NINE HOURS LATER – SATURDAY 10TH JANUARY 2031
Samuel woke up to warmth and another round of splitting headaches. That was what he got for drinking so much of that midnight stuff. The first thing he caught was the scent of perfume, then another soft scent that he instantly recognized. Rita? He opened his eyes sure enough to find Rita in his arms, the steady rise and fall of her chest told him she was fast asleep. And rubbing her ass against his crotch.
Wait! What was she doing here? He vaguely remember her getting him off the floor, then giving him a pill and some water. He sat up and left Rita lying down sleeping, he smelt like he had taken a dive in a bathtub full of alcohol. That was not the only thing. He stank. Oh god, how did she put up with him. Maybe she did not. No one in their right mind would have stayed close to this stench. He had to take a bath. Right now.
****
Samuel slowly crawled towards her on the bed with a devious smile, slowly making his way to her pussy. The scruff of his beard tickled her inner thigh, she tried to move him away from his intended target but her hands were handcuffed to the bed. He diverted to her neck, his tongue laving at her shoulder. His neck smelled like cologne and sizzling bacon.
Sizzling bacon? Why would he smell like bacon? Did she leave the stove on?
Rita jolted upright, threw the covers off and ran out of the room. She stopped, confused by her surroundings, and disoriented by the way she had woken up. This was not her place, this. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. The soft back carpet, the three chandeliers hanging in the hallway. The cologne in the air, the gilded pack insignia on the wall. She knew where this was. This was Samuel's place. She looked down at the clothes she was wearing, these were not her clothes either. It was an oversized blue T-shirt that swamped her like a child in adult's clothes. She padded her way to the kitchen to find Samuel in the kitchen, by the sound and smell of it frying up some eggs and bacon.
“Good morning Rita.” he said, facing the stove and his cooking. “How did you sleep?”
She remembered what her dream about and she felt her cheeks flood with embarrassment. Thank goodness his back was facing her. “Umm...I don't know. I still feel really tired.”
The admission was true, she still felt tired.
“Who changed my clothes?”
“I called the help to do that. The store was closed when I woke up so I gave you one of my shirts.” he explained.
“What time is it?”
The curtains were drawn and she could not see a clock anywhere. She knew he owned a wristwatch, she had seen it when she went to his room before she slept off.
“Five minutes past ten in the morning. I let you sleep in.”
“Why?!” she screamed, horrified at what time it was. “We have to hurry! We're going to be so late.” she panicked. Where were her clothes? Of they left now they could maybe salvage something. Why was he not the least bit bothered?!
He turned around, now facing her. “Don't worry about that.” He said, lesiurely plating the eggs and the bacon.
“What do you mean? What of the meetings we have?”
“I rescheduled them.”
“You what?!?!”
Samuel winced. “Please don't be so loud, my head still hurts.”
“Good. I hope it hurts and keeps hurting till the end of today! No, till the end of next week!”
“Do you know just how hard it was to get those deals you just so easily rescheduled?!” Of course he did not have to, because she had been the one to do all of it.
“I'm sorry Rita, I just thought you should rest a bit longer after what I put you through.”
“Rest is exactly what I wanted but in my house, not here.” A moment passed between them.
“I'm sorry you feel that way Rita, it could not be helped. Nothing happened.”
“And I'm supposed to believe you?” Believing him had gotten her into this mess in the first place.
Samuel put the plates down on the counter again and drew a symbol over his heart with his left hand. “I swear on my people.” The look on his face told her what he was saying was genuine.
“I wanted to thank you for staying and putting up with me last night, so I made breakfast and got you a change of clothes this morning.”
At the mention of breakfast, her stomach rumbled. Much to her further embarrassment. She could not have lunch yesterday because she was arranging the very meetings the man in front of her so easily pushed to the side. He said breakfast, meaning she ultimately slept through dinner. If she did not eat something soon her ulcer would start acting up.
She took a seat at the table and waited for Samuel to bring the food. Samuel set her plate in front of her, the sight and smell of it had her mouth water. She waited for Samuel to get seated before she dug in.
“Thanks for breakfast. I'll go get cleaned up now.” she said, done with the food.
“There is a bathroom in the room you were sleeping in, your things are already inside.”
“Ok, thanks.” She made to take out her plate.
“It's okay, I'll take care of it.”
