Page 92 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
“Of course, sir.” Jonty went back to the bar, muttering under his breath.
While he was unobserved on the stairs, he pushed the straw aside and drank from the glass. It was plenty minty enough. Before he reached the bar, he’d drunk the rest. No point wasting it. It was delicious. He made another cocktail, doubled the amount of mint, smashed it all together, topped it with a sprig of mint and took it back.
The women had gone and Ravi was alone in the tub. As Jonty bent to hand him the drink, Ravi looked straight at him and yanked hard at his arm. No amount of flailing could stop Jonty falling head first into the water. He hit his head as he went under, swallowed water and thrashed around as he panicked. It took a moment before he could find his footing and stand up. Ravi sat on the side, holding his nose, blood all over his fingers.
“What the fuck?” Jonty glared at him. “Why did you pull me in?”
“What are you talking about? You slipped, you clumsy twat. If you’ve broken my nose, I’ll fucking sue the arse off you and this hotel. You won’t have a job by the end of the day. None of you will by the end of the year.”
“What?”
“Shit! My nose. Get me a towel.”
Jonty stepped out of the hot tub and shivered. He was dripping water everywhere. His suit was ruined. So were his shoes probably.Fucking hell!He glanced around to see if anyone had seen what Ravi had done, but there was no one nearby. He picked up a towel from a lounger and dropped it at the edge of the tub.
“Did Devan talk about me?” Ravi asked.
Jonty didn’t even try to avoid the question. “Yes, while he was listing the five things he hates most in the world. You came between boiled cabbage and maggots.”
Jonty squelched away and grabbed a towel for himself. He stood by the door back into the hotel, getting colder and colder as he waited for the water to drain from his clothes so he wouldn’t trail it all over the building. What had Ravi meant about none of them having jobs by the end of the year?
He was too cold to stand still for long. He made straight for the staffroom and his locker and was down to his wet boxers when Vincent came in.
“What the hell, Jonty?”
“A guest pulled me into the hot tub.” Jonty wrapped the towel around his waist and struggled out of his last item of clothing.
“He says you fell in as you punched him. You broke his nose. What were you thinking? He’s a top model and he’s furious, talking about suing us, going to the press and putting it all over social media.”
Jonty touched his head. What he’d thought was water dripping from his hair was blood. “I didn’t punch him. As I handed him the drink, he pulled me and the mojito in, my head hit the step under the water and as I panicked, some part of me must have collided with his nose. I didn’t do it deliberately. Why would I?”
“He has a witness that said you did.”
Jonty’s heart sank. “I didn’t. And there was no one around.”
“Let me check your head.” Vincent grabbed a handful of paper towels and dabbed at Jonty’s wound. “Keep the pressure on. It doesn’t look bad. More a graze than a cut. Get dressed. Warm up. Put your own clothes on. I think it would be better if you were out of the hotel.”
“Are you sacking me?” Jonty bit his lip.
“A guest claims you hit him. Another guest has backed him up.”
“It was an accident,” Jonty whispered. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“You’ve broken the rule about associating with guests. You’ve assaulted a guest who is well within his rights to call the police. Is it a coincidence that the two guests are acquainted? I don’t believe so. Go and ask the major if he wants Dottie walking while I’ll consider this further.”
Vincent didn’t believe him. The pain of that forced Jonty to sit down. Vincent walked away and Jonty slumped on a bench with paper towels pressed against his head, his eyes squeezed tight shut. How could Vincent not believe him?
Because guests were always right. Except everyone, including Vincent, knew that wasn’t true. Some guests mightthinkthey were right and that was sort of okay if they’d made a genuine mistake, but there were a bunch, including the whale trip duo, who knew they weren’t right. What the words really meant was that it was better to assume customers were always right and let them have what they wanted, rather than lose them as customers. So who was more valuable? Jonty or Ravi? Who could cause the most problems?
Ravi.
Fucking Ravi! What a dickhead.Jonty regretted the marshmallows now. Almost.
Was Vincent going to sack him? Jonty gulped.He might have no choice. Jonty was still thinking about that comment about no one having a job by the end of the year. The hotel wouldn’t shut down if Jonty was found guilty of assaulting a guest. Would it?
He checked his head and it had stopped bleeding, so he got dressed. No dry underwear so he had to go commando. Luckily, he had a spare pair of socks. He pulled on a beanie, zipped up his jacket and made his way to the major’s room.
The major answered after one knock. “Hello, Jonty.”
