A Place In your Heart

Chapter 5: Checking out

Jessica sat by the window of the taxi, watching the city crawl past in pieces as the cold morning wind blew on her face. Cars squeezed into gaps that weren't really gaps. A bus stopped in the middle of the road for no reason anyone could see, and the motorcycle driver behind it leaned on his horn until the bus finally lurched forward again.

Normally she'd be half-asleep by now. She always was on the ride in, still working on her first coffee, eyes half shut against the glare coming off the windshield.

Not today.

She checked her phone. 8:31.

Plenty of time before her shift. She'd told herself that twice already, and it hadn't stopped her from thinking about the hotel the entire ride.

More specifically, about one person.

Manuel was checking out today. She'd known that since yesterday, when she processed the change on his stay. It shouldn't have felt like news. But after last night, it did.

It felt like bad news, she didn't want him to go.

Three days. That wasn't long enough to call it a habit, but somehow she'd gotten used to him being there — the sound of his voice at the desk, that easy way he had of leaning against the counter like he had nowhere else to be.

She looked down at her phone again. Their conversation was still open. She hadn't deleted it. She wasn't going to admit, to herself or anyone, that she'd read through it twice before falling asleep.

Maybe three times. Maybe more than. Maybe she lost count.

She caught herself smiling and didn't bother stopping it.

"You're smiling at your phone," the driver said, glancing at her in the mirror.

"What?"

"I said you're smiling."

"Oh." She locked the screen. "I'm not."

He laughed, not unkindly. "Okay."

She looked back out the window. She was smiling. There wasn't much point pretending otherwise, not to herself.

Manuel had asked for her number last night. They'd talked longer than she'd expected, about nothing in particular — his flight back, some argument he'd had with his brother years ago, why Swedish steak and American Cheese burger was better than whatever version they made where he was from. Nothing she could point to and call proof. But he'd wanted to keep talking. Past the point where either of them needed to.

That counted for something. At least a little.

She wondered if he'd text once he was gone. Maybe. Maybe not. She hated that she cared either way.

The taxi slowed as the hotel came into view, its glass front catching the early sun. Jessica straightened in her seat without meaning to. Nerves, she realized. She hadn't expected nerves.

What was she even hoping for? A proper goodbye? Five minutes at the desk before he left? Something he'd say that she could hold onto on the bus home tonight?

She knew it was wishful thinking. She let herself have it anyway.

The taxi pulled up outside. Jessica paid, stepped out, adjusted the strap of her bag, and took a breath before walking toward the entrance.

Then she saw him.

Manuel was standing just outside the doors, a small travel bag over one shoulder, wearing the same dark shirt he'd had on the night they first spoke. For half a second her whole face lit up before she could stop it.

Then she saw the woman next to him.

The same one from two days ago. Tall, dressed like she'd never had to check a price tag in her life, handbag hooked over one arm while she said something that made Manuel laugh. she was always making it laugh

Jessica's steps slowed without her telling them to.

Of course. She wasn't sure why it surprised her. He'd told her he was leaving. He hadn't said a thing about leaving alone.

She made herself keep walking anyway.

Manuel spotted her when she was a few steps from the doors. Something shifted in his face — surprise, maybe, or something closer to relief.

"Jessica."

She smiled. She hoped it looked like one because she absolutely forced it out.

"Good morning."

He checked his watch, an old habit she'd noticed the first day. "You're early."

"Not really."

"You look tired."

"I am."

The woman beside him glanced at Jessica, then at Manuel, then back at her phone like the conversation had already stopped being interesting.

Jessica felt, for a second, like she'd walked into the middle of something. "Well. I should get to work."

"Yeah." Manuel shifted his bag on his shoulder. He didn't move to leave.

There was a pause that went on a beat too long. He looked like he wanted to say something and couldn't decide what.

The woman touched his arm. "We should go. Driver's waiting."

"Right." He glanced back at Jessica. "I'll text you."

Her heart did something stupid before she could stop it. "Okay."

The woman gave her one more look, quick, unreadable — before Manuel opened the car door for her. Jessica watched her get in without a word. He shut the door, walked around to the other side, and paused with his hand on the handle.

He looked back at Jessica.

Neither of them said anything. There wasn't really anything left to say, not there, not with someone else waiting in the car.

Then he got in, and the driver pulled away from the curb.

Jessica stood on the pavement until the car turned onto the main road and disappeared into traffic. Only then did she notice she'd been holding her breath the whole time, and let it out slowly.

Manuel leaving was meant to be more emotional, she even expected a kiss.

"Good morning."

She turned. Linda was behind her, staring at the road, then at Jessica, then back at the road, working something out.

"Oh," Linda said.

"Don't."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were about to."

Linda tilted her head. "Wasn't that the same woman from the other day?"

Jessica adjusted her bag strap again, mostly so her hands had something to do