When The Rich Son Falls

Sixteen

Topher woke up early the next morning. It was his fourth day in the hotel, and despite constantly missing the convenience of his own home—especially his soft, soft sheets and his spacious bathtub—he found that he felt less annoyance and dread when he was awoken by the sunlight. It was partly because he was given an extra blanket as per his request, which he then hung on the curtain rack in order to provide himself extra protection from the sun; but it was also because things in Mariner’s Bay—specifically The Bay Hotel—were starting to turn up.

When Topher got out of bed, he was actually looking forward to going down to the lobby to talk to the regular employees with a recent addition of their boss; since James, as it turned out, didn’t really hate him. If he did, he probably would have let him drown yesterday. At least, that was what Topher thought, completely ignoring the obvious reasons that the man may have only done it because a death of a guest of a Stevens’ caliber may hurt the hotel, and that not letting someone drown was a basic human thing to do.

Topher, in his willful ignorance, decided that it was going to be a great day. He was going to regain some of his old routine by going to the hotel’s gym—which may or may not have been a subconscious reaction to a random local telling him that he looked thinner than his photos.

Of course, despite all that, Topher hadn’t forgotten his main goal for the week: to charm James into letting him stay at his house after his week’s stay at the hotel has ended. After he had eaten dinner last night, he had asked for Glory’s help—the front desk agent for the night shift—to help him find other hotels nearby. As he had previously thought, all of the other choices were a lot worse than The Bay Hotel, and even they were also fully-booked for the upcoming festival that he had never even heard of prior to his arrival. So, Topher was determined more than ever to get that “yes” from James—even if that meant having to lower his pride and basically plead; for he would rather lose face in Mariner’s Bay where people either revered him or did not know him, than lose face back at home.

But that goal of his would have to wait until after he had gone to the gym.

Topher went down to the lobby in the only pair of workout clothes he was able to bring, and found Nicki and Bruce hunched over a phone by the stairs on the second floor. Naturally, he sneaked behind them to see what they were up to. As it turned out, they were watching a video taken at a familiar place—just at the back, by the pool. Topher caught a peek at the exact moment his past self earned the bruise on his forehead.

“Oh, that looks bad,” Bruce said, sharply inhaling at the same time as Topher did. Bruce and Nicki quickly turned their heads at the sound of it, and Nicki turned off the screen of her phone.

“Sorry,” she guiltily said, “I was taking a video of the event and I happened to catch what happened yesterday. Don’t worry, I didn’t post anything! James already talked to the staff about you.”

Topher chuckled and waved it off. “It’s fine and—Wait, really? He talked to the staff about me? What did he say? That I’m a very likeable person? That he thinks I have a nice personality?”

“Just that we should protect the privacy of our guests,” Nicki replied, biting her lower lip.

Topher’s upper lip curled in distaste at the anticlimax. “Can I see it, then? The video?”

“Of course, yeah.” Nicki hurriedly tapped on her phone then leaned the screen towards Topher so the three of them could watch the entire thing once again. It began with the camera panning from the guests waving on one side of the pool, then it moved and stalled at Topher, the exact moment he fell and bumped his head. The gasps and concerned chatter were audible on the video, then there was complete silence aside from the large splash of water. Topher could see that around five people stood from their chairs the moment he fell into the water, and while everyone was frozen, James swam fast and then Bruce came into view.

“Geez,” Topher cringed. “That must’ve been a show for everyone, huh? Can you send that to me through file share?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Nicki shrugged, and while she and Topher were busy sending and receiving the video, Bruce asked, “Why didn’t you just stand up? The pool’s around 5 feet. Aren’t you 6 feet tall?”

“6 foot three, excuse me,” Topher defensively said. “And I hit my head so, I was naturally, you know, disoriented so I couldn’t.”

“Don’t you know how to swim?” Nicki curiously asked.

“I hit my head!” Topher replied, pointing at where he knew the bruise to be. Then, in an attempt to change the topic, he asked, “Where is James anyway?”

Easily distracted, Bruce looked around as if expecting to see James anywhere on the second floor. “Weirdly late,” he replied. “He wasn’t there during the morning assembly either.”

“He doesn’t usually come in late. In fact, this is like, the first time in a year he messaged the team that he’ll be half an hour late,” Nicki let him know before she eagerly offered, “Do you need anything from him? I can let him know once he comes in.”

“No, it’s nothing. I was just… curious,” Topher replied. “Anyway, I’m going to go workout now. See you guys later!” he said, making a quick escape. He waved and smiled at Mandy and some of the other staff he passed by, then went straight to the mini gym that he had heard about.

