by Mia Caldwell
“Thank you for that. If you meant it, that is,” she said.
“I meant every word. You’re a wonderful boss,” Christian said, his eyes hovering on her mouth. And she was, too, he meant that. He had seen the kind way she interacted with staff and the manner in which they were fiercely loyal to her in return.
But, God, she was sexy, Christian thought, taking in the figure hugging skirt that fell slightly above her knees. His mouth turned dry.
She seemed to sense the direction of his thoughts, because she shifted about as though suddenly uncomfortable.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Christian said, though he wished he could linger a while more.
“See you tomorrow,” Raina said in a soft voice.
Christian was looking forward to the following day. He was slotted to paint a stained wall in the kitchen, which would give him an opportunity to see how the kitchen worked. It was said that the kitchen was the engine of a hotel, and Christian believed that to be true. If the chefs and the cooks were happy, the effects were felt throughout the rest of the hotel.
As he returned to the office to wrap up the day, Christian thought back to his encounter with Raina. He would have given anything to read her mind. Did she find him remotely attractive? Her demeanor remained the same all the way through their encounter; friendly but distant and professional.
5
Raina was ashamed of herself, but she couldn’t seem to control her actions. She knew that Christopher was due to leave for home in a couple of minutes. She knew she shouldn’t do what she was about to do.…
She walked down the hallway, lingering to speak to a few guests and when she estimated that Christopher would be leaving, she walked purposefully to the security room.
“Is there a problem Ms. Raina?” one of the security guards manning the control room asked.
“No, none at all. I just like to look around and it’s much easier from up here.” Raina said, feeling her face grow hot.
“I know what you mean. Take your time, ma’am.” he said.
Just as she had thought, she was in time to catch Christopher as he strode out of the elevator, past the lobby and out the main door. She admired his easy stride and the way even cheaply cut clothes sat on him. Kelly had been right about the way his jeans hugged his ass and his shirt clung to him like a second skin. Unable to tear her eyes away, Raina shifted her eyes to the street camera. Christopher even stood out among a street full of people.
He towered over most people and seemed to glide through the crowd, as though the bustle of people going by had no effect on him. She waited for him to get into a car but he kept walking on until the camera lost sight of him. Raina only knew that she had let out a sigh when the security man glanced sharply at her.
She smiled at him and excused herself. Christopher fascinated her as no man had in a long time. She liked the way he worked, with a zeal that most people lacked. Most of all, she loved his kind eyes and the way his eyebrows turned up when he had a question. She knew that she was setting herself up for trouble.
And yeah, he was smoking hot. There was that too. Her lips turned up in a wry smile.
What if, as Kelly had said, Christopher liked her best friend? Feeling guilty but doing it anyway, Raina strode past her office and went to Kelly’s. She was buried in a pile of some sheets she was folding and Raina was about to turn away, thinking better of her visit, when Kelly spotted her and called out to her.
“Hey, not so fast. Come in, I need a break.” Kelly said with a yawn.
“You look buried in work,” Raina commented. “Literally.”
Kelly scoffed. “Just the usual. Getting my staff organized for tomorrow. Janelle called in sick and you know what that does to the schedule.”
Raina made sympathetic noises. She knew too well the tasks involved in keeping the rooms of a big hotel like the Del Mar sparkling. After all, she had started out as a maid, before being promoted to assistant housekeeper and then, like Kelly, to the head housekeeper. It seemed like eons ago.
“I haven’t seen Pervy Roger in the last couple of days, have you?” Raina said.
“He was here this morning.” Kelly said and made a face. “He had a host of complaints which I must say are without basis. The Del Mar has the cleanest rooms of any hotel I know.” she said with feeling.
“Hey, don’t let Rog get to you. You know he gets his kicks from harassing the junior staff.”
Kelly sighed. “I know; it’s just that sometimes it gets to me. I love my job and I really don’t want to lose it.”
“You won’t.” Raina promised. “You’re a wonderful head housekeeper. This place runs like clockwork, and it’s all because of you.”
“Thanks.” Kelly said with a smile. “But really, it’s because of you this place runs so well. If Rog was the one solely in charge? Ugh … nightmare to think about.”
Raina was happy to see her friend back to her normal self. Then she remembered what had brought her to Kelly’s office.
“So … how are things going with Christopher?” She feigned a casual tone, but she was dying of curiosity.
Kelly shook her head wryly. “They’re not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess I read the signals wrong. I think he sees me as a colleague and nothing more. It’s weird—I was sure I got a vibe from him, and then … nothing. It’s a shame.” she pouted.
Raina felt a jolt of joy and then felt immediately guilty when she saw Kelly’s sad face looking up at her.
“You know what they say: there are plenty of fish in the sea. You’ll find someone soon, I’m sure of it.” Raina announced. Did her voice sound a little too happy? Crap. It probably did, didn’t it?
Kelly contemplated her studiously for a moment, her eyes narrowing. Slowly, she said, “Do you know, now that I think about it, Christopher does ask about you a lot.”
Raina was taken aback.
