This is my first submission so please be kind and feel free to leave any helpful comments!
It's a slow burner with some story development at the start so have some patience-it will be worth it ;-)
All characters involved are well over 18
Chapter 1
Kate hated being alone. She always felt a little bit nervous when she had to do things on her own, especially when it involved travelling to a town she didn't know and staying in a hotel for the night. That particular weekend, she had taken a 3 hour train with 2 changes just to visit an art exhibition she had been desperate to see; she couldn't persuade any of her friends or family to come with her and she just didn't want to miss the opportunity. Alone it had to be.
Being single, she felt it was crazy that she wasn't used to solitude by now. She loved being able to sleep spread out in bed and whenever she listened to her friends sobbing about their cheating boyfriends or, in the case of the newly-married ones, complaining about the snoring of their husbands, Kate couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit smug that she didn't have to put up with any of that. Still, she would have liked to have that special someone she could drag to obscure galleries and share a lonely hotel room with.
As she walked past the hotel's front desk, the receptionist looked up and caught her eye, smiling gently and raising his hand in greeting.
"Good evening, Miss Alton."
Kate briefly returned the smile but flicked her eyes downward, too afraid to be anything but polite, despite the fact that she was incredibly attracted to him and, had she been a more confident and self-assured person, might have stayed back and indulged in some harmless flirting. That was her problem though; she just wasn't confident and was always too afraid. Her comfort zone was her haven and it was near impossible to take her out of it.
It was too early for dinner, which she planned to have in her room, so she settled herself in the nearly deserted bar, finding a squashy armchair by the window and began to flick through the book she had bought in the gallery shop. She quickly became absorbed and lost all notice of what was going on around her or, more importantly, who was watching her.
For she was being watched. There were only four other people in the bar at the time; a rather drunk elderly couple enjoying a bottle of champagne, the barman polishing glasses, and Eric.
Eric had seen her walk into the bar, had watched her pull off her thick woolly hat and run a hand through the auburn waves underneath, and had not taken his eyes off her since.
It wasn't because she was a typically beautiful woman; she was pretty but not obviously so and he seemed to find her more fascinating because of that. She was dressed in loose, flowing clothing that didn't hint at all at the figure underneath and had little makeup on her round face. He could see how intently focused she was on her book, turned towards the window with her shoulders ever so slightly hunched. She may as well have hung a huge sign above her head flashing "I hope no-one notices me" in neon. Eric found it both frustrating and intensely arousing to see a pretty woman so obviously unaware of herself. He felt such an urge to stride across the room, take her up in his arms and kiss her that he scared himself.
He was staring at her quite outrageously, so much so that not even the most oblivious person in the world could have ignored it. Kate could feel it and as she lifted her eyes and slightly turned her head, she looked straight into the dark blue pools of his. She felt a jolt of something, almost fear but with a thrilling edge to it, as if she enjoyed the thought of a man studying her with such intent. She felt self-conscious, excited and scared all in one go and was suddenly almost breathless with it.
She couldn't stay much longer in the bar after that, knowing she was no longer invisible as she preferred to be and collecting together her bag and coat, she made her way towards the stairs. She never took lifts if you could avoid them, as she was mildly claustrophobic. She surreptitiously threw a glance behind her as she took the first few steps, then shook her head in disbelief.
"You're such a fantasist" Kate thought to herself, "thinking he would follow you just because he was looking at you!"
Thankfully her room was only one floor up and she let herself in with relief, still laughing at her own foolishness. She was distracted by the catch on the door which was stiff and prevented the door from shutting completely. With a forceful swing of her hip, she managed to shut it and collapsed backwards on the bed in exhaustion from the day.
Eric smiled to himself as he stood in the corridor just three doors down from her room. He hadn't followed her, he had no intention of doing so but he had taken the lift to the first floor, where his room was, and had stepped out just in time to see the flushed face and red waves of the woman from the bar disappearing into room 107. He didn't generally believe in fate but as he listened to her battling with the old, heavy door, he suddenly felt that he might have been wrong; his fate was only a few walls away from him and he knew he couldn't let that opportunity pass by.
Chapter 2
"That's right, oh could I also get a bottle of your house white please? Yes, that's all for room 107. Wonderful, thanks so much!"
Kate dropped the phone back on the receiver and drew the curtains. She had fallen asleep when she got back from the bar at 6pm and had woken up 3 and a half hours later with her stomach growling. Hoping the room service wouldn't take too long to arrive, she quickly changed into her PJs then picked up her mobile, dialling her friend who was going through "boy troubles" and had made Kate promise to call when she could.
"Hey, this is Laura! I'm busy right now so leave a message and I'll get back to you! Bye!"
"Brilliant, Laura," muttered Kate, "you ask me to phone and then don't bother picking up."
She distracted herself for a while with the TV, flicking through the channels with no real desire to stop on any, before there was a gentle rap at the door and a call of "room service!"
"Oh great!" Kate said as she opened the door and saw the little trolley heavy with plates and an ice bucket.
"You've got a couple of glasses there for your wine," said the bellboy as he wheeled her order in, "but it looks like it's just you!"
Kate blushed. "Yep, just me! That doesn't look very good does it?!" He laughed. "Don't worry about it; enjoy!"
"He probably thinks I'm an alcoholic now!" she muttered as he left, "Oh this stupid door!" While yet again trying to shove the door shut properly, her phone sprang to life across the room. It was Laura returning her call and as she settled herself onto the bed with her food and her friend babbling away in her ear, the door was forgotten.
