His Regrets In Divorcing The Heiress

One Bed Or Two?

"I know that." She replied in a snappy tone as she briskly walked ahead of him. Mumbling, 'a clever lunatic.'

The guy chuckled, replying.

"Hardly," He replied calmly.

Gwen eyes stretched to his reply. But the man kept in mind everything had to be done manually since there was no electricity. So, he went over to the glass doors that normally slide open as he pushed them open.

“This is the door to the stairs,” he said, politely holding the doors open for her so she could walk through while waiting for her to realize her mistake about the elevator and now the door.

Gwen turned, looking at him." Nothing works in this hotel." She states agitatedly, smacking her lips. She shook her head and then walked toward the staircase. She looked him up and down as she approached the doorway, quickly assessing his character. Gwen wasn't blind and far from stupid, though due to her loving hard and thinking her ex was her true family, some would take her sincere heart for being pathetic. She didn't want to be in this situation with a stranger, and with a man at that. But she had no other choice. It was either out on the cold streets of New York. Or in a warm hotel room. Either situation could lead to her getting assaulted, beaten, or even killed tonight. But the gentleman is beautiful in appearance and seems to be a professional man, no doubt. And something about him felt oddly familiar, beyond her recognizing him from just the airplane. Though she was confident, they had never met before, until today.

It's only a business arrangement to keep from freezing her butt off. She paused for a moment to see his eyes. Just in case he tried something funny, she wanted to be able to identify her assailant. His eyes were dark but almond shaped, framed with long lashes.

Squinting her eyes at him, she asked. "You're not some rich nutcase, are you?"

Gwen remarked, as she passed him up, not waiting for a response.

"I'm about to share a hotel room with a strange woman, whose name I don't even know, in the middle of New York City, experiencing a blizzard and blackout. I think that's about as much of a nutcase as it gets."

She rolled her eyes at his reply as she walked up the stairs, stopped on the first landing, and turned to him.

"The name is Gwen."

He held out his hand for her to shake it.

"My name is Evan."

"Let's not bother ourselves with handshakes or last names for now, okay?"

"Fine with me. We can leave it on a first-name basis." Evan said as they nodded, agreeing to make the best of an unusual situation.

"Shall we?" Gwen prompted.

"After you," Evan said as he allowed her to lead the way, leaving him free to continue watching her shapely body move as she walked up the stairs.

*****

She moved quickly but confidently, taking each flight of steps in stride despite the large bag slung over one shoulder. Evan knew she was in excellent shape and must exercise. Although she wore a fitted coat dress with high heels, she didn't look out of breath. He wondered where she worked, maybe in an office.? No. She seemed to have way too much bravado for that. Evan smiled and was impressed, admiringly nodding at his appreciative view.

"May I take your bags?" He had to be a gentleman. It was his nature.

"No, thank you. I have it." Gwen said, holding in the agony of her feet barking.

This would be a night to remember, even though he hadn't been in the company of another woman since his wife. He hadn't given much thought to female companionship until his wife passed. Evan would have never thought that in a thousand years he would be having this experience. He was sure he would never forget—a winter night with a stranger a beautiful woman.

~~~~~~~~~

The key enters the lock, and Gwen opens the door. It's a decent size room. She walks in further with this stranger following behind her. He tried to switch on the lights just that quickly; they both forgot that they had no electricity. Then the man pulled out his cell phone, using it as light. Neither one of them said it, but they both were expecting to have lights.

"No way! Where are the double beds?!" Gwen said in a high-pitched voice.

"We paid $425.00 for a king-size bed?!" She looked at the gentleman. "Well, I mean, you paid that kind of money for this? I'm going to talk to the desk clerk."

"Wait! Remember, this was the last room available." Evan reasoned with her.

"Oh....oh yeah, you're right."

He quickly spoke up. "Look, you can have the bed, and I can sleep......"Evan looked around the room and spotted the desk chair. "I can sleep over there."

Gwen looked at the chair. She felt even more uneasy now than before about being with this stranger. She was getting the better end of the deal. 'What's up with that?' She thought to herself. She moved over to one corner of the room with her luggage and sat in the other chair she spotted in the corner. She had her clothes and a few other necessities that she was looking through.

He cleared his throat as he sat his bag on the floor, shoving his hands in his front pockets.

"I'm going to step out for a few minutes, give you some privacy, and see what they have to eat in the downstairs restaurant."

"Okay, thank you." She said in an uncomfortable, low tone.

"You are welcome." He turned and headed out the door.

Gwen hoped the man would decide to stay downstairs and rent him one of those chairs in the lobby for twenty bucks!

****

Once Evan left the room to head to the hotel lobby, he came down just in time. The hotel owner had complimentary pizza delivered for his guests from the small pizza shop. That was still open and had a generator and was cooking pizza for nearby businesses and residents.

Meanwhile, back in the room, Gwen picked up her bag and placed it on the king-size bed. After laying her nightclothes on the bed, she went into the bathroom. Stripping off her dress and underwear, she covered her hair with a ubiquitous hotel shower cap from a small wicker basket on the vanity filled with a typical hotel supply of soap, shampoo, lotion, and other grooming aids. It was her routine to shower twice each day, and she allowed herself a leisurely bath once a week. Tonight, she fills the bathtub with a rich, scented, bubbling bath oil from her personal belongings. Then she sat in what she thought would be warm water, but to her surprise it was cold! The hope of having a moment of calmness was not the reality.

The stranger was gone, and she was finally alone hoping to relax, but her nerves were frazzled. She couldn't believe that a blizzard of astronomical proportions was approaching this area, and now she was stranded in a hotel room with a stranger. The only good thing she heard about this storm was that it wouldn't drag out for days. It was fast-moving and would only snow hard consistently overnight.

Then, it will return to light snow and be a regular but average cold temperature by morning. Gwen guessed that's typical weather for New York during this time of year. Gwen body adjusted eventurally to the cold water. So she laid her head back against the tub, she thought about how her life was about to change dramatically. She went from being a married woman one day, and then it seemed overnight she was single and now traveling to live in a new place where she owned a home, acres of land, and God knows what else! But now, she had forgotten she was sharing this space with someone else as she closed her eyes and enjoyed this warm water.

While Evan was away getting food and drink in the lobby, he tried to figure out why this girl seemed so familiar. Then it finally came to him where he knew her from. "Gwen Whitmore! That's her full name! She's my next-door neighbor! I knew I had seen her face somewhere before!"

Evan had spoken to her husband many times as neighbors, far more than he had Gwen. He's seen her for brief moments throughout the years on several occasions, but the one time that stood out is the most recent one. That evening, he helped her back to her front door crying and scarcely dressed. At that moment, Evan decided not to bring that up; it wasn't a good time for her and could be embarrassing. But he couldn't help but wonder as he headed back to the room. 'I wonder if she's divorced now?'

Evan returned to the room, announcing loudly so as not to startle her, "I'm back."