Wrong Room: Sleeping With My Fiancé's Uncle novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: Suite 2002

I took the back stair two steps at a time with grout on my knees.

The bellman was standing at the front desk holding a long white envelope in both hands.

The night clerk was beside him, on the early shift for once, not breathing.

The envelope was heavy, cream-colored, with the Guide's small black seal on the flap.

TO THE STAFF OF THE KINSELLA, CENTRAL PARK SOUTH.

"You open it," the bellman said, and held it out to me.

"It's not addressed to me."

"You're staff."

"Then we open it where the staff are," I said.

At four o'clock the basement kitchen was packed the way it had been on back-pay day.

Housekeeping in gray. The front desk in black. The cooks in whites, half of them still holding spoons.

Dell had come off her new station with butter to the wrists.

Colm came down the back stair and stood by the walk-in with his sleeves rolled, and didn't say a word.

It wasn't his envelope either.

I handed it to the head housekeeper.

She looked at it for a long time.

Then she slit it open with a paring knife.

One sheet of paper.

She read it to herself first.

Then she cleared her throat and read it out loud, in the voice she uses for lineup.

"To the staff of the Kinsella. In January, an inspector of the Meridian Guide spent two nights in your hotel under a name you didn't know."

Nobody breathed.

"She was given an ordinary room on the eleventh floor, with no fruit and no note."

Somebody laughed and was shushed.

"She was treated, in her words, exactly as every other guest was treated. Which is to say, as if she mattered."

The head housekeeper's voice wobbled.

She steadied it.

"When she asked a member of staff for a good cup of coffee, she was sent to a café on Fifty-seventh Street. She would like you to know it was excellent."

The whole kitchen turned and looked at me.

"The Meridian Guide awards the Kinsella its fifth star," the head housekeeper read. "Earned."

She lowered the page.

"That's underlined," she said. "Earned. Somebody underlined it in red."

For a second nobody made a sound.

← Chapter 30 · All chapters · Chapter 32 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend