She had textbooks scattered about, but she was messing around on her phone when he walked in. She looked up, startled, like she had been busted doing something she wasn’t supposed to do on the clock.
“Can I help you?” she asked in a young, feminine, pleasant voice that matched her cute appearance as she tucked a flyaway piece of hair behind her right ear. She had golden blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and just enough makeup to highlight her sexy cheek bones.
“Yes, hopefully. I think I am supposed to have a reservation until Thursday, but the way my day has been going, you probably lost it.”
“Name?” she asked, still sounding upbeat and desirable. He probably shouldn’t take the cold, snow, ice and flat tire he had out on this cute girl who was probably just trying to make ends meet while in college.
“Jason Bennett. Sorry I was cranky. It has been a long day, and all I want is a hot shower and will even settle for a cold meal at this point.”
“Ah, yes, I found it, and you have one king bed until Friday, checkout at 11 AM, breakfast is served from 6 to 9. But if the weather gets as bad as they say, it might only be fruit and cold cereal if the cook can’t make it in.
“Sounds fine, I should only need it until Thursday, but I will keep the extra night just in case,” and looking at her name tag, “Stacie. Thank you. And once again, I apologize for earlier. Can you recommend a place to eat that is open on a Sunday night?”
“This town buttons up pretty tight on Sunday, but Luigi’s Lounge is still open. The pizza is good. Anything in particular I can order for you?”
“Anything that is cheesy and meaty,” Jason said, feeling better about the day and upcoming week. He had been wound pretty tight while white-knuckle driving at about 25 miles per hour on the interstate for the last several hours. Luckily his tire blew right before the rest area so he could pull off right away and change the tire in relative safety. But that meant he had to get a new tire put on his car sometime this week. Just one more burden to deal with.
I’ll see what I can do. Come back down in half an hour,” Stacie responded.
*********************
Half an hour later Jason came down, freshly showered and in clean clothes. He felt hungry but relaxed. Just as he entered the lobby and dining room, a man came in and dropped a pizza off at the counter with Stacie. The pizza smelled good, but it replaced the smell of flowers or perfume he smelled while at the front counter earlier. He really had enjoyed the smell the young beauty gave off.
She grabbed two paper plates and two packs of packaged plastic silverware and said, “Hope you don’t mind sharing a meal with me. It’s a variety, but the price is right.”
“Sounds good, and smells delicious. How much do I owe you?” Jason asked.
“It was free. Leftover from the Sunday evening buffet so they sent it over. I tend to send a lot of business their way.”
They ate and talked, and since no other travelers came in, they ate uninterrupted for over two hours. She found out he was a high school teacher in Springfield, but wanted to teach at the college level. He found out she had been an Army brat and missed going to the Air Force Academy, settled on community college, and will graduate with an associate’s degree in science and was next going to George Washington University in Springfield next fall to become a physical therapist.
“Thanks for the pizza, and thanks for being kind to a weary traveler,” Jason said, and he stood up as she left. He went to shake her hand, but she went in for a hug, and they awkwardly and clumsily embraced.
Both felt the sparks.
“No problem. I will be here Tuesday and Wednesday again. Maybe we can eat another meal?” Stacie said.
“Sounds like a date,” he said, then regretted it. The 19 year old Stacie was way out of the 25 year old Jason’s league.
*************************
The next morning Jason awoke, showered and dressed for his class. He had two days of physical therapy training to finish off that part of his endorsement, and then was going to wrap up with two days of advanced referee training so he could officiate college ball along with high school basketball. For a single teacher, coaching and officiating various sports kept him out of trouble and added some extra pay to his wallet. He was hoping to add these endorsements to his resume and maybe trade up high school pay for college level pay. Unfortunately, this class was out of his own pocket over his school’s spring break, and this late March winter storm had everything screwed up. Hopefully he would finish his classes and not have any cancellations before his real job started up next week, otherwise he was out $1000 for training. Hopefully, just maybe, this week would be well worth it...
A few hours later when he was on his mid-morning 10 minute break, staring blankly at the billboard on the wall, not even noticing he was looking at nursing job postings and places to go for birth control, he heard a bang and an exasperated female voice cry out, “Oh! Nooooo!”
He snapped out of his trance and looked towards the sound of the commotion, he saw a sexy figure in a long skirt and stockings bent over trying to pick up the contents of the box she had been carrying before the bottom opened up.
“Ma’am, let me help you,” he said. Then he realized the sexy figure was Stacie, and he gasped. “Stacie! Sorry I didn’t see you there. Let me...”
“Thank you, Weary Traveler. How is your class going?”
They talked briefly as he helped her box up her contents, and she opened the classroom door as he carried the box in. Just as he was walking out the door, he spun around, and blurted out, “Hey, wanna get dinner with me again tonight?”