“Really, like what?” She cringed as she heard the eagerness in her own voice. Way to play it cool, dummy. She chided herself.
“Nothing that I can pinpoint, but Raina, I—I think he might like you.”
Raina ignored the fast beating of her heart, and the slight surge of elation she felt at the thought it might be true.
“He can like me all he wants but I have no intention of dating someone from work.” That was, unfortunately, the truth. No matter how hot Christopher was, there was no way they could be involved.
“That may be so, but surely you can’t let a fine specimen of a man like Christopher get away?” Raina laughed and slid off the edge of Kelly’s desk where she had been perched, and headed for the door.
“It’s tempting but yes I can.” Raina joked.
But there was a minuscule part of her that rebelled at the thought.…
Her spirits felt much higher when she left for home a few minutes later. Thankfully, her car was now sorted and running smoothly. Hopefully, it would not break down again soon, even if it still sputtered and made terrible clanging noises. She got home with ten minutes to spare before the children would bring chaos and disaster in their wake. She took a quick shower, enjoying the rush of warm water on her back.
She found her thoughts wandering to Christopher. Was Kelly right in that he was into her? She felt oddly exposed thinking of him while in the shower, as though from wherever he was, he could see her. She felt her nipples tighten at the thought of him and she slowly ran her loofah over her breasts, imagining it was Christopher’s hands on her body.
No matter the feelings he stirred deep in the pit of her belly—hot, swirling, tingly feelings—, Raina knew that it was not something that she would pursue. But still, a girl could daydream, couldn’t she?
For one, they worked together and for another, something that she had never admitted to Kelly, she hadn’t been on a date in over three years, (not that she had ever dated much in general before that either, she reminded herself). She had always been too busy with school and then work, and now that she had th
e kids to think of, every guy she dated had to be viewed through the lens of whether or not he would be a good parent—even if he was superhuman enough to want to take her and her sister’s three kids on.
She shivered involuntarily and turned off the shower. She dressed in casual linen slacks and a cream blouse. Raina laughed softly as she imagined the teasing she would get from Kelly about her choice of attire. She had never been like other women who when in the privacy of their own homes relaxed and wore jogging suits.
Her mother had drilled it in to her that she needed to look her best at all times, and so Raina dressed well, whether at home or out of it.
On the landing, she took a quick peek at the two children’s bedrooms facing each other. They were neat enough and she only gave the pillows a fluff and straightened the covers. She took the stairs two at a time and went to the kitchen to see what she could give the kids when they came home. She settled for leftover corn bread and chili. For once, her worries were the furthest thing from her mind.
Something had happened in the last couple of days to lift up her spirits. Just the knowledge that Christopher might like her gave Raina a secret thrill that she would never admit to anyone. It was hard enough accepting how excited it made her feel to have a man like Christopher attracted to her.
She was being as ridiculous as a teenage girl with her first crush, Raina knew, and yet it had been so long since she had felt any stirrings of feelings for anyone one—not since before her sister died, she thought sadly,—that she welcomed them just the same.
No sooner had Raina placed the food on the table, she heard the sound of the bus stopping at the front of the house. She flung open the front door and almost bumped into Jeremiah. His face lit up when he saw her and he flung his small body against hers. She planted a kiss at the top of his head.
“How was your day, baby?”
“Good, Tim and Lionel let me play with them today.” Jeremiah said in his still childish voice.
“That’s good.” Raina said with relief.
It broke her heart every evening to hear his hurt ridden voice, when he explained about which of his friends didn’t want to be his friend on that particular day. Raina’s heart felt like it was constantly being pulled apart. How did parents do it? She had only been at it for a year and she felt as though she had aged by the same amount of time.
The girls strolled through the tiny garden gate, their gait slower and more measured. They were growing up, Raina thought. Her insides twisted with sadness at the realization that the girls’ maturity was a result of being orphaned. A kind of somberness surrounded them that was too mature for eleven-year-olds.
“My girls!” Raina exclaimed, infusing her tone with cheer.
“Hi Aunty.” They chorused.
Though not identical twins, they still did a lot of things together, like speaking at the same time, as though an invisible cord joined their brains.
“How was school?” Raina asked, knowing that she would get the same reply she always did. They didn’t disappoint.
“Fine.” They said in unison.
“Do you know that every time I ask you girls about your day, the answer is always ‘fine, fine’? How about more details this time?” Raina said, imitating their voices.
They erupted into giggles. She placed an arm around each girl and they followed Jeremiah into the house. Bags were dumped on the living room floor and they went to wash up in the downstairs kitchen before settling at the table to eat their meal. Even though she had a ton of chores to do, Raina sat with them.
Jeremiah was doing well; or, at least he never talked about his parents. That made Raina sad and relieved at the same time. It would be a shame for him to grow up without any memories of his parents. It was as if he had lived with her forever. He never spoke of what life was like before his parents were killed in the crash.
“You’re very quiet today, Princess Crystal.” Raina said, observing her diva niece nibble on her cornbread daintily.
