On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 63
Seth
Fuck, I’m horny.
You know you need it when you get a boner from a fucking eggplant emoji.
Luckily, I work behind a desk or else I definitely wouldn’t have made it through this shift without offending someone.
I glance at the clock. Still an hour left on my shift.
Down, boy.
“Good evening, Mr. Newbury.”
I bob my head at Marley as he rounds the desk. It’s a busy night here at the Botsford Plaza Chicago with a dental convention in town, or something like that. Our shifts overlap by about an hour tonight just in case the dentists need some extra attention. Then, I get to go home to my empty apartment and hope my sister hasn’t commandeered my secret girlfriend again. Though I’m partially tempted to ask her to meet me down the block in my truck. Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve done it there.
I clear my throat, snapping out of it. “Hey, Marley,” I greet.
He shifts to the side, eying me as he plants an elbow on the desk. “You look like hell,” he says.
I chuckle. “Had a long week, that’s all.”
One long, celibate week. Add in the anxiety from knowing that when Drew gets back, he and I are going to have the talk.
Jenna was right. I should have just gotten it over with.
This is my punishment.
“Any good holiday plans?” Marley asks as he grabs the clipboard beside me to check off a few nightly tasks. There aren’t any left, though. I’ve had to... keep busy. “It’s All Hallows' Eve-Eve.”
I glance around the golden lobby laced with tasteful orange and black decorations. “Oh?” I quip. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Come on. Entice me,” he says. “Let an old man live vicariously through you.”
“I have no plans,” I lie.
“Eh.” He sneers with disappointment. “When I was your age, that would have been unacceptable.”
“Marley, when you were my age, you had to hide flasks of hooch in your garter belt.”
“Perfectly acceptable behavior!”
I laugh, embracing the distraction. “Yeah, well...”
I look up as a woman approaches the desk from the entrance. She’s carrying a weekender bag in one hand and a blue handbag in the other. She’s cloaked in a full-length black coat. Strappy black shoes peek out from beneath it with each purposeful step she takes toward me. And her hair... all wrapped up in a beautiful up-do.
Red. Red. Red.
I inhale sharply, but Jenna veers to the side and stops in front of Marley instead.
“I would like a room, please,” she says.
A room?
A room for what?
“Of course, miss!” Marley angles toward the computer, politely butting me out of his way. “First time at the Plaza?”
“Oh, no,” she answers as she opens her handbag for her credit card. “I’ve been many times.”
“Excellent. How many nights?”
“Just one.”
“And is this a room for one?”
Yeah, is it?
“No,” she answers.
No?
“Two beds?” Marley continues unfazed, his fingers flying across the keys as if there’s nothing weird about this at all.
“Just one, please.”
Finally, she pays me a glance. She smiles, her lips sporting a fresh coat of bright red balm.
“Two keys, though,” she adds.
Oh, really?
“No problem, miss!” Marley twists away to fetch the keys and to grab the contract as it spits out of the printer beneath the desk.
Jenna says nothing to me. Still, she just smiles.
And I...
Well, eggplant.
“All set!” Marley returns. “Room 1224! Very quiet — and private. Please sign here.”
Jenna grabs a pen off the desk and jots her signature down before reaching for the keys.
“Enjoy your stay, miss. Please let us know if you need anything — anything at all,” he adds with that old man seduction that... I’m sure works for some women out there.
Jenna flashes him a polite smile. “Thank you.”
Then she angles in my direction. She places one of the two keys down on the desk in front of me and leaves it there.
Oh.
Oh.
She walks away without another word, carrying her weekender with her toward the golden elevators.
Oh, fuck me.
Marley chuckles.
I snatch the key off the desk before he can. “What?” I ask.
“No plans, eh?” he mocks with a roll of his eyes.
He walks off with his clipboard and his laughter echoes with him into the back room.
I glance at the clock. It has barely moved since the last time I looked at it.
How am I supposed to last another hour knowing that she’s here, upstairs, waiting for me...
The elevator doors close on Jenna’s smile.
“Fuck,” I whisper to myself.