Just like he said, clothes for her were hanging in the closet. She could not see the clothes she came in with. They must still be in the laundry. She had a bath, cleaned her teeth and got dressed. She carried her purse, took her phone, slipped into her shoes and walked out of the room.
“I'm going home.” she announced. Only a few steps from the door.
He tried to stop her. “Rita wait.”
“No, I'm going.” she had spent enough time here as it was.
"Take a look outside first."
Rita followed him with her eyes as he went to the curtains on the right side of the room and drew just a tiny fraction of it open. Swarms of little black things were everywhere. There seemed to be thousands, tens of thousands even. It irritated her and gave her goosebumps all over. "What are those things?" she asked, repelled by the image before her eyes.
"Bats."
"Bats?" she realized on closer inspection that they were. "Where did they all come from? And what kind of bats look that small?" These things were bug small.
"Everyone is still trying to find that out. Till then we have to stay inside."
“For how long do we have to stay inside?”
“No one knows.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
******
After nearly two and a half practically avoiding him and checking her phone, Rita made her way back to the living room. He was there sitting at the table, working on his tablet. Well, she assumed he was working. She glanced around and stopped at the bar. She had not looked at it yesterday, what caught her attention was the amount of empty bottles on the floor and him lying down drunk in the midst of it all. The bar was practically almost empty. She counted one two three four five nineteen bottles gone from their places, that was excluding the empty crate space, who knows how many bottles were in there.
She did not know when the words left her mouth. “His death must have hit you harder than you let on if you drank so much.” Samuel took a few seconds to respond.
“It wasn't just Sydney's death. It was his mother's.”
“His mother's?” she asked, confused already.
Samuel put the tablet aside and intertwined his fingers then rested his chin on them. “Before he died Sydney made me promise to take care of her.”
“And I couldn't. I failed. And it was still those two bastards that did it.”
Rita continued looking at him from where she stood. This thing was really eating him up.
“It wasn't your fault. I'm sure you did all you could. I don't think either of them would want you sad or drinking yourself silly.” she said.
“What about you?”
“huh?”
“What's bothering you?”
“Nothing.”
“You sure?” he questioned further.
“I'm sure.” she bit out. Ending the subject before the conversation could truly start.
“Got it.”
“When did you reschedule the meetings to?”
“Next week Tuesday.”
Ok, she could work with that.
“What would you like to eat?”
“What do you have?”
“Nothing. Lately I've been eating takeout and ordering room service.”
“There has to be something in this giant kitchen.”
Rita reached the cupboards on the wall bit she could not reach. Samuel chuckled at her attempts to reach. She fumed and glared at him. “What are you doing over there? Come over here and help me.”
“You don't need to bother, I could just get room service.”
“I'd rather you did not.”
“You don't like to order?”
“It's not that.” she said.
“If you're worried about this getting out, the hotel is reputed for the levels of secrecy given to it's residents and guests. No one will find out and no one will say a word.”
He placed his hands on her both sides of her waist and lifted her up. Rita squeaked and held on to his arms for balance.
“W-What are you doing?” she stammered. Damn it his hands were large and warm. That was not all she felt. She felt the strength that resided in them, his arms were on another level. He could quite literally snap her in two.
“There's no stool around here.”
“Th-then why didn't you just say so and search the cupboards yourself?”
“Didn't think about that.”
“Put me down.”
She scoured the cupboards below, and found a bag of tea leaves. That was it. Samuel found nothing.
“What about the Pantry? Where is it?” she asked. Samuel pointed to its direction. Rita followed.
“I'm pretty sure Max emptied though.”
“Who's Max?” She opened the pantry door. “Anyway there is no way he couldn't have–” It was empty. Four rows of empty shelves is what greeted her.
“There is nothing in here!”
“Told ya. It's probably why he hasn't been coming around.”
Rita slumped in disbelief and defeat. “Go ahead and order room service.”
Samuel had already picked up the phone. “What would you like?”
“A jumbo bucket of spicy chicken, fried rice and a cartoon of juice.”
“Anything else?”
“Some Mixed nuts and chocolate.”
Ok
Samuel made the call and fifteen minutes later room service appeared with their order.
Luckily, the bats thing turned out to be some kind of early April fool's day prank. It lasted for a couple more hours then they all disappeared. Poof.
She was on her way home an hour later.