*** Disclaimer for whiners: You don't have to go into the story. Just give me your 1 star, have your little whiner rant, and go read something else. That's what the disclaimer is intended for, kind of like that sign at the rollercoaster - You must be this tall to go on this ride. As it happens, this story does fall into the LW category more than anything else. Trigger warning! ***
Busted!
Pablo Robles well knew that in a tightly regulated environment such as the hotel he worked for, bad rumors were bound to spread like wildfire. The gossip could be hateful and malicious. Several times in the past, the hard-working man had been called into the Human Resources office to give a statement regarding something he had seen or heard.
Usually, those all-too-frequent moments were over affairs that members of the staff were supposedly having. If one employee were seen talking to another, or sitting next to another in the lunchroom, somebody else would be chomping at the bit to say those two were fucking in the dark like rabbits. Pretty soon that same gossip would be making the rounds up and down the hotel halls. These sordid fabrications would without fail pick up additional embellishments along their flighty travels, becoming more lurid, more twisted.
On a few occasions, Pablo found the backstabbing and falsehoods to be worthy of a comedy club. Take the time he was sent to HR and asked what he'd heard of a particular girl's hair weave. One of the younger black girls that worked in the laundry room had spent a good amount of money to fix up her hair. For whatever reason, this had incensed the other black girls that worked with her to start spreading poisonous words behind her back. Two people had been fired over the incident, Pablo recalled. The hotel had a low tolerance for such indiscretions, for the sake of the general morale in the workplace.
Never before, however, had Pablo been considered the transgressor, as he was being considered now. It had only been about three days since his oldest daughter had paid him a visit while he was at work, and already the rumors were flying around like bats. They'd become bad enough that they had reached the highest level of management in the hotel. Pablo wasn't just going to HR, but he was headed to the GM's office. This was a level that only the very worst cases reached.
Just a few minutes earlier, he'd been outside and minding his own business. Way over on the eastern edge of the hotel property, Pablo had been busy working on a leaky sprinkler. That's when he'd gotten the dreaded call on his hand-radio.
"Engineer Pablo Robles, come to the GM's office right away."
He recognized the voice as belonging not to the GM, but to her assistant. Neither this woman nor her boss was considered to be a fun woman to meet with, and this under normal circumstances. Meeting with them both under bad terms usually meant some sort of dismissal was on its way.
Pablo sighed. His life just started becoming better, now that he'd turned his back on his vengeful wife. Since his time at home was no picnic, he found himself avoiding his house whenever he could. Instead, he'd taken to working longer hours at the hotel, and hanging out with his buddies from work when his shifts were done. Things were barely starting to look up. Now this unexpected meeting with the two most powerful women in the hotel was threatening to snatch his one glimmer of hope away from him.
Well, maybe it wasn't totally unexpected. His daughter Vicky had done a very wicked thing by broadcasting her sensuous wails over the hotel's hand-radios. It hadn't taken long for upper management to get to the bottom of things. Surveillance video of the hotel lobby had given an image to Vicky's sultry voice. Subsequent interviews with the front desk had given the hotel's amateur detectives a further description, and also a sexy motive.
Making sure he wasn't tracking any mud or wetness inside, Pablo stepped through the wide, sliding doors that made up the hotel's grand entrance. He came across a trio of valets, a bellman, and two front desk clerks. All of these were people he knew, and each of them was watching him as if he were headed over to a gallows. Damned near everyone in the hotel had a hand-radio, it seemed, and knew what was going on.
Pablo held his head up, however, and briskly stepped through the lobby as if he were on some mere and mundane errand. Like his son Junior would say, he was not going 'out like a biscuit.' Pablo was still smirking at this phrase, as he passed and waved at an old janitor who was setting up wet floor signs before the bathroom.
The stubborn man made his way into the general staff area, which wound through the first floor like an old snake. Its walls needing fresh paint, he noticed, and full boxes of beer were stacked four high to one side. Heaps of cardboard overfilled a large, wheeled plastic bin a little further past. Pablo noticed all of these things because it was his job to keep a close eye on the place. Walking further along the passage, he passed the employee lunchroom, which was empty that early in the morning, and the larger freight elevator. Pablo made a right turn when he came to the employee restrooms. This is when he reached to a set of elevators exclusively for employee use.
Beside him stood a tall and slim woman wearing a black business suit, with her coat concealing most of the deep pink blouse she had on underneath. The woman was from the hotel's sales department, Pablo knew. She gave him a quick and wary sideways glance. To Pablo it looked as if she knew what was going on, and wanted to avoid becoming tainted by him.
The employee elevators didn't even have a bell. They simply opened up their dull, metal mouths, and both Pablo and the woman from sales stepped inside. It was an ugly elevator, Pablo considered, with very little in the way of aesthetics. No fancy faux marble paneling, and no gold-toned handrail such as what the guest elevators had. It was simply a functional metal box that moved from one floor to the next, with an occasional stubborn jerk.
As if eager to get the short ride over with, the woman from sales quickly punched at the button to the second floor. She was so impatient she did this twice. The woman went out and disappeared around a corner the moment the elevator stopped moving. Pablo, on the other hand, took a more casual pace. He figured this might be the last time he'd ever set foot on the second floor, so he wasn't about to rush toward his own termination like an asshole.
The older man walked by storage rooms that held all manner of extra tables and chairs and passed back doors to the second floor ballrooms. Finally, he reached the southwest wing where the hotel's executive offices were located. The door he was looking for simply read 'General Manager.' The letters were engraved onto a narrow wooden placard that slid in place between two little gold-toned rails.
Pablo reached out and knocked.
Within a short span, the door slid open and revealed the attractive form of Kathleen Summers. This woman served as the hotel's assistant GM whenever the big boss was out. Kathleen, also known as Kathy, forced out an unwanted grin, before she opened the door further and ushered the brooding building engineer inside. There had to be two witnesses, Pablo knew, to discourage any potential accusations of sexual harassment that might arise later, were he to become disgruntled enough to make one up.
Kathy shut the door behind him and quickly strolled over to take a seat to one side of the GM's desk. This position would make it difficult for Pablo to keep his eyes on both the GM and her assistant at the same time. Their careful placement gave the situation an atmosphere more akin to an interrogation than anything else.
Still, he had to admire Kathy a little bit, even though she was a Class A Bitch. She was a brunette, the same height as he. The woman had a wide shouldered yet still lean figure. Her hips blossomed out handsomely and gave men the notion to walk behind her every time she was seen roaming the hallways. On this day, she wore attire more fitting a formal social event; a dress in a strong shade of blue, gold earrings clearly exposed by the way she'd pulled her hair back, and black heels.
Sitting behind the desk, and eying him closely, was Abigail, or Abby, Kaplan. This woman was a recent transplant from a similar position in St. Louis somewhere. The rumor was that Abby did not like her new post here in San Diego, even though she'd been at it for a good eight months by then. She was one of those career women who didn't have time for love or children, and who enjoyed playing the role of the predator as she was about to bring the axe down on top of somebody's head.
Appearance was very important to a woman in Abby's position. Thus, she had kept her body fit and shapely well into her forties. Her hair was colored in a fading blonde that was lightening into gray, soft and wavy and cut down to her shoulders. Through her off-white and ruffled blouse, Pablo saw the pleasing contours of Abby's breasts, estimating them to be in the C-cup range as compared to Kathy's mere Bs. Undoubtedly, the GM wore slacks. The woman had never been seen in clothing as feminine as a long skirt or dress. The circulating rumor about Abby was that she'd set a bear trap in her pussy in case any man got too close to her.
Needless to say, two strong-willed people such as Pablo Robles and Abby Kaplan were bound to butt heads, and in fact, they had done so several times during Kaplan's short tenure. Pablo expected both Abby and Kathy to be relishing this moment, as one of the biggest thorns in their sides was about to become excised from their staff.
