As the night wore on Dina sat at her post at the front desk, trying to read. She went to community college in the daytime and had taken this job on the graveyard shift because it afforded her plenty of time to study. But she was not making much progress at the moment.
This wasn't the first time she'd gotten bored and lost focus, but tonight was different. She couldn't get her mind off the two women, one older and one younger, who had checked in toward the beginning of her shift. It wasn't unusual for two females to share a bed when that was all that was available, but they fact that they'd specifically asked for one bed when Dina offered them two had to mean something.
Dina wasn't naive, but she came from a small town and a conservative family, and had little direct experience of these matters. She couldn't stop wondering what might be going on behind the door of their room, which was just down the hallway from where she was, maybe 50 yards away. It made her feel funny to think about it, and she found herself reading the same paragraph over and over again, until she finally gave up and put the book down.
Picturing the two women in her mind, she looked up their record in the hotel computer, not for the first time. The older one's name was Alexis White, and it suited her — a striking name for a striking person. Miss White's piercing, intelligent gray eyes had made an impression on Dina, who met a lot of people in her job but rarely came across anyone with such a powerful presence.
Dina was flipping idly through the local newspaper, not really paying attention to the trivial news and cheesy ads, when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. It was the younger of the two women from before, who had brown hair and was a little shorter. She'd been wearing glasses earlier but wasn't now — in fact all she had on was a white towel that barely covered the key areas.
Approaching the desk she cocked her head and asked, in a sweetly melodic voice, "Do you by any chance have a toothbrush? I seem to have forgotten mine."
Dina nodded and turned toward the drawer where such things were kept. When she spun back around the girl had a strange look on her face — her smile was friendly enough, but there was something probing, almost invasive, in her eyes.
When Dina held out the toothbrush and the girl leaned forward to take it, her towel slipped and fell to the floor. All of a sudden she was standing stark-naked in the lobby. Dina politely averted her eyes, but she'd seen enough to burn the image into her mind — generous breasts with dark, slightly erect nipples, and a perfect triangle of soft brown pubic hair.
The girl giggled and said "Thanks" as she bent over to pick up the towel. But having retrieved it she didn't put it back on, just flipped it over her shoulder and turned around. Dina found herself watching, hypnotized, as the swaying rear end retreated back down the hallway.
Shaking her head, Dina told herself to get a grip. She picked up her book and tried, really tried, to focus on her homework. But it was a lost cause. Now she had a visual for her imagination to work with, and could think of nothing but what the brown-haired girl and Alexis White might be up to down the hall.
Dina made herself a cup of tea and flipped on the TV. She wasn't supposed to watch TV at work but her boss knew that she did; there was no way to get through the graveyard shift without it. Suddenly the phone on her desk began to buzz with the ringtone that indicated an internal call. The computer told her what room the call was coming from, but she knew before she even looked.
"Front desk."
"Hi." It was unmistakably the voice of Alexis White. honeyed on the surface but steely underneath. "Something's going on with the heat, I can't get it to turn off. It's like a hundred and twenty in here."
As a desk clerk, Dina was a hospitality professional; what else could she say but "I'll come have a look at it"? More than once in the past she'd bemoaned the fact they there were no other employees in the hotel to help her during the night. But now she was glad to have the chance to satisfy her curiosity and relieve her boredom.
"Thanks," said Miss White. "You're a dear."
After hanging up Dina took a deep breath. She knew that there was, in fact, a problem with the heater in that room. But she got the feeling there was something more going on. Her heart began to beat faster and she wondered what she might see when she got there. She was both excited and a little scared, but what else could she do but carry on? She picked up a wrench and put the bell on her desk before heading down the hallway.