Characters and story are copyright Aislinn, please do not link to, or archive without the author’s permission. Comments/Feedback is welcome and appreciated.
******
The inn was beautiful this time of year. The white siding of the house was offset by the brilliant colors of the leaves. Yellows, reds, browns and a multitude of hundreds of shades in between. The maroons perfectly matched the colors of the shutters on the old inn.
The ground floor porch was wide, warm and inviting with its numerous rocking chairs and porch swings.
I approached the front door and sighed heavily as I reached for the handle. This vacation was just what I needed. A break from reality. As I walked into the front hall, I glanced at the older woman behind the counter.
“Hello. Welcome to Magnolia’s Inn. I’m Maggie. Can I help you?”
I walked over to the desk and smiled “Yes, you can.” I set down my gym bag that I was using for a suitcase. “I’m Vivian Harper. I’ve got a reservation.”
Maggie glanced down at a thick book in front of her. “Indeed you do, Vivian. Two weeks in fact.”
I blew out a breath. “Yes, I do.”
“Ok, here’s your key. Room’s on the third floor, first door on your left. There’s only one other guest on that floor, so you shouldn’t have any problems sharing the bathroom. That’s the door right across from you. If you’ll wait just a minute I’ll get Jonathan to take your bag – uh, bags, up.”
I took the room key from her. “No thanks, I can handle it.” I picked up my bag and climbed up the three flights of stairs.
After fighting with the lock for a few seconds I was finally granted access into heaven. There was a king size canopy bed covered with a white comforter with tiny rose buds on it. The canopy cover exactly matched the comforter. There was a large desk in the opposite corner for the business traveler. A chest of drawers stood along the wall next to the desk and an armoire rested on the opposite wall from the chest.
I set my bags on the bed and collapsed next to them.
Wonderful.
Perfect.
Everything was perfect except Bailey wasn’t here. I sighed fighting to get the image of Bailey out of my head. Thinking about Bailey wasn’t going to do anything but ruin my vacation. I had been told three days earlier that it was over between us.
I sat up and began to search the armoire. There was a white fluffy robe hanging on a copper hanger and several pink towels folded in the drawer.
A hot shower. Nice and relaxing. And definitely necessary.
I stripped myself of my clothes and slipped into the robe.
I let out a low whistle as I stepped into the bathroom and shut the door. Directly in front of me was a large shower. Midnight blue tiled walls encased the shower on three walls. A large glass panel, with a door cut into it, closed off the shower to keep the spray inside. A showerhead was placed on each wall. Criss-crossing sprays, very nice, I thought.
I turned my head to see a large hot tub in the same midnight blue tile as the shower. It was sunk into the floor so you could literally walk right in. The hot tub was set into a large bay window that gave a
breathtaking view of the forest encompassing the house.
There were two white sinks set on a counter of the same blue tiles directly across from the shower.
I’ll have to try out that hot tub before I leave, but first thing was first. A shower.
I dropped my robe into a pile on the floor and stepped into the shower. After searching the entire shower, I couldn’t find any knobs to turn on the sprays.
“Talk to it.”
With a gasp, I swung around to see a tall blonde leaning on the counter in a bathrobe. “Huh?”
“The shower. Talk to it to turn it on.”
Warily I stammered out instructions and yelped as the scalding water turned on. I turned to find the blonde dropping her robe and entering the shower. “Hey!”
“What?” She shrugged. “We’ve got the same equipment. And we both need showers. Just stay on your side of the shower if you’ve got a problem.”
I stammered out that I didn’t have a problem and turned to wash my hair. Thoughts of Bailey ran through my head. Bailey and I never took showers together; our work schedules wouldn’t allow it. Maybe that was the problem that I just hadn’t seen before. We let work consume our lives and didn’t pay attention to each other.