Love at your service

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Chapter 7

“Damn it!”, Ben muttered under his breath. How could he have let himself get carried away like that. He should have just fired her there on the spot. But did he? No, he had to go and make a fool of himself kissing her in the middle of the hotel hallway for everybody else to see. Thank god for small miracles; when he had stalked off to the hotel lobby, he hadn’t come across anybody. And what would she be thinking now! He had wanted to come across as indifferent or maybe just plain angry, but he ruined that the moment he had pulled her luscious body flush against him and his own body had betrayed him by getting aroused. Great!

He was staying overnight at the hotel, because he would be meeting with one of his main investors tomorrow morning. It looked like his plans for the hotel in Denver were going to come through, which had him thrilled. He quickly got his key from the receptionist, an attractive brunette by the name of Rafaella. She gave him a genuine smile before handing him the key. Another example of how well Jess was running her desk. Her staff was professional, courteous, quick and organized. He felt something akin to guilt pass his brain, but he quickly shrugged it off. No, he hadn’t mistreated Jess, he was just expecting a lot of this hotel. Hotels in Vegas should easily reach top occupancy levels!

When he turned towards the elevator to go up to his room, he could see Jess enter the lobby from the corner of his right eye. He peeked a glance at her. She looked upset and her face was pale. Did he do that to her? She looked really shaken up. Before she stepped into the backoffice he could see her take a deep breath and she literally seemed to shake her bad mood off of her by shrugging her shoulders. He was just about ready to go to her to apologize when he saw Todd following her.

His GM and personal friend put his arm around Jess’ shoulder and leaned over her to speak into her ear. She turned her lovely face to Todd and smiled apologetically while speaking to him. Ben felt a rage pass through his entire body at the sight before him. If he ever doubted that he held any feelings for Jess, he was now rightfully corrected. The green passion of jealousy coursed through his vains, making him wish he had never met her and making him feel ready to grab Todd by his lapels and smash him into the nearest wall. He breathed in deeply and before he could do anything stupid, leapt into the elevator and quickly turned his back to the couple in the lobby.

He had been just about ready to give Jess another chance when he had seen her so upset, thinking that he might have overreacted a little, perhaps having come to a hasty conclusion regarding her intentions without hearing her out. Well she sure set him straight there! Obviously, sleeping with the big boss wasn’t quite enough to ensure her job for miss Van Zant. She wanted to move up by sleeping with the next best thing! And yet, Ben couldn’t shake the feeling that it didn’t all add up. The picture he had held in his mind of Jess was not easily reconciled with his current thoughts of her...


When Jess had returned to the Front Desk to finish up the last of her tasks for today she was stopped by Todd.

“He Jess, are you okay?” Todd sounded genuinely concerned, when he leaned over her, putting his arm around her. “What happened back there?”.

“I, I’m fine, Todd, I was just a bit taken aback by Mr Carter’s demands, that’s all!”

“Well, you and me both! Your numbers are excellent and Ben should know that. I mean, I have never known him to be this strict with anybody! It’s like he was upset with you or something. Do you two know each other at all?”.

Jess felt a blush cover her face and immediately felt uncomfortable talking to Todd about Ben. His knowing eyes roamed her face and when he noticed the blush, he sighed deeply, a flash of disappointment was visible when he looked at her.

“How did you two meet and when?”

“I am sorry Todd, but can we discuss this after work? I still have a couple of reports to sign and then I can go. Why don’t we meet at the café across the street after that?”

“Sure, I could do with a break anyway. Give me a call when you’re ready”. And with that he walked off to his office.

Jess felt relieved that she would be able to talk to somebody about what had happened with Ben, allthough normally she did not exactly wear her heart on her sleeve. But she also realized that she would have to watch what she was saying. After all, Ben was not just Todd’s boss, they were also friends and they had been friends long before Jess had ever met Todd. Their friendship was just blooming.

She quickly went into her office and was in no time entranced by the reports that she was reading. When she saw a shadow pass her desk, she looked up to see Rafaella standing before her, seeming all excited about something.

“Jess, guess who I just checked in! The big boss, Mr Carter and he is soooo fine! Did you just meet with him at the staff meeting? What do you think of him? Is he married? Probably, huh, I mean all the good guys are either taken or gay!”.

Jess couldn’t help but smile at the supervisor’s reaction to meeting Ben.
“I know what you mean, Rafaella, he is indeed very attractive, but I honestly do not wish to know anything about his private life. He’s our boss, remember?”

“Mmm, can’t blame a girl for dreaming though!”, and with that said Rafaella walked back to the Front Desk.


Forty-five minutes later, Jess was ready to leave and called Todd to meet her at the café. They both sat down in a booth by the window and ordered cappucino’s.

“So, Todd started, Spill the beans!”.

