Page 32 of Wishing for Christmas
“Where were you?” she asked, a rush of air escaping her lungs.
“At my hotel.” He appeared winded, but alert with concern.
Clara gave her brain a moment to get caught up with everything. “Ah, yes. The new hotel on Fifth,” she said, explaining things to herself. “Of course.” She nodded in understanding, then looked at Matthew to see what he would do next.
“You came all the way here to help me?” She thought about how fast he would have had to run to get there so quickly. The new hotel was at least five blocks away. At that moment, her heart softened toward him. He always did seem to show up to help her when she needed it most. And right now, she definitely needed it.
He flashed her that signature smile of his. The one that had always made her heart quicken, the one that had usually made it impossible to avoid a coquettish blush.
Clara didn’t blush this time. In fact, she found herself slightly annoyed by his lofty demeanor. She forced herself to bury the feeling. Like it or not, she needed him to help her out of this mess. She looked at him, pleading with her eyes. “Matthew, I really need your help right now.”
He looked down at her. She couldn’t tell if it was pity, or judgment, or something else she detected in his eyes. It wasalmost as if hearing those words stirred something up in him, a power he seemed to enjoy. He pursed his lips together. “Clara, you can do this, or at least youshouldbe able to do this. You should know how to handle this stuff by now. We’ve gone through all of this over the past year.”
“I know. But—” She stopped, unable to finish the sentence. She had no idea how to handle any of the hotel’s operational issues. All she knew was sales. But she certainly couldn’t explainthatsituation at the moment.
Matthew quickly nudged Clara out of the way and hopped behind the check-in counter. He typed with focused vigor.
Clara leaned toward Lucy. Lucy nodded to indicate she was listening, though her attention was on what Matthew was doing.
“Is there a new sales manager?” Clara whispered.
Lucy pulled her to the side, out of earshot of Matthew. “You tell me. Last I heard, you were still interviewing.”
“I was?”
Lucy let out a sigh. “Look, I know the new hotel being ready ahead of schedule threw us all for a loop, but you’ve been working too hard doing both jobs. You need to hire somebody to take over sales already.”
Clara didn’t respond. She watched as Matthew walked around the desk and over to Mr. Spencer. He shook his hand. “Nice to see you again, sir. It seems your meeting room issue was simply a clerical error. It looks like you’ll be in meeting room B today instead. Everything is set up and ready to go. The banquet staff has it all prepared the way you wanted it; they just unlocked the wrong room by accident. We apologize, but I’ll come down and personally check in on you there in a few minutes to make sure it all looks good.”
Mr. Spencer nodded at Matthew and clapped him on the back. He looked over at Clara, his brow furrowed, and shook his head before walking away.
She stood behind the desk, mortified and feeling like a complete idiot. She felt more than incompetent. She felt useless. Maybe shewasuseless.
Matthew returned to the desk and addressed the guests in line. He quickly checked in the first man with no trouble and gave him a complimentary bottle of the hotel’s finest wine for his patience. The man seemed pleased enough, although he made sure to throw an annoyed glance at Clara before he left.
To the Celtics man, he said, “Sir, I think we can get an emergency plumber in here in no time. How about a drink at the bar, on us, while you wait?”
The man relaxed his posture, and he nodded in agreement. The plunger was still slung over his shoulder as he headed toward the bar.
Matthew looked at the older woman. “Ma’am, for you, a complimentary hot meal in our restaurant while we wait for maintenance to get to your room. It shouldn’t take more than an hour for that thermostat to get fixed.”
“Oh, thank you so much,” she said to him with a warm smile.
He turned to Lucy. “Make sure maintenance gets straight to the thermostat when they finish on the roof and get a hold of that on-call plumber that the Darlington has a contract with.”
Lucy nodded and got on the phone. The mood in the lobby seemed to lighten instantly, and the holiday music went back to playing with ease in the background. Everyone seemed more relaxed—except Clara, who stewed in a pot of self-loathing.
She pulled at the collar of her sweater.Shewas supposed to be the general manager? After that embarrassing display of her management skills, it was clear the Darlington had made a huge mistake in promoting her. Did she really think she was capable of doing this on her own? It looked like Matthew had been right. She obviouslyhadneeded that year of training to learn theoperations side of running a hotel. How was she going to be the general manager without that?
Matthew pulled her aside as if to drive home the point. “Look, Clara, I gave my recommendation to corporate that you could manage this hotel.”
Clara flinched, internally begging him not to say anything else. She didnotwant to talk about this. She couldn’t take any more humiliation today. She only nodded and bit down hard on her lower lip to still the quivering.
He went on. “It’s only natural that you’re still dependent on me, and you probably will always be in some ways. It’s okay. I understand.”
Clara swallowed the lump in her throat. “Thank you, Matthew. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Her head ached with embarrassment. As much as she hated this feeling, she knew she only had herself to blame. She shouldn’t be mad at Matthew. He’d helped her out of this mess. No, she was furious at herself for not having the skills she needed to handle things on her own. She had done this to herself, missed out on a year of experience—experience she badly needed.
