You shuffle into your office, still a little sleepy despite having a shower and having a steaming cup of coffee in your hands. You weren't sure what the cause of it was, but you'd been entirely too restless to sleep well. Too much excitement, perhaps?
You shrug to yourself and sit into your office chair with a loud yawn, ruffling your still damp hair as you power on your laptop. You still hadn't received any reservations for this week and you were hoping someone would come by for the weekend at least. You had some honeymooners reserved for next week, but that didn't help you now. An entire week without guests would put a noticeable deficient in the books.
That's why when you pulled up your check-in program and saw that you'd been booked for the entire week by a single client, you had to verify that you weren't still asleep. You pinched yourself and cringed at the pain, staring again at the program.
Sure enough, it was all still there. One client, for seven days straight. They'd booked the biggest room upstairs, the only one up there besides your own. What was incredibly strange is that they changed the offered rate. Normally, you were one of the cheapest places in the area and charged $120 a night. Not bad for one of the more expensive areas in Northern California. This person was offering you a deal of $300 per night, along with fees for meals and a hefty "to be discussed" tip if you were to close reservations for anyone else. They were trying to rent the whole place? So probably some celeb going for anonymity by hiding in an unknown B&B.
You shrugged. It wasn't that crazy, although most local celebs tended to hang out in Carmel rather than around here. And it certainly wouldn't be the first one you'd hosted, simply the first one that had been so generous. The other two were well-known names and you'd been expecting a hefty tip from them but they'd been surprisingly tight-fisted. One had even tried to argue your nightly fee down in exchange for using the name of your place on his social media. You'd been happy to decline.
While a little more business would be nice, you didn't want the place overrun. You wanted it small and cozy. Safe, for yourself as well as your guests. The whole purpose of the place was to have somewhere calm and comfortable to escape to.
This person must be especially desperate if they were booking the entire place to be alone. There wasn't a mention of them bringing any other guests with them. You exhaled noisily and clicked accept, sending them a little welcome email with all the instructions they'd need. You wondered with a self-amused grin if you should start putting a little footnote mentioning that celebrity scandals or drug-filled parties were not allowed on the premises.
You lean back in your chair when you're done, taking sips of your now luke-warm coffee as you think over everything that you have to do to get ready. According to the form they filled out, they'd be arriving that evening. You kept the house in shape daily so you didn't have much to do in the way of chores, but you should make a menu for the week, get the fireplace in the room prepped, and hit up a few of your friends for the local event tickets.
Thor comes up and bumps your thigh, reminding you that you still had to take him out.
"I got you, buddy," you chuckle, standing up with a groan and going to fetch his leash. "We have a long day ahead of us, and then maybe you'll have a new friend for a bit, huh? You gotta be on your best behavior."
Thor barks softly and you pretend he's answering you instead of demanding you hurry the hell up with your shoes. You decide at the last minute to throw on a hoodie too since the temperature was lowering fast. You hiss as you step outside and hope that Thor manages to get his business done fast. But even the chill wasn't enough to bring down your mood. Today was going to be a great day. You could just feel it in your bones.
