Unfinished Business

Chapter Twenty-Four

“What do you mean there’s only one suite available? I’m sure that when I called, I booked two suites!” I asked the receptionist. We touched down in Rome not so long ago and came straight to the hotel to rest up since it was so late at night now. I was so tired, hardly sleeping on the flight over here, since my thoughts were consumed on how to win back my friendship with Aiden.

I look back behind me to where Bret, Jenny, and Aiden were sitting, watching our luggage. Trying to keep my annoyance in check, I turn back to the receptionist, a young Italian man, and convince him to get another suite booked.

“Mi dispiace (I’m sorry), Miss Masters, but it says here that only one room is booked. All our other rooms are booked and we won’t have another opening until tomorrow morning.” The guy stands there, trying to explain it to me with an apologetic look on his face.

I knead my temples, leaning up against the counter, wariness coming up on me.

“Perdonaci. Prenderemo la suite . Prenota la stanza una volta che è disponibile. (Forgive us. We will take the suite. Reserve the other room once it is available.)” I hear a familiar voice behind me speak in Italian. I turn around to look at Aiden and give him a questioning look as the receptionist starts doing his job.

Aiden’s face is void of any sort of emotion and doesn’t even look at me. He takes the keys handed to him, thanks the receptionist, then turns around and heads back to our little group. I turn to thank him as well then hustle after Aiden.

“Uh, excuse me, what was that?” I bring up when we get back to Bret and Jenny, who are both yawning.

“That was me dealing with an issue before it got complicated. You may think you had it handled, but you fail to realize that there are other parties involved who would be affected.” Aiden’s face remained impassive, but I caught the double meaning behind his words. I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t hurt, but I guess I did deserve it on some level.

He explained to the other two that tonight, we’d be sharing the two bedroom suite for tonight: Jenny and I in one room and the two men in the other. In the morning, Bret and Aiden would move to the available room, once it was ready. We all headed up to the room, tired, and wanting the comfort of a mattress.

The suite I reserved was nice: a kitchenette with a breakfast bar, a large living space with a glass doorway on the other side leading to a balcony, and two doors leading to two different bedrooms. Going to our respective rooms, we saw that there was a large, king size bed and a couch in the corner. A sliding door led to a bathroom and in the bathroom, there was another door that opens for a closet.

“Wow, Kat, this is amazing!” Jenny says in awe.

I smile at her and leave my luggage by the bathroom door. “Both bedrooms are the same, and if we didn’t have to share the room for the night, this would have been your own room for the week.”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all, Kat.” She stretches and yawns. “I’ll take the couch so you can have the bed.”

I shake my head. “Nonsense. Do you see how big this bed is? We can share it.”