Page 11 of Veiled Fantasies

Nothing?

She walked back to the forlorn foursome much more slowly than she’d paced away. They were watching her approach, wet eyes glistening in hope. What could she do? It was a foreign city; she had no clue where to start. But she had to do something. So she led the desperately grateful woman—Louise—and her shell-shocked children to her hotel bus, then hustled them to the front desk. Jill did the talking while their eyes did the pleading. Surely there was a room for this family? These children?

“We have nothing available. The entire city is booked.”

“Not a single room?” Jill asked, her voice rising.

“I’m very sorry,” the hotel clerk said, and almost looked it.

Jill had a hard time making eye contact with Louise as they stood, lost, at the counter. The clerk made himself busy at the far end of the desk, checking himself out of the problem.

God, the world was unfair. Jill had a room, meals, and only herself to look after. This woman had nothing. How could it be so unfair?

Before she had really thought things through, the words came blurting out. “You can have my room.”

Louise’s eyes went wide. She grabbed Jill in an overwhelmed hug that shot a tiny dose of optimism into the despair already building in her gut. Her fingers tried to dig into the granite counter behind her. Somehow, it would all work out. She would find a way.

She would have to find a way.

Louise and the children delighted in room 516 as if it were a penthouse suite in the seven-star Burg Al-Arab, the sail-shaped luxury hotel that graced so many Dubai postcards. Even with only one small bed for the four of them, they were beside themselves with joy. Jill left the family with her meal vouchers and a promise to check back the next day.

As soon as she stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her, she slumped against the wall. What the hell had she just done? She was homeless in a city that was fully booked.

She tried the old joke.Could be worse, it could be raining. And since this was the desert, it couldn’t get worse.

Ha! Ha! Ha! She laughed all the way to rock bottom, then pushed back to the surface.Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Jill forced herself away from the wall and over to the door of room 514. She would find a room somewhere. Find a flight. Get home. Get Louise and the kids home, too. Somehow.

“Hey.” Erik’s smile brought back the regret. No more living next door to Mr. Perfect. She ought to get a Nobel Prize for her sacrifice. Hey, then she could go to Sweden to accept it and maybe—

His eyes lit up at the sight of his suitcase. “Thanks very much! You’re just in time!”

Just in time for what?

Erik’s miracle-working secretary had found a room in a different hotel–one with a decent Internet connection so he could communicate with the office. He was about to leave. Goodbye forever.

“What about your luggage?” he asked, already halfway out the door.

She heard the despondency in her own voice. No luggage, no flights. Oh, and, she’d just given up her room to a family of four.

“You did what?” Her mother couldn’t have hit a more shocked tone. “What will you do?”

I have no clue.

“I have a plan,” she lied.

He cocked an eyebrow at her and her knees wobbled just a little bit. She tried to shrug it off. “I’ll find a room somewhere.”

“There are no rooms,” he insisted.

“You got one.”

“My company got it for me.”

She didn’t quite have an answer to that. Somewhere out there was a room. There had to be. Didn’t there?

He brightened. “You can take this room! I don’t need it.”

Next door, the children cried out in some game, inspiring Jill with her second insane idea of the day. Louise should get both rooms. After all, they connected, and with 514 and 516 together, she’d at least have two beds for four bodies. It was the right thing to do.

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