The first thing I heard was the shout through the door.
'What the fuck is going on? What do you think your doing!?!'
I was glad I wasn't on the receiving end of it, but was intrigued as to who was, and what exactly was going on. There was some more shouting, but nothing really audible, so I continued to focus on my task, folding napkins. Pretty tedious, but hard to get wrong.
I heard the door crash behind me.
'Jesus! What a bunch of idiots!'
It was Alan. My boss.
I didn't know whether to acknowledge, agree or ignore, so I stayed focused on the napkins.
He started banging around next to me: pulling open drawers, slamming them shut, knocking items around, generally making a mess. He then stopped. Took a couple of deep breaths and turned to look at me.
'Sorry.'
He looked down and took a few more deep breaths.
'We're just very short staffed and I don't need people failing to do their own jobs, let alone not doing the additional work that's needs to be done.'
I inwardly smiled but tried not to let it show on my face. Ever since I started working at the hotel a couple of months ago, it seemed as though there weren't ever enough staff. The lack of them generally seemed to be top of Alan's list of annoyances. I didn't really know much about hotels, or the service industry at all, but even at 21 with degree from a decent university, jobs were proving hard to come by. This wasn't perfect but at least I could pay my rent.
'I know you haven't been here long, but I'm going to need to ask you to help me out.' He look at me and tried to smile, but looked tired. I felt sorry for him but wasn't sure what he was going to ask. He sighed, 'could you possibly clean out some of the bedrooms for me? I wouldn't ask, but I desperately need someone who isn't a complete moron.'
I wasn't sure what to say. I'd never been involved in room cleaning so I had no idea what I would be required to do but didn't think it could be too hard. I looked at his face and I couldn't say anything else. 'Ok.'
'Oh god, thanks!' He replied, 'it's not anything difficult. You'd just need to empty the bins and tidy up a bit. You can do floor 7 so it shouldn't be too bad.'
He told me what needed doing, gave me a few pointers about dos and don'ts, and then sent me on my way.
Shit I thought. What had I let myself in for?
************
Up on floor 7 the first couple of rooms I did were completely uneventful. I knocked on the door, no one answered, I let myself in, changed the sheets, ltidied the rooms, emptied the bins and left.
This particular floor had some of the more expensive rooms. Businessmen, rich clients on holiday, that sort of thing, so generally they were out during the day and it was nice and quiet and easy.
Until I knocked on room 721.
Now this was the most expensive room on the most expensive floor. It covered one whole corner of the hotel. It was essentially four rooms in one: a large lounge area, a smaller room with a dining table and a bedroom at either end, both with their own en suite. I didn't know who was staying here, but who ever it was had a lot of money!
I knocked and waited. No answer.
I knocked again, just to check, and still no answer. Like the other rooms, I carefully opened the door and called out 'house keeping', waiting for a moment before I came in. Still no answer. Definitely no one home.
So I went in and started with my tasks.
I'd only been in the room a matter of seconds when I heard one of the bedroom doors open behind me and some soft footsteps padding on the carpet. I turned to look and saw that a young women had come in to the main sitting room.
She was beautiful. Petite and slender, shoulder length brunette hair, delicate, elfin like features.
And she was completely naked.
On seeing me she had stopped, rooted in place. I too was frozen to the spot. We just stared at each other.
It was a matter of moments, a few seconds at the most, but it seemed to stretch on and on. I didn't know what to do but it seemed as though she finally snapped out of it because she screamed.
'Arghhhhhhhh!!'
If it was to shock me in to action it had the required effect. I turned away, started mumbling apologies and stumbled for the door.
I knocked in to a few things on the way to the door, but as I got there, someone started hammering on the door from the other side.
Bang! bang! bang!
'Ms Davenport!? Ms Davenport!?'
He didn't sound happy.
Bang! bang! bang!
'Ms Davenport!?.....Isabelle!!' The shouting continued but it was the use of the first name that worried me the most. Fortunately it also had an effect on the woman, Isabelle I presumed, still standing just inside the door of sitting room. She snapped out of her trance and started moving towards me and the door. As she did so she picked up a dressing gown from the sofa and in one flowing movement seemed to flick it on and started calling back to whoever was on the other side.
'Justin!' She shouted, 'Justin......' I thought was done for. '.....I'm ok, I'm fine.'
Now that was a surprise.
They were still shouting her name and they obviously had a key as the door started to open. She was still moving toward me and as she got there, pushed me behind the door and then stopped it from opening more than a metre with her other hand.
'I'm fine, I'm fine Justin, honestly it's ok.'
'What happened Ms. Davenport? Can we come in?'
She peered round the door. 'I'm naked Justin, I've just got out the shower. I don't really think that would be appropriate would it?'
I could hear the smile on his face, 'oh I don't know. You sounded like you needed help.'
'Why did you scream?' This was a new voice. Someone standing, it sounded, behind Justin.