There's A Fly in My Soup!

5.

'Have you come for the buttons?'

I tried to make a noise, any noise really, but standing there in silence was the worst possible thing in the world. I looked like one of those perverts who likes watching people have sex. There's always one in those dodgy eighties pornos. They have a video camera and a sleazy, slimy expression, tongue hanging from their mouths like salivating dogs. Don't ask me how I know. I've been single for far too long...

Floor. Please swallow me up. Do it now. If there was any chance that human beings could bend physics or perform great magic tricks that enabled us to break out of prison or jump a hundred metres between two buildings now was the time to show my great abilities. I begged myself to become invisible. I tried to imagine my skin becoming more and more transparent.

'They're gold, with leaf etchings on them, they belong on the coat in the hallway. But the buttons...well....they just popped off.' I could imagine how. The naked woman turned her head towards me like this was the most natural thing in the world. There was skin everywhere. I'm no prude, I swear.

'Okay....I'll....I'll go look for them. I'm presuming you want them sewn back into your coat.' Great. So now you're assuming the role of bedroom staff. Be assertive and tell him you've come to have a serious conversation and would he please put his trousers back on. Instead, I managed to send brain signals to my legs and I left the room, finding myself back in the palatial living space. In the kitchenette, now, I could hear over exaggerated cries, cries that I blocked out with both hands, which was difficult as I needed my hands to crawl around on the floor.

I found one button.

Then two.

How many were missing? I pondered going back in for clarification, but the very thought of having to see that....flesh mass again didn't appeal. Kevin's had his fair share of funny stories in his short time with the hotel. He walked in on a couple having sex in a shower once, and Briar at the front desk used to be a maid, and she pushed open a door once to find a huge whale like man completely naked and aroused and fast asleep, wearing a plastic police mans hat.

This wasn't a funny story. In comparison, this was mortifying, and it ruined my plans. Plans that I'd spent the day concocting. Now I couldn't even remember my name, let alone my rousing speech sticking up for the hotel staff.

I used the coat in the hallway for reference. I had another button to find. My mind wandered, dwelling on the fact that a man had never made my buttons pop off. And then my mind went where I begged it not to. I could see Callaghan, and his big broad chest, a soft downy patch of hair. Eyes dilated, now black instead of grey, as he made love to the Venus like woman, her impossibly long legs wrapped around him.

God I needed to get laid. This was dire. Fantasizing about the scene in the kitchen. I'd take sex with a troll right now. Honestly. Then again I wasn't sure whether I remembered how to do it....
Just then I saw the last button. Crawling along, I reluctantly dropped one hand to reach for the glittering gold pearl. I prayed that the howling banshee in the kitchen would give me a little audio respite.

A foot dropped at that precise moment, covering the button. My eyes shot upwards, Trent Callaghan looking like some Herculean statue, towered above me. And the sound of the shower somewhere in the suite was the perfect eerie back drop for this moment.

'Let me get that for ya, kid.' He crouched down, removing the button from underneath a leather shoe, so polished that I could see my face in it. Rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, he held it just beyond my reach.

'That blood on your neck?'

Shit.

'No....lipstick probably.' I muttered, reaching out for the button.

'Looks like blood to me.' He reached out, and I felt the slightest feathering of my skin as he ran his digits over my neck.

I stumbled to my feet, dusting off my legs, moving away from his touch. Now was the time.

'I'm the chef.' I crossed my arms over my body, staring him down. He didn't seem in the least bit phased.

'I know.'

'No you don't. You just assumed I was some maid. Some maid who....finds buttons.'

I couldn't read the expression on his face, but everything about him was so stoic. His eyes didn't leave mine, and I felt nausea burn the back of my throat.

'I didn't assume anythin' kid. I called down for a little help, and you arrived. So if you're not here about the buttons, did ya just come for the show?'

'Oh please, like that was anything special.' I rolled my eyes. Maybe a little too dramatically. 'I came up here to talk to you. Yesterday you were making out like this hotel means a lot to you and you're all about changing things for the better. Yet I came in here and you're spending your first proper day on the job....' I paused, clicking my fingers to find the right word. His eyes followed my hand, a flicker of some unreadable emotion in his eyes, and then he crossed his arms, standoffishly. 'You're having....sexual relations.'

'Love, look. I didn't expect anyone to be spying on me....having relations.' He said those last two words with a grin that made me want to punch him.

I swallowed. Willed my cheeks not to blaze. I was quickly losing the uphill battle.

'And the way I see it, trespassing is a sackable offence.' His stony eyes made me feel even uneasier than the words he was saying. He was cold, detached, and clinically business like. Even with his shirt open, buttoned halfway, and his hair in disarray from his session with the supermodel, he was unnerving, formidable in his posture.

I felt this pathetic wave washing over me. Part of me prepared to issue a gushing apology. But I bit down on that wave and closed my eyes, for the briefest of seconds.

'Talk.' He commanded, lowering himself into one of those outrageously awful arm chairs.

I blinked at him.

His mouth curled up, he was amused. Git!

Hatred coiled in my gut.

'Talk. You said you came up here to talk to me, and everyone who's ever worked for me knows what a fair man I am.'

The cheek of it.

'Bull shit. You're firing people left right and bloody centre!' I could feel my blood boiling, and as my blood pressure rose, I noted the amusement in his face, also increasing. The bastard was getting off on this. I pared back my emotions, mirroring him. I could do that. I'd taken a drama class at school. Granted, I wasn't any good, but surely I could reach back into my repertoire and get one up on the bloke.

'In business, kid, there's always a scapegoat, a fall guy. Somebody who takes the blame. I'll take it all on the chin whilst I get this place working like I know it can. Sadly there were people here on temporary contracts, in positions we just didn't need anymore. That's the way the world works. Truth is, if we're not making a profit, and this place is just a big gaping hole where money just vanishes, tell me kid. How do I pay the rest of the staff. In fairy dust? Fresh air?' He leant back, clasping his hands together. 'Is there any thing else? If you want to leave, just go. I won't stop ya.'
The arrogant bastard. With his hands behind his head. Alpha male. Alpha arsehole.

'I'm not going anywhere.' I said, softly, dropping the buttons back down onto the carpet. They landed with a little thud, and rolled underneath his chair. 'And if you try to get rid of me, I'll make your life a living hell. As for those people you fired? I hope they sue you.'

I turned my back, the sound of him rising from the leather audible in the silence. Supermodel had finished her shower.

'Kid don't threaten me, you don't know me. I could have you escorted from the premises right now for harassment. But the truth is, I don't want that kind of heat. A few months down the line, and well, no one will ever miss you.'

He was right behind me, so close that I could smell his heady cologne wrapping its way around my nostrils, dominating my senses.

Then his hand was on my hip. I sucked in a breath, so stunned at his forward gesture.

He shoved the buttons into the front pocket of my dress and pulled away.

'Be a good girl, kid and get those buttons sewn back on.'
............