a different topic of conversation.”

  “Fine, what does your guest look like?” Genise questioned, bringing the subject back to Cash. “Is he a hottie? Do you even know what a hottie is? I mean, I’m not talking old man hot like George Clooney, but more like Jared Leto. Please tell me that you know what the difference is?”

  Rachelle gave Cash another quick look, and undoubtedly he would fit into the hottie category. She didn’t appreciate Genise thinking she was too old to know what the word meant. The age gap between them wasn’t that huge. Hell, sometimes her sisters acted like she had one foot in the grave. She was going to keep some stuff to herself and there wasn’t anything wrong with that at all.

  “We are done discussing that, too. It’s off limits. I don’t see him like that,” she lied and then changed the subject. “Sasha, how has work been going? Any news of when Sterling might make his decision?”

  Her sister sighed in her ear. “It has been fine. Sterling did say he was going to make a decision soon, but I’m tired of waiting for it. If it weren’t for my feelings about Sterling, I would have quit this place months ago.

  “You know half the time the employees are talking about me behind my back because of all the new rules I’ve put in place. They don’t like them, and from the looks they give me not one of them would miss me if I was gone tomorrow.”

  “Are you truly willing to give up on him so easily?” Rachelle questioned. “The few times I have talked to him, Sterling came across like a pretty nice guy. Don’t give up yet. We can talk about this some more when you’re at work tomorrow night. Please tell me that you didn’t forget that you’re scheduled to work?”

  “I haven’t forgotten that I have to work this weekend. You aren’t going to let me forget it either. I don’t need to get bossed around about working. Don’t I always do my share?”

  “Yes, you do,” she apologized. “I shouldn’t have thought you wouldn’t be here. You’re a very responsible young woman.”

  God, this phone call was taking way longer than she thought it would. This wasn’t any way for her to run their business. She needed to end it and then escort Cash upstairs to his room. She glanced over at him and noticed he was walking towards her.

  “Rachelle, are you listening to me?” Akisha chimed in. “I’m talking to you.”

  “Wait a minute. I need to take care of our guest. Let me see what he wants and I’ll be right back with you.”

  Covering the phone with her hand, she spoke to Cash. “I apologize for taking so long with this phone call. Let me tell my sisters to call me back and I can show you to your room. I usually don’t run my business this way. I’m very professional when it comes to my guests.”

  “I don’t want you to stop talking to your family. Can you just tell me how to find Room Thirteen?” Cash asked, staring at her. “I’m pretty sure I can find it on my own. Besides, how can I complain when you are nice enough to let me stay here tonight?”

  Rachelle tried not to get lost in Cash’s gray eyes, but it was very difficult since he was looking directly at her. “Sure, I can. Go up the stairs and turn to your left. It’s the very last door at the end of the hallway. Please let me know if you need anything after you are settled. I promise that I will be off the phone by then.”

  “I’ll let you know,” Cash said and then spun away, heading in the direction she told him.

  She stared at his retreating back, admiring how powerful his body looked as he moved away from her. She couldn’t drag her eyes away him until he disappeared from sight.

  Damn! He was one good-looking man.

  Usually she was completely against dating the guests, but she might have to make an exception to her own rule for Cash. She sensed the instant attraction between them. Rachelle wondered if Cash might be open to the possibility of getting to know her better while he was staying here.

  She couldn’t think of the last time the thought of asking a man out on a date took her over like this. Her sisters were always trying to set her up on dates with men she had absolutely no interest in, but this time she might have found one.

  “Rachelle, are you still there?” Akisha asked her. “I’m tired of waiting for you to answer me.”

  “Of course I’m still here, Akisha,” she sighed into the phone. “How are things going with you? Did you get office space that you wanted? ”

  “No, I haven’t had a chance to ask him. He has been avoiding me. He isn’t going to keep giving me the runaround either. I’m good at my job. I deserve to have my own office instead of sharing one space with two other people,” she complained.

  “I think there’s another reason Akisha’s boss is hiding from her,” Genise hinted, “but I’m going to keep my opinions to myself.”

  “Thank God, because we don’t want to hear any more of your crazy stories,” Sasha complained.

  Rachelle quickly swallowed down her laughter. She loved how Sasha always made the smallest things seem so enormous. Sasha never joked around, and most of the time she acted twenty years older than she actually was.

  “It’s not crazy,” Genise defended. “I think Akisha’s boss is attracted to her and doesn’t want to admit it. I’ve seen him. I’d want him interested in me. He’s fine as hell.”

  At the mention of a man being fine as hell, Rachelle let her mind wander back to her guest. She wondered what Cash was doing. Honestly, she would rather be upstairs
finding out more about him instead of on the telephone with her younger siblings.

  Chapter Five

  Lying on the bed with his hands folded behind his head, Cash stared up at the ceiling, not really seeing anything. His thoughts weren’t inside the room, but on the beautiful woman downstairs on the telephone with her sisters. When he decided to take this trip, he never thought he would end up meeting someone like Rachelle Williams.

  She had actually come after him because she felt bad about his situation. Most of his co-workers back home wouldn’t have lifted a finger to give a stranger any kind of help. Instead, they would have called the cops and had him tossed out into the streets. They wouldn’t have given his safety a second thought. He was just grateful Rachelle had a change of heart and allowed him to stay here. She proved that she wasn’t in the same class of people he dealt with to make his money each and every day.

  Cash couldn’t help but wonder what Rachelle would think about the way he made his money. Truthfully, he had never thought about any woman’s opinion about his career choice. He couldn’t understand why she was so different, but she just was. In the short period of time that he had been around Rachelle, Cash realized he got pleasure from the way her dark eyes shined when she smiled at him.

  What if she found his job distasteful? Just thinking about it made a dull ache form in the middle of his chest.

  He couldn’t lie to himself, the money he earned was extraordinary. Nevertheless, with every check he deposited in the bank, something died inside of him. It was beginning to feel like he had lost the true meaning of his dream to be in the public eye. Sure, he was famous, but was it in the right way?

  All of his co-workers got a rush chasing after the next celebrity sound bite and having their hands out for a bigger paycheck. He knew they never once stopped to think what any of their stories might be doing to people they talked about on the air.