The Love Hotel

Chapter 11

The past few months had meant a lot of progress for Rochelle, more progress than she had experienced in the years that had preceded these months. She had become completely and utterly independent, so much so that she did not require anyone to do anything for her whatsoever. She felt so free as she realized this, felt so free as she realized that after all this time she was completely and utterly unencumbered by all of the restrictions that were put in place by the fact that she was in a relationship.

And yet, she was in a relationship. What she and Bradley had could not be described as anything else. She had no idea how it had happened, but she and Bradley had managed to understand each other completely. He never tried to control her. On the contrary, she was always the one who was in charge in all situations and that was just how she liked it. She really appreciated that he did not feel threatened by the fact that she was so controlling. She needed to be in certain situations. Controlling was the wrong word, perhaps. What she truly was, was in charge. She was the one that made all of the decisions regarding their relationship and she needed it to be this way because she had spent so long being under someone else’s thumb. She was glad that she could be who she truly wanted to be with the man that she was with. She was glad that she could simply exist the way she had always wanted to exist and still enjoy the touch of a man. The way it worked was that she made the decisions after having a long discussion with Bradley, and if the decision went against what he wanted from time to time then he was more than happy for it to be that way because he was happy to simply be around her right now. He was happy that she felt safe enough around him that she could be herself, and he was happy that she didn’t feel the need to change herself in any way.

Over the past few months, she had furnished her apartment completely. Bradley had offered her a key to his place so that she could live with him. She had accepted the key, but only used it for work purposes. She only used it so that she could enter his home and take care of his mother without having to worry about anything. She wanted to live on her own. She wanted to live completely and utterly independently of anything and anyone, and she really appreciated that he did not force her in any way to live with him.

He paid her quite a good salary. He had offered her fifteen thousand dollars a month but she had known that he had only been doing this because he had wanted her to have a lot of money. She knew that the work that she was going to be doing did not deserve such a hefty payment. She wanted him to pay her well but to pay her fairly, and that was what he was doing. She decided that in order to handle all of this she was going to need a good salary, she just didn’t want that salary to come from charity. She wanted to work in a way that allowed her to deserve this salary completely.

She ended up earning ten thousand dollars a month. It was a very good income and slightly high for a housemaid but at the end of the day the work that she did was a lot more complicated than simply cleaning up Bradley’s home. She was responsible for the most important person in his life, and she worked as a nurse as well as a maid, and cooked as well. And so, she felt like she deserved this salary, high though it was. She felt like it was high enough to afford her a good life but not so high that she would be taking advantage of the fact that he was her boyfriend.

She didn’t know how she would thank him for being the way that he was. She couldn’t believe what a nice person he was. She couldn’t believe how infinitely accepting he was. And in all of the things that he did, she felt like she had found a man that she could be with permanently. She did not want to think about that now, of course. She did not want to think about dedicating her entire life to another man just yet, but it was nice that she had a man that she could be with and be completely comfortable with.

And so, she furnished her apartment and got herself her own car. It was a wonderful feeling to own things that were completely her own. It was a wonderful feeling because it made her feel like she was washing away the last vestiges of the relationship that she had been trying so hard to run away from for so long.

Seth kept trying to contact her for a while, and Bradley, obviously feeling protective of her, offered to have someone go and talk to him. She knew that he was only doing this because he wanted to protect her, but at the same time she did not want any man taking care of things for her ever again. She did not want to have to deal with that anymore. She wanted to take care of things herself and so she did that.

She went over to Seth’s place and talked to him. She told him that it was completely over between them, that what he had done had caused her a great deal of emotional distress and that she would never want to be with him again. She told him to stop contacting her and that if he did not stop contacting her she was going to call the police and have them file a restraining order against him.

He did not relent, thinking that all of this was just a ruse. He thought that Rochelle was either trying to punish him by behaving this way or trying to play hard to get so that he would work harder in order to win her back. Conversely, he might have thought that she was still just as pliable as she had been before, that all of this was just an attempt on her part to be someone that she was not. She didn’t care either way. He didn’t stop trying to contact her, and so she filed a restraining order against him and never saw him again. She knew that he would keep trying to get into her life because he was not the kind of man that took any form of rejection lightly, but the thing was that she did not care at all anymore. She did not care about him and she was not afraid of him anymore.

She started to take self defense classes. In these self defense classes she learned a lot, and this really helped her to feel safe in a way. She felt like she could handle herself in a fight, and this was really important because she had started to feel like even though she was mentally and emotionally strong and she could handle things on her own, she was still physically weak and would need a man to protect her. She did not know what to do until she started the self defense class. Once she started it, she realized that she could take on any threat whatsoever. No one would be able to beat her now, no one would be able to touch her without facing some really serious consequences and she was glad that she could be so strong.

She became very good friends with Alice after she left her job at the hotel. She liked the fact that Alice was so kind to her, and she started to talk to her more openly after she was no longer her boss. Alice was very responsive, as she had really like Rochelle too. They started talking a lot, and soon became the best of friends.