The Love Hotel

Chapter 6

Things were going quite well for Rochelle all things considered. She had realized that after all that was going on she deserved to be a little relaxed. She had met the owner of the hotel and that meeting had been distinctly peculiar but she realized after a little while that the owner of the hotel was a very peculiar person.

No one had ever met him. Literally none of the staff had ever even seen him before, and they certainly didn’t know why he acted the way he acted. Everyone just assumed that he was rich and that this was how people that were so fabulously wealthy behaved. They just assumed that this was one of his eccentricities, his inability have any patience for anything whatsoever. Rochelle, however, knew that something else was afoot. She knew that with everything going on, this man was not simply going to act the way that he acted unless he had a real and genuine reason for behaving that way. She couldn’t help but wonder what this reason was and she couldn’t help but believe that there was something going on in his personal life that made him act this way. After all, people didn’t get this way without something at home that made them turn into this. He had the kind of anxiety that people under constant personal pressure had.

It was very odd that in the past few years she had been working at the hotel she had never once seen Bradley in person. In fact, now that she thought about it, she had never even seen a picture of the man. He was like someone that you knew existed but you never really thought about because he never really seemed to be there. He never seemed to actually be at the hotel. Everything that was going on was happening so perfectly that they did not have to get him to step in and fix anything that was going on. He was always good at handling things from the background, and allowed Alice to handle anything that required a more personal approach, something that would require somebody that was a bit more hands on than he was ready to be.

All things considered, he was a good person. This much she had been able to glean from the fact that he was so ready to help her. He had seemed positively confused at her surprise that he was willing to help her. He was almost childish in his goodness and Rochelle found this extremely attractive. He was a very handsome man too and all of this came together to make it seem like he was one of the most attractive men she had ever met in her entire life. She couldn’t help but feel attracted to him. He had a trimmed beard which she found insanely attractive, the kind of beard that took a great deal of care to maintain. He seemed dapper, as if he was able to dress himself without a great deal of effort and yet still cared a great deal about his appearance. He also seemed, in all things, incredibly gentle. He never displayed any of the traits that people associated normally with rich people. He never acted arrogant in any way, he never acted entitled, he never acted like he thought he deserved all of the wealth that he amassed simply because his father had been richer than everyone else’s.

She had spoken to him a couple of times since she had met him that day, and both times he had called her simply to ask her how she was doing. What kind of a person did this? She would have understood his interest if he wanted to sleep with her but this never seemed to be the case. Whenever he called her he was extremely polite and professional and asked how she was doing in a very distant way, if distant was the right word to use. In all things, he just seemed to care about her and did not act like he expected anything in return because of the fact that he was being nice to her. He never acted like he was entitled to anything at all, and that was very special because very few people acted like that. How could she expect him to actually be this way? She was worried that this was all a trick but he always seemed so utterly genuine that she couldn’t help but feel that he was truly like this, that he truly cared for people that were working for him, that he truly cared for people that needed help, and that made him a very special person indeed.

She was working hard. It had been a month since her break up and she was well and truly over it. She had a feeling that she was going to have to deal with it for a lot longer than she wanted to because Seth was still calling her and trying to reach her in some way. He was constantly trying to get her to take him back and was refusing to take no for an answer. He constantly sent her flowers and letters and notes and chocolates and gifts and all of it made Rochelle feel very uncomfortable indeed. It made her feel like she was somehow asking for this, as if she was somehow making him feel like he had to act this way in order to make her his and he believed that if he tried hard enough she would end up being his once more. She didn’t know how to make him go away so she decided that she would just keep ignoring him until he got the message. In a month he had contacted her so many times that Rochelle was starting to feel like she might never be rid of him. She was starting to feel like she might end up regretting her decision to break things off because he might end up making it completely and utterly impossible for her to move on in any meaningful way.

She was starting to feel good about herself again, however, and that was very important. She was working harder than ever before and Alice was very happy about that. Her boss and friend had been worried that her offering Rochelle a place to stay might end up making her feel like she didn’t have to work hard, like she would be given special treatment in some way. Rochelle was smart, however. She knew that the benefits that she was getting only meant that she had to work harder in order to deserve them in the first place.

She was starting to feel better about other things too. Bradley had found a number of apartments but they had all been just outside her price range. He had told her about them anyway to make her feel calm and secure, to make her believe that if they kept working hard and searching they would find a place that she would be able to call her own. She was so glad that this was the case. She was so glad that she was able to enjoy her life and find an apartment and get everything done.

She was working hard in the kitchens one day when a customer came in. He seemed extremely angry about something. He looked at Rochelle and pointed at her. “You!” he said, wagging his finger. Rochelle rolled her eyes. Customers always went for the black work staff because they just assumed that because they were black they’d be pushovers. It was the racism that had been bred in America’s genes because of the fact that for so many years black people had been considered slaves.

She decided that she would not let this fat, spoiled, child of a man ruin her day. She stood up straight and replied in a tone that was polite but curt. She was not going to be overly friendly to a rude customer. They needed to realize that the work staff were people too, people with feelings, people who were hurt when they acted like their feelings did not matter and treated them like they were some kind of animal.

“Yes, sir,” said Rochelle in her polite tone of voice. The customer came in and said, “My roast was overcooked. How many times have I told you guys not to overcook my roast? I pay a lot of money to stay at this hotel every year, and I like my meat tender. Am I going to have to tell you guys literally every single time or are you going to learn? I can’t believe that this is happening! I thought that this hotel had standards but clearly it doesn’t.”

“First of all, sir,” said Rochelle in the exact same polite but firm tone as before, “You are not allowed in the kitchens. If you have a complaint it should be given to the wait staff, they will bring it to the chef who will come out and handle it for you.