“Hold the door please,” a familiar voice said right behind me.
“Oh, Sam, hey.” I smiled at the petite blond as I held it open for her. “Sorry, I was spacing out.”
Good. I can use the distraction.
She waved me away. “No worries.”
“How crazy is this?”
Her eyes were wide as she shook her head. “Seriously. Leo and I have stayed in hundreds of hotels and this has never happened. Not once.”
“Hopefully it won’t last long,” I said as we started our trek down the stairs. “Kinda wishing we weren’t on the top floor right about now.”
“Tell me about it.” Sam laughed.
When we reached the lobby, we found ourselves in a line that looped around the entire perimeter. “Holy hell.”
“We’re gonna be here awhile,” I said with a sigh. “So, Leo never got in, huh?”
“No.” She pressed her lips together in a thin line and shook her head. “I’ll be ringing in the new year alone. What about your friends?”
“Same. And my friend, Dev, he got hurt skiing, so it should be oh-so-exciting. If it’s any sign of what this next year has in store, I’m not impressed.”
“Seriously,” Sam said as the line slowly moved, and we moved right along with it.
“Looks like they’re handing out flashlights,” I said, watching as several hotel employees placed large boxes of flashlights on the desk and two others handed them out to guests while fielding questions. One guest in particular was screaming at the poor concierge about how much money he’d spent on his vacation only to be left quite literally in the dark.
“Poor guy.”
“Yeah, I don’t envy him right now.” Sam grimaced. “But, I mean, it’s not like he went to the basement and pulled the power. That guy needs to calm down. Shit happens.”
“I used to work in retail. People are assholes sometimes,” I said, watching the guest who was flailing his arms, demanding a refund as other guests simply took their flashlights and waited patiently to ask their questions.
Mr. Refund was still grilling the concierge when it was our turn to get our flashlights.
“I should’ve listened to your Yelp reviews!” he shouted, looking around the lobby. “But believe me, I’ll be writing one of my own. You guys need to get your shit figured out!”
I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to intervene. “Power outages happen, sir. It’s not his fault; stop shooting the messenger.”
“Stay out of this,” he scoffed at me.
“Sir, please don’t speak to our guests that way,” the concierge said, offering me a weak but appreciative smile. “We’re doing everything we can to restore power.”
“Just take your flashlight like everybody else, dude,” I said as I grabbed two for the room and walked with Sam back to the stairwell.
“You are so much nicer than I am,” Sam said with a laugh, and I shrugged.
“Retail,” I said, shaking my head as I thought back to dozens of rude customers. “He was a jackass, no doubt, but my God, I’ve dealt with some major pieces of work. He’s harmless.”
Together, we climbed the stairwell and said our goodbyes when we reached the top floor. Flashlights in hand, I returned to the room, stopping to take a deep breath before unlocking the door. I was able to avoid thoughts of Dev, thanks to Sam and Mr. Refund, but I knew I was walking back into a room of indecision and new feelings.
And he was taken…by the woman he wanted to marry.
He’s just a flirt, Lyra.
And besides, according to Craig, Dev wasn’t the loyal type. And I had no time for cheaters. If he attempted to take things further than friendship, it would be a major red flag and a gigantic turnoff for me. The previous year, I’d dated a separated man, and even that made me uncomfortable. I would not enable a cheater. Never.
With a final deep breath, I inserted the key and walked into a room filled with the warm glow of candles. My breath hitched as I looked around the suite. With a boyish grin, Dev stood, leaning on his crutches and looking like the cat who ate the damn canary.
“I found your candles.”
“You went through my stuff?” As romantic as the room looked, I knew I’d only put two of my candles in the living area…and there were five lit around the room. He’d gone into my room to get the others. And that was unacceptable.
“It was an emergency, right? Don’t be pissed. I knew you brought a bunch, so I peeked into your room. They were sitting right on top of your suitcase. I didn’t touch anything else, I swear.”
“You couldn’t just wait? I was gone for what? Twenty minutes?”
“Forty-five. Not that I was keeping track.” He glanced away for just a second, looking embarrassed. His voice lowered. “I just wanted to surprise you.”
Normally I would blow up at him, slam the door, and probably not speak to him for the rest of the evening, but something had changed. Our dynamic was different and, for the first time, I was seeing him in a different light. I was seeing his intentions instead of the end result. I was invested in his motives, his purpose.
And for the first time when it came to Dev Modi, I wanted to let things go. It was unnerving, to say the least. My chest tightened, and I could feel heat radiating from my face.
Get your shit together, Lyra. It’s just Dev.
“So are we cool?” Dev asked, raising his eyebrows, looking so boyish in that moment.
Ignoring his question, I pointed at his crutches, “You should get off your feet. I’ll get you an ice pack.”
He lit up, his mouth stretching into a wide smile. “Got it, boss!”
“Ugh, stop calling me that. I’m just telling you for your own good.” I walked to the freezer to grab an ice pack and brought it to him at the armchair. “Front desk gave us flashlights.”
“Cool. Hey, did you know this hotel gets power outages all the time? I was looking on Yelp; they’ve got some real shit reviews. Maren should’ve paid better attention before booking the place.”
“Did you say Yelp?” I asked with an acerbic laugh, remembering Mr. Refund and wondering if he had the time to get back upstairs and leave a review.
“Yeah, why? What, are you too cool for Yelp?”
“No, that’s not it. There was this guy downstairs raising hell. It’s no big deal.” I turned and noticed a stack of board games on the coffee table.
“What’s all this?”
“Didn’t you ever play games with your family when the power went out?”
“Um…” I said with a lopsided grin, remembering a couple of times our family had played the game of Life by candlelight during power outages. “Once or twice, I guess. Board games weren’t really our thing. Now, card games—that’s another story.”
“We lived in unincorporated, and our power went out all the time. I mean constantly. And the city was in no rush to fix it, so our family played board games by candlelight. I just assumed everyone did it.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t really explain why you brought them here. I mean, were you expecting a power outage or something?”
He couldn’t have planned this, could he? Oh my God, Lyra, get a fucking grip! He’s not a supervillain; he’s just Dev.