a chained heart

13 | swindler style

"Ron, stop poking me!" Lawrence annoyingly swatted at Ron's hand before turning back to the woman behind the desk.

It was past one in the morning, and all Lawrence and Adam wanted to do was check in, but it seemed that there were only two single-bedrooms booked.

"I'm sorry!" Zachary defended. "I forgot." He turned and blamed Adam, "This kid jipped me anyway, we were only supposed to book two rooms. One for me, one for my clients."

"Oh don't you blame this on me," Adam scoffed. "And we're not your clients. Don't get so high and mighty. This is a one time thing."

Everyone was tired from flying and wanted to just lie down. It was hard enough to deal with the situation without Ron and David around. Adam and Lawrence stood in between them, separating the two. They figured that after sleeping the rest of the flight they would wake up buzzed at least.

Nope.

They were still zonked.

Lawrence forgot how childish of a drunk Ron was. As Ron continued to pester and interrupt him and the woman, he began to regret his stupid plan. Even though it worked.

David on the other hand just seemed to turn into a potato. He stood next to Adam just staring down at the counter the whole time. "This marble is so awesome," he was in awe when they first arrived.

"Hey Lawrence, hey—" Ron poked Larry repeatedly.

"Ron! Go sit down on the couch over there or something," Lawrence yelled, pointing at a sofa in the lobby.

Ron sulked then walked away slowly.

Lawrence turned back to the woman behind the desk. She was growing impatient with all of them. "Right, so I know that we were only given two rooms, but we need another," Lawrence reasoned lamely

"Well, you have to pay for that." Her jaw was tight.

Lawrence, turned to Zachary and eyed him, raising an eyebrow.

Zachary sighed, shooing Lawrence aside. "Look—Melinda," he smiled and splayed his hands at the woman, silently begging that she just let it slide.

Melinda? Apparently Zachary knew her personally. Lawrence was beginning to gather that this was a personal favor and Zachary was in fact paying for none of this.

"No Zachary," she clenched her teeth and leaned over the counter at him. "I could lose my job. One room is already risky enough, two is worse, so three? Are you kidding me," she whispered viscously.

The woman shot a glare at Lawrence who was clearly eavesdropping. This was obviously a conversation that was meant to be private. Zachary laughed nervously and patted Lawrence on the back, "How about you take your mates over there for a minute while I sort this out!" he pointed over to the couch where Ron was sitting.

Lawrence reluctantly dragged Adam and David away and sat down.

"This is so stupid," Adam put a hand on his forehead. "Why are we even here."

Lawrence placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Because it was the smart decision for us to make right now. And you don't mean that, you're just tired."

Adam sighed, letting his hand fall back into his lap which Lawrence gently took hold of. "You're right. I just wish this Zachary Swindler guy wasn't such a—well—swindler." Adam gestured his hand at him across the room.

"He's definitely a little bit of a weasel, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy," Lawrence reasoned. "Just—give him a chance."

"Fine." Adam grumbled.