waitress // lrh

13 // jealousy

// luke //

The hotel staff was beyond anxious for the arrival of the Irvines. Luke was absolutely dreading their stay, especially with the new information Burt had given him. He hated whenever they were around, even though he rarely ever bumped into them.

Mrs Irvine's father had made a generous donation when the hotel was first being built, which is the reason why it was still standing. Later, when the owners of the hotel chain didn't have enough money to keep all of them open, Mrs Irvine had stepped in, and continued to make hefty donations every other year.

But even though they were the reason he still had a semi-respectable job, Luke hated them. From what he'd seen, they were all snobby, ignorant, disrespectful... he could go on if he had the time. However, the fact that several bell boys immediately scrambled from waiting by the door to either hold the automatic doors open or fetch a cart, everyone inside realized that the Irvines had arrived. The dreaded moment had finally arrived.

As Luke did his best to keep a nice expression on his face so that they didn't hate him the entire week, he could feel his fists tighten. He hated this so much.

And in walked Eleanor Irvine. Tall- even taller with the black pumps she was wearing, auburn hair that swept out in a curl, sunglasses perched on her nose, and a sleek black outfit that fit her hourglass figure perfectly, she walked up to the desk. Behind her were the bell boys, clambering to keep every single luxury bag on the cart, already moving to the elevator so that the family wouldn't be kept waiting once they got their room key.

Everyone knew about the Irvine divorce. It wasn't very secretive. Everyone knew how Ian- the ex-husband- had been caught cheating on his wife with some lady at a club one night. And even though Ian was very much still alive, and Eleanor clearly despised him, she dressed for every occasion like a grieving widow. She still used his last name, even though Irvine held much more status and power.

Luke found it almost comical.

"Hello, Ms Peters," he greeted her, doing his best to not clench his jaw, instead, opting for a clearly fake smile.

"Hello, Luke," she replied gently, pulling her sunglasses off of her face with a delicate hand. Her demeanor was not what he was expecting in the slightest, having been so used to checking in her mother or their caretaker, only seeing her in the distance. She seemed... kinder... than what he had expected, which caught him off guard.

"Your suite is all set up, I'll get you your two room keys in a moment," he told her, making sure she and her sons were checked into the system quickly, before grabbing the cards off of the wall and handing them to her.

She accepted them, before sighing. "You are supposed to be our caretaker, you were told that, weren't you? I hope it didn't come as a surprise."

Luke just nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I was told."

"You don't mind?" she asked, tilting her head, clearly some worry in her eyes.

Luke was about to respond, say that he did, but a loud commotion from the doorway interrupted him.

"Hunter, stop it," he heard someone yell.

Two tall brunettes, in similar dress pants and monochrome button ups pushed each other through the door. As one of them shoved the other- rather forcefully- he fell into a small decorative table with a very expensive vase sitting on it, Luke swore he could see Burt purse his lips before turning around to presumably cry.

Eleanor set down the room keys on the desk for a moment, turning to her sons.

"Emmett, Hunter, stop that!" she scolded them, reaching into her purse and pulling out a checkbook. "Burt, I'm so sorry. Please forgive them- they haven't found their manners recently."