Part 1:
It was bound to happen.
After all, when a company tries to run as "lean" as ours does, all in an effort to save a couple bucks (by my estimation, literally about.03% of our overall travel budget) it's Murphy's Law that something wrong is going to end up happening.
My name is Tyson Behrend and I work in the trade show business. I go from city to city setting up, breaking down, and working in trade show booths for a variety of different industries. If I were to describe my job it would be somewhere between spokesmodel and union grunt.
While most of what the viewing public sees looks like a finely tuned machine, I can assure you it is anything but. While there were regular issues with customer facing solutions not functioning properly or not even showing up at the event, there were also things that affected me more personally; lost luggage, incorrect hotel room reservations, declined corporate cards, etc.
This is not to say that I don't enjoy my job as I actually love it. Legitimately, I am a person who seriously enjoys all the details of what I actually do for work. I enjoy getting my hands dirty when the physical work happens, I love the professorial aspect of the presentation portion of my job, I can't get enough of meeting and interacting with new people at every different location. But, it would be nice if I didn't have to worry about all the stupid crap.
My travel partner is Stacy Carruthers. We've been working together for about two-and-a-half years now and make a great team. It helps that we are both in the same demographics for just about everything. Same age, ex-athletes, good looking, adventure loving, etcetera. Both of our sets of parents have wondered how we haven't become a couple with how close our jobs require us to be and, honestly, we have joked about how we ourselves are surprised at the same thing. But, we haven't ever moved past anything outside of being platonic friends.
It isn't to say that we haven't had what would be considered by many to be "relationship like" interactions with one another. We dined together constantly, exercised as partners regularly and allowed each other to vent when necessary. Plus, based on how cheap our company was when it came to our travel, we had shared a hotel room on more than one occasion and even had come to keeping an extra set of underwear in one another's luggage based on the number of times one of our bags came in late. We had been in tight physical spaces on multiple occasions and have seen each other in underwear more than a handful of times due to the job and the travel snafus. We have just never had any sort of physical relationship. If it wasn't for how easy going both of us tended to be and how much we enjoyed the work, the BS could have been a problem.
Anyhow, it was May and we found ourselves on the southern, Atlantic coast of Florida. The good news is that we were in Miami. The bad news was just about everything else.
First, no luggage. Second, no hotel. Third, no conference. Fourth, stuck.
"Basically, it's an off-season hurricane," our travel agent told us. "Blame meteorologists, blame global warming, blame whatever or whoever you want. Nobody saw this coming and so now plans are gonna' have to change."
We were standing in the lobby a hotel that we had confirmed reservations for, a decent place in Sunny Isles, just north of Miami Beach. The problem was that they did not have the confirmation we were holding in our hands. It wasn't something completely abnormal and a call to the home office usually did the trick.
"Unfortunately, everything is getting locked down. The conference is cancelled, the airports are shut down, car rentals have been suspended. Basically, like everybody else, you are stuck."
"Stuck where? Can you at least get us rooms? How long are we going to be here? We have no clothes."
"Rooms? No. Room? Yes. Because everything is shut down it means that last nights guests didn't get to leave. But, the good news is we got someone on the phone and they confirmed a room in the hotel that you are currently at. As far as how long you are going to be there? Well, you were originally booked for 5 days. The airports are shut down for a minimum of 2 days and will be incredibly backed up after then. We'll see what we can do but suspect you will be there the entire time. As far as clothing? The company has allowed $120 each to go grab some items. It isn't much but I hope it helps."
We were on speakerphone and both Stacy and the hotel front desk person had incredulous looks on their faces. I know that others would have blown out of frustration but I kept calm as I knew it wasn't the travel agents fault. Afterall, they were just doing their job. Plus, it appeared that we were getting a free vacation... even if that vacation was going to be on lock-down in a hurricane.
After handing us our keys the front desk person handed us a couple of robes and sets of slippers.
"Normally reserved for suites," she said. "But I think you could use them."
Our room was very different from what we were used to in that we were on a high floor with an incredible, ocean view. It must have been the only room available as our company never would have sprung for something like it. It was slightly larger than a "normal" hotel room that we would usually get however we were limited in that there was only a single, large king.
"I call side by the bathroom," Stacy said as she dropped her backpack and purse on the floor and strolled over to the window.
It was fantastic working with someone so laid back about everything.
The sky was already dark and we could see dark clouds rolling in.
"This is both really cool and kinda' scary at the same time," Stacy commented, never turning from the view.
"I hear ya'," I responded as I stepped up next to her. I honestly had never seen the sky like that before.
"Do you think we will be safe up here? Would it be better if we were on a lower floor?"
"I have no idea. I would assume it's fine since they let us come up. I'm gonna' hop in the shower quick if that's okay. I wouldn't mind washing the travel off."
"No problem. I'll go after you."
------------------------------------------
It was a few hours later when I woke up. We had been lounging on the bed after both getting cleaned up, taking advantage of the robes and a rare day off.
"Wakey, wakey," Stacy said in a sing-song voice when she noticed me stirring. "I'm getting hungry, want to get some dinner?"
I sat up in bed and, in doing so, noticed that my robe had opened during my nap. My dick fully exposed.
"Oh, shit," I said out loud, only calling more attention to the situation, as I pulled the robe closed. "Sorry about that."
"It actually worked out well," Stacy responded with a sly grin. "The movie wasn't very good so at least I got a good show out of it. You must have been having an, uhm, pretty good dream... if you catch my drift."
I felt my face turned bright red. There would be zero chance of getting an erection at that point as all the blood in my body had seemingly rushed to my cheeks and ears.
"You need to clean up that forest down there, dude."
Stacy and I had conversed on the subject before. Honestly, there really weren't any topics that hadn't been broached during our time together.
"I thought you said hair is back in," I responded, thankful that she was taking yet another bump in the road in stride.
"Hair, yes. Jungle, no. Trimming ain't just for women, my man."
"Well, I shall take your suggestion under consideration. Now, what's for dinner?"
-------------------------------------------
I woke up sweating.
The room was pretty dark and I was unable to get a visual of the time from the in-room clock. Searching around, I found my phone, plugged in but not charging. The power had gone out. I remembered that Stacy and I had both fallen asleep on top of the covers after a room service dinner of burgers, salad and beer and could hear her soft breathing on the bed beside me. My phone had enough charge left in it that I knew that it was almost 6am. More than the time, I was concerned about the temperature as it felt like it had to have been in the upper 80's in the room. Hot and sticky, it was no wonder I was sweating.
I stepped to the window and pulled the curtain open just enough to find a storm raging outside. Honestly, it looked pretty bad. I was curious as to how what looked like pretty strong winds had not woken either of us up.
I turned to survey the land in our room and found Stacy in what I can only assume was a similar position to mine the day before: sprawled on the bed, the lower portion of her robe thrown open, a patch of longer-than-expected pubic hair at the union of her legs. I made a mental note that I would have to rib her about it when she woke up.
