His Regrets In Divorcing The Heiress

The Hotel Room

The second Gwen stepped out of the terminal; she saw nothing but a chaotic scene at the airport. It was filled with people going and coming in every direction. Gwen quickly walked to the baggage claim area, waiting to retrieve her luggage. When she was finally leaving that area, she heard an announcement over the PA system in the airport.

"Passengers, all flights out of J. F. Kennedy airport are canceled due to an overnight snowstorm heading for our state. All roads will be closing in one hour. Only essential services will be allowed out on the roads. Passengers, we repeat, all flights are canceled, and roads will close in one hour tonight due to a snowstorm heading our way; only essential services will be allowed on the roads."

Gwen's eyes widened; her heart filled with anxiousness. She had never been caught in a snowstorm living in a southern state. The only kind of storms she was familiar with were hurricanes. And if a snowstorm is as bad as a hurricane, she had every reason to be concerned and afraid! Primarily since the storm that was coming was described as dangerous and was heading directly to New York City!

******

Everyone was quickly leaving the airport. People, including her, needed to find somewhere to stay for the night in nearby Brooklyn. Gwen's destination from Brooklyn to Albany is a 2-hour 45-minute drive in a taxi. There was no chance of her getting to Albany this evening as planned. It had been years! It was many years since she'd seen snow or anything remotely close to this kind of weather! Gwen looked out the glass doors of the airport.

"It seems like I'm stuck here in this city for tonight."

The snow had started falling earnestly when she got ready to leave the airport. She wrapped her coat tight around her body as she stood outside in the frigid cold of snowy New York City. Gwen shuffled through the fast-moving crowds. Getting to the curb early paid off, and she flagged down a taxi. Gwen and another lady were on a speed walk for that cab! Gwen had never moved so fast in her life! She made it to the taxi first, quickly hopped in, and generously tipped the driver to take her to the nearest hotel from the airport.

For forty minutes, the traffic was in complete gridlock! There was chaos everywhere! So many people were on the streets this time of the evening. It was amazing! Walking shoulder to shoulder and not bumping into each other, even though they were going in opposite directions! Gwen had never seen anything like it! "Ma'am, there's a hotel, about five blocks up." The cab driver pointed out.

"Sir! Are you suggesting I walk there?"

"No, Ma'am, but we haven't moved from this spot in the past 20 minutes."

He was right; the traffic hadn't budged so much for her generous tip to the cab driver. She sighed heavily, looking out the window at the falling snow and the wind getting more aggressive by the minute. The longer they sat in traffic, Gwen reasoned that she could be at the hotel by now. That's when she decided to walk to the nearest hotel to escape the gridlock traffic and the blistering cold. Gwen began walking and thank goodness she had because a long line had developed from the front desk clear to the hotel's entrance when she entered the doors of the nearest hotel.

Once she stepped inside the hotel, she let out an audible sigh. "I can't believe I made it." Gwen stood in line waiting for nearly an hour and a half. There were dozens of people behind her and an equal number in front of her. All frustrated, all tired, and all stranded. She looked up at the mountain of a man in front of her. He was tall and wide. The guy talked loudly and nonstop on his cell phone, as did the man behind her with a slight accent, although his conversation was quieter. She was fortunate to be sandwiched between the only people in New York with uninterrupted cellular service because her phone was dead as a doorknob! But Gwen checked her purse for her little battery operated flashlight that she carries around for emergency similar to this because where she comes from storms and hurricane's is something you have to be prepared for because you don't know when they might happen during the summertime.

She inched forward in line, adjusting her huge travel bag on one shoulder and her purse that she clenched tightly on the other. Peter had warned her about all the pickpocketing that happens in New York. That is something you don't hear about in her home state of Georgia. So, she stayed vigilant and alert to all the people around her. Finally, she saw the hint of the marble counter at the front desk. "Lord, thank you! I'm almost there." Gwen knew at some point that a lot of people were going to get turned away when they ran out of rooms. She was tired, and her feet hurt at this point, something painful. Eagerly, she looked toward the front desk again. It seemed like she was going to make it! The concierge there was irritable and short-tempered, but who wouldn't be? This was New York City amid a blizzard!

Gwen kept her eyes forward, eagerly anticipating her turn. She was so close to being able to be in a warm room, with a hot shower and a comfortable bed awaiting her tired body and aching feet. Then she peered out through the large glass windows in the front of the hotel that gave her a view of all the falling snow. It still had daylight outside, but it wouldn't be for long. The sidewalks were still packed as the masses of humanity strode along, trying to make their way home. New York City at rush hour was crazy on a typical day; don't add snow and wind. Amid a white-out in the middle of rush hour, New York City was pure insanity. Angry pedestrians, overcrowded buses, and honking taxicabs with fares that were like highway robbery. She turned just as the vast man took his key and walked away. Gwen felt a cold breeze slap across her face! She didn't realize how much warmth the tall, big guy's body was providing. He kept her from being cold as she stood in line for nearly two hours to get a room. But thank God she was next to be served.

"Can I help you," the desk clerk asked curtly.

"Yes, I'd like a room, please," I said, although the word 'duh' was precariously poised on my lips. But I didn't dare risk saying it.

"We have one room left, the fifteenth floor."

He slapped a key on the counter. "That'll be four hundred and twenty-five dollars."

She looked at him, and she knew her face read. "Are you crazy?" Gwen pulled out her wallet and handed him a credit card.

"Sorry, cash only. In case you haven't noticed, there's a blizzard, which means no electricity. Conserving energy resources." He remarked.

Gwen looked at him sternly. "Yeah, I noticed. This place doesn't have backup generators?"

"Only for emergency use," he said. "Cash only," he repeated.

She slammed her giant bag on the counter and dug into her wallet and purse, praying she had enough to pay for the room. She remembers she gave most of her cash to the taxi driver, who only drove her for about a mile. Two minutes later, Gwen was still digging through her things in her oversized purse and trying to scrape up cash.

"Look, Miss, do you want the room or not?"

Gwen looked out the hotel window, and then at the long line of people behind her who needed somewhere to hunker down for tonight. She had no idea what she was going to do. But she knew there was no way she would go back out in the sub-below-freezing temperature! "Oh my God, think, think, I got to do something to secure this room for myself.' she mumbled, trying to stall the clerk's attention before he moved on to the next person behind her. "Wait, Sir!"