After dodging a few hotel guests that were trying to get a better look of his face, Topher found himself inside a 30 square meter room with just a treadmill, a spin bike, a bench press, a yoga mat, and a rack of weights. There was also a wide full-length mirror on the wall perpendicular to the wall with the tinted windows and the door facing the pool, a water cooler, and a bathroom with a few towels and bad water pressure.

Topher wasn’t sure what he expected from the hotel gym, but “underwhelming” was a term he would use at that moment. Nevertheless, he blasted music from his phone then did what he could with what he had until he broke a sweat. Before he knew it, an hour had passed and he was spent. Since he was alone inside, Topher took his shirt off and sat on the bench press facing the windows. He decided that he’d take a shower after resting for a few minutes, and so he took out his phone and played the video that Nicki sent him.

He skipped most of the first part until he reached the scene when the camera panned by the pool, capturing James focused on teaching a kid before he noticed the accident. It didn’t go over Topher how even before he fell into the water, James already put the kid to safety and was gearing up to help—which was why he was the first to get to him out of all the people nearby. Topher replayed it again and zoomed in on James, noting how quickly his face displayed surprise, panic, concern, then relief—all because of him.

Topher could feel himself smile as he played the video one more time. Then another. And another. Each time, observing something specific about James—the way he expertly swam, how the lighting did well for his bone structure, how his hair still looked nice when wet. After staring at James on the screen for almost five minutes straight, Topher thought that if he had met him at a club, he’d probably flirt with him once just for fun. This led him to thinking how much easier it would be if James were anything like the guys he met in clubs, because if that were the case, then he would have already offered Topher to stay at his place rent-free for days. But, alas, James was nothing like anyone Topher knew in the cities he’d been.

Topher finally put his phone down and grabbed a towel from the side, but just as he was about to turn to go to the bathroom, he spotted James walking from the pathway between the sauna and the gym. Without a second thought, Topher hurriedly opened the door and caught up with him beside the pool.

“Hey there,” he greeted with a cheerful tone, making James stop and turn around. The first thing that Topher noticed about him was that his skin tone had become a shade darker, which was most likely from spending an entire hot afternoon under the sun yesterday. The second thing that Topher noticed, much to his amusement, was that James had something above his left collar bone, uncovered by his unbuttoned collar. It was something that wasn’t there yesterday, and Topher was sure about that after watching the video of a shirtless James in the water a bunch of times.

“What?” James asked, regarding him with suspicion after seeing his knowing smile. “What?”

“Nothing,” Topher replied as he tried to keep a straight face. “Had a bit of fun last night, did you? Is that why you overslept and why you’re late to work today?”

“What are you talking about?” James asked him, confused. “And why are you shirtless and sweaty for everyone out here to see?”

Topher looked down his naked chest and realized that he had not put his shirt back on in his hurry to catch the man. Nudity never really bothered him, and seeing his muscular torso glistening with sweat and looking nice under the sunlight after a good workout just boosted his confidence even more. “We’re by a pool, so this should be fine. Besides, I look good, don’t I?” he smugly smiled as he made a show of flexing his arms.

James made it a point not to look anywhere lower than Topher’s eyes as he shot the guest a disapproving look.

“Speaking of which, was it a girl that gave you that, or a guy?” Topher asked when he knew James wasn’t going to stroke his ego.

“Gave me what?” James sighed.

“You really don’t know?” Topher pursed his lips in an attempt to keep himself from smiling too widely. Given the look of further confusion on James’s face, Topher couldn’t help but lightly chuckle. He moved his index finger up and down as if to tell James to come closer, and despite his hesitation, James took a step towards him.

“What? Just tell me,” he said with a hint of annoyance.

Topher took half a step forward until the tip of his trainers almost touched James’s shoes. Then, he slightly leaned down so that the left sides of their faces were next to each other, but did not make contact. Topher could sense James tensing up at the sudden proximity, which only made him want to prolong his agony a little bit more.

“You,” he finally said, making a short pause just for the heck of it, “have a hickey above your left collar bone, Jimmy.”

James’s eyes went wide as he took a quick step back, quickly buttoning his collar. Topher wasn’t sure if the redness in his face was caused by the teasing or by the embarrassment of getting caught with a love mark, but it was a sight to witness.

“I-it’s probably just a mosquito bite,” James lied rather poorly. “I’m going to go put some ointment.”

Just like that, James rushed towards the hotel, leaving Topher slightly disappointed that the fun was suddenly over. He returned to the gym and grabbed his shirt, only then remembering that he had forgotten to bring up his main goal for the day; although, given the situation they were just in with Topher poking fun at him, he was 80 percent sure that he was going to be homeless by the end of the week. But it was worth it.