"Hey, look out!"
The shout startled Emily from her daydream just in time to see a huge object fill her vision. She gasped as it struck her forehead, knocking her back on her Central Park bench.
"Ow!" she cried. Holding a hand to her head she looked around for the missile that had struck her. As she turned a man jogged into view cradling a soccer ball.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. "Sorry about that. My friend kicked the ball a little too hard. He didn't mean to hit you. Jeez, that looks like it smarts. Are you gonna be all right?"
Emily glared up at the man. "I'll be fine," she said. "Just go someplace else, okay?" She turned away in disgust. She had come to New York to get away from men, and she still couldn't. "They're the same everywhere," she thought.
Six months ago Emily had caught her boyfriend of two years cheating on her. The bastard had been screwing her assistant for the past six months and probably laughing about it behind her back. Emily had yelled and screamed and thrown all of his stuff out the window of their apartment - her apartment, really - before going in to work the next day and firing her assistant. The assistant hadn't been surprised, and retaliated by shouting descriptions of the salacious things Mark had done to her while Emily was working the department budget and calculating performance bonuses. To make it worse, Mark hadn't even tried to do any of those things with her. The bastard.
After Mark's betrayal Emily had tried to find revenge in getting laid by random men. It failed miserably despite her hard work. The one guy she had gotten back to the apartment had lost his erection when she told him she wanted to be on top. He hadn't even apologized - just yanked up his underwear, threw on his pants and stormed out, yelling something about pushy women. At the time she'd gotten angry, but now she thought maybe she had been a bit strong that night.
It was hard, though, to go to work where men were expected to obey someone in her position without questioning her decisions. After a while you got used to it, and who could blame her if she let it leak through to her personal life once in a while? Mark could, and apparently random strangers could too.
This trip to New York was her chance to clear her head. She had resolved to use the vacation as a mental reset, a way to simmer down some of her tendency to boss men about. Yes, men were still stupid, but maybe she just had to speak their language in order to snag a good one. When in Rome...
Sighing, Emily stood up from the park bench and stretched. Her shoulder-length brown hair swished as her head tilted back and her new bruise twinged so she wouldn't forget it. "Great," she thought, "now I have to wear makeup. Thanks a lot, soccer jerk." Emily usually wore only minimal makeup, but now she'd have to cover up half her forehead. She sighed again and started toward 77th street, where she was staying at Hotel Belleclaire.
As she walked through the hotel's fashionable lobby she saw the attractive clerk behind the desk again. "Oh, that just figures," she fumed. "Why does he have to be here right after my face gets maimed?" She hid her face and had furious thoughts about invisibility as she made her way to the elevators.
"Miss? Miss! Excuse me, miss, can I see you for a moment?" The voice was deep but insistent, and it belonged to the handsome desk clerk. She took a peek and her heart sank - he was looking right at her.
He smiled, but she saw his eyes flick up to her forehead. "I'm sorry to bother you, miss, but the hotel manager has received a fax for you. Would you like to see it?" His friendly tone was engaging, and for a moment Emily forgot about her new injury and moved to the desk to read the fax. It was from her office. They didn't seem to understand the term 'vacation' and hadn't taken the hint when she turned off her cell phone and refused to even look at her email. Somehow her boss had forgotten where Emily had saved the department's budget spreadsheet and since her assistant was brand-new, no one else knew how to access it. Emily had emailed a copy before she left, but her boss never seemed to remember these things.
"I've got to send an email," she said. "Where's the business center?"
"I'm sorry, miss, but the computers in the business center got a virus last night. They'll be down until our technician comes in to fix them tomorrow."
"All right, is there another computer I can use instead? I only need a few minutes."
"Unfortunately, those are the only ones available for our guests. Perhaps the Internet cafe on 85th Street would work?"
"Look, I only need to send one little email. Don't you have a computer here that can do that?" She smiled a little flirtatiously as a last-ditch effort, hoping she wouldn't end up walking eight blocks just to keep her boss happy.
The man's resolve waned. "Well, yes, the manager has one, but he's not here today and we're really not supposed to let guests-"
She cut in. "Be disappointed in the hotel...right? All I need is to send one email to my boss before I can write YOUR boss a letter about the great job you're doing here. You're probably already up for a promotion, and a letter from a satisfied guest could make all the difference, right?" She smiled again and brushed back her hair, already knowing she'd won. She had no intention of writing a congratulatory letter, but if she had to walk those eight blocks she'd make sure to write a nasty one.
The clerk looked at her again and cast his eyes down. Then his smile brightened and he said, "Actually, the manager did leave the office key and we have standing instructions to keep guests happy. I'll be glad to help you if you'll just follow me back." He turned and moved toward a hallway behind the counter.
Emily's own smile turned a shade smug as she walked around the counter to the hallway. As the clerk made his way to the solid door at the end her eyes fell on his ass. It filled out the dress pants of his hotel uniform nicely, a pert rounded curve that looked like it would be fun in the dark. She enjoyed the view until he unlocked the door and walked through it, but had a second chance as he bent over a laptop computer on a desk against the back wall.
"Here you go then. It's logged in, so you should be able to get to your email from here."
"Thanks, that's perfect," she smiled. She sat down at the computer and started clicking. The computer was ridiculously slow and she spent a lot of time waiting for it to respond.
"So, how long have you worked at the hotel?" she asked absently, waiting yet again for the page to load. Good thing she didn't have any plans for the night.
"Just a few months. It gets a little old sometimes, but I get to use the fitness center for free, so at least there are perks. I work out a lot."
"Uh-huh," she murmered. The page had finally loaded and she was tapping out instructions for acccessing the spreadsheet. Maybe if the hotel charged for using the gym they could replace this ancient computer. As she clicked the Send button she was startled by a hand on her breast. It took her a moment to react.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shouted. She stood up and spun around to face the desk clerk.
He grinned. "What do you think I'm doing? I like your boobs. Smaller than you'd think for a girl your size, but still good." His eyes seemed to be suppressing a laugh.