“Well, if you put it like that”, Jess smiled and decided to indeed come straight out with it and get it over and done with. “Remember when we were supposed to have the job interview? When Todd nodded, she ensued: I stayed at the Grand Hotel the night before and, uh, apparently there was some mixup in the rooms, so I ended up getting the same suite as Mr Carter did!”

Todd looked surprised at her admission and she was eager to tell him the rest of the story without getting into too much details to prevent any discomfort between them.

“Anyway, we ended up having a laugh about it and he invited me to dinner, so we spent the evening together. It was all really enjoyable, the only thing is that we never did tell each other our full names. Ben, I mean, Mr Carter wanted to keep it on a first name basis and we did”.

She saw Todd swallow hard, before he looked her in the eyes again.
“Well, Jess, I’m sorry, but I don’t quite buy it. If this was the case then why does Ben seem to be so upset with you? What did you do? Throw yourself at him?”

“Todd, how can you even think that about me, I know we haven’t known each other for that long, but I consider us to be friends! I would never do a thing like that”. And before she knew it, Jess was telling Todd all about her former boss Ray Winfield and how he had almost taken advantage of her.

“I am sorry, Jess, I should have known better! I am sorry that had to happen to you, but hey, think of it this way, otherwise you would never have ended up working here and we wouldn’t be the good friends that we have become”. He squeezed her hand while saying that and Jess felt truly comforted.

“Well, now that we are putting everything out in the open, Ben and I didn’t just spend the evening together, he stayed the night as well”. Jess left her words hanging in the air, checking Todd’s face for any signs of anger or repulsion. There wasn’t any, just a look of regret. \"It wasn\'t like I forced myself upon him though, we definitely shared a mutual attraction, I think we were both lonely that night and we just acted upon it!\".

“I can’t blame you Jess, ever since I have known Ben, every single woman falls for his charms, including the ones I like. He doesn’t really do it on purpose, they just seem to go for his looks and well, the fact that he’s well off doesn’t seem to hurt his case much either”, Todd smirked. “He doesn’t want to get involved with any of them though. He has been burned in the past by somebody that he loved and I think he has decided for himself to stop that from happening again by staying alone. Sure he dates, but nothing more than flings and one-night-stands!”.

When he saw the hurt look in Jess’ eyes, Todd stopped his deliberations. “Oops, sorry Jess, I didn’t mean to insult you”.

“You didn’t, honestly believe me, Ben actually told me the same thing that evening and I thought that it was exactly what I wanted as well. Otherwise I would never have gotten myself into a one-night stand. So, I can’t really blame him for not wanting to see me again. I guess I just didn’t realize that I am not very good at this sex without feelings stuff! And Ben is totally upset with me, because he seems to think that I knew who he was beforehand and that I only slept with him to get this job!”

“No way, he doesn’t! Does he? O man, you have gotten yourself into a pretty messy situation dear. You see, Ben was engaged to be married 4 years ago to one of his employee’s. A beautiful girl named Faith Donohoe. He was head over heels with her, I had never seen him so totally besotted with anyone. She worked at the Carter Hotel in New York as a, you won’t believe this, Front Desk manager. They were living together but one night she claimed to be pulling a back to back shift so she stayed over at the hotel. Ben thought he would surprise her and went up to see her, only to find her in bed with his General Manager. She told him outright that allthough he was excellent marriage material, she did not want to have to compete with his work constantly. So for her other ‘needs’ she had been looking elsewhere! Apparently also the GM had offered her a promotion to Rooms Divison manager in exchange for satisfying his ‘needs’. Suffice it to say that Ben fired the both of them and hasn’t had a committed relationship ever since”.

Tess swallowed back the tears that she felt rising up in her eyes. Tears for Ben. What a horrible thing to have happened to him. Her heart was bleeding for him and she understood him more now than before. She could even forgive him for the awful way he had treated her. Todd gave her hand a friendly squeeze, bringing her back from her reveries.

“He there, you see, you shouldn’t take Ben’s behaviour personal. He was just lashing out at you for things that happened in his past. It is strange though because ever since Faith, I haven’t seen him upset about a woman anymore. You know what, I’ll speak to him when I see him later on. Maybe I can get him to see your side of the story?”.

“You don’t have to do that, Todd. I appreciate your offer, but I do think that it is for the best if we or I just forget about the whole encounter and get on with my life. I mean, I have a wonderful job, great friends, both old and new and I have my whole life ahead of me. No use getting all upset about something meaningless like a harmless flirt, right?”, Jess hoped that she sounded convincing, because deep down, she knew she wouldn’t be able to just ever forget about Ben. In the short time they spent together, he had unknowingly forced himself into her heart. Jess just hoped that the damage could be contained....

When she bit her lip and looked out the window to the Carter hotel, where she knew Ben was staying in one of the suites, she did not notice the thougthfull look that Todd gave her.