She was the more talkative of the two girls. Crystal lifted her face and looked straight into Raina’s eyes. Her senses grew alert when she saw the dull look in her nieces’ eyes. She looked at her sister. Chantal appeared her normal composed self.
“What is it, sweetheart?” Raina said softly.
“We have a father’s day at school next week. We’re supposed to bring our dads to school with us.” She hung her head.
Raina felt sick, her mouth suddenly tasted bitter and she fought to breathe easily. She closed her eyes. How had she not foreseen this? These types of dates always crept up on her. Maybe because she did her best to forget them, hoping that maybe the kids would do the same.
Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed by everything. She felt like dropping her head on the table and bawling like a three-year-old. She missed her sister more than anything in the world.
Instead, she put on a brave smile.
“Don’t you worry about that, we’ll figure out something by then.” Raina said with a confidence that she did not feel.
Where would she get a man to go to the school with them? If only she had a brother. As it was, it had just been her sister and herself born to her parents. Her father had been a truck driver and her mother a teacher. They had both passed on within a year of each other. Her mother from kidney problems and her father from a broken heart, or at least that’s how Raina saw it.
But losing her sister and brother-in-law last year when they’d been hit by a drunk driver was the final blow. It had just been too much tragedy all at once. But she hadn’t had the luxury to fall apart. There were three kids with no one else in the world and they needed her.
Gripping the edge of the table with her fingers, Raina wrenched her thoughts from those painful memories. She inhaled deeply and let her hands relax and fall to her lap. She looked at Chantal, who was sitting and eating calmly.
“Does it bother you too, sweetheart?” Raina said. Chantal looked at her and shrugged.
“I just told my teacher that my daddy passed away. He’s in heaven now so he can’t come to the father’s day thing to school.” she explained.
Raina licked her dry lips. Why did life have to be so unfair to sweet children such as these ones? No matter how hard she tried, Raina could never make up for the absence of their parents. The kids had started in a new school and their teachers were not aware that they were orphans. Raina had not volunteered the information, thinking that she was protecting them from having to relive that memory with everyone they spoke with.
Now she wondered if it might have been wiser to tell the teachers.
“Did she ask you anything else?” Raina said.
“No, she just said not to worry, that my guardian would figure out something.”
“She was right. I will.” Raina said.
Over the next couple of days, Raina was distracted at work, her mind going over all the possibilities, which to be honest, were none. She couldn’t let the girls down. She had asked them casually if a lady could go in place of the dad and the answer had been an emphatic and almost hysterical no. “All the kids will make fun of us!” they had exclaimed in unison.
In an unguarded moment, Raina sat on her desk and let her face drop to her hands. She only had a couple more days to go and she still had not come up with any creative answers. Perhaps she would just take the day off of work and pull them out of school during that celebration. She could take them to the zoo or an amusement park to make up for it.
Yeah, Raina. A trip to the zoo will definitely make up for not having parents, the voice inside her head mocked her.
For once, even thoughts of Christopher did not distract her. To make things worse, Roger chose that moment to walk into her office without knocking.
“Is it all getting to be too much?” he drawled.
Raina’s head shot up and she almost groaned out aloud when she saw him. She smiled widely and sat up straighter.
“Good afternoon, Sir.” she said.
“Call me Roger. You look be
at.” he said squinting his eyes at her.
“I’m not actually; just a slight headache that I’m sure will be gone in a couple of minutes.”
Before she realized what happened, Roger had come around her desk and placed his hands on the sides of her head and begun to massage her temples. Raina felt trapped. The feeling of his hands on her face made her skin crawl.
“I can make all of this better for you. I’ll keep you like the queen that you are and surround you with beauty. Anything you want can be yours. Cars? Jewelry? Your headaches will be a thing of the past … I can promise you that.…” He said in a low, lascivious murmur, his lips on her ear, his fetid breath making her want to retch.
Raina was horrified by his words. Did she look like the type to be kept as a mistress, her only job being to look pretty?
“You only have to look good for me and make yourself available when I want you, which I assure you will be a lot. I have a lot of energy and it will take all of your imagination to satisfy me.”
Raina jumped and pushed her chair back not caring if she broke his legs. He swore loudly and clutched his shin.
Sweating profusely, she rushed out of her office without a second look, wanting to get as far away from him as she could. The only place she could seek refuge was the washroom. Luckily, there was no one in there and she headed for the sinks. As soon as she saw her reflection, Raina burst into tears.
Roger had humiliated her and made her feel smaller than a pea. What was it in her that made him view her as no better than a prostitute? Tears rolled down her cheeks and loud sobs erupted from her throat. Just then, the door to the washroom swung open. Raina darted her hands under the sink taps and doused her skin in water. She felt dirty somehow, as though just Roger’s words had tainted her.
“I thought I saw you rush this way. What’s up Raina?”
It was Kelly, and though Raina would have preferred that no one had seen her like this, her friend was discreet. She looked up at Kelly.
“Oh Raina, you’ve been crying!” Kelly exclaimed. “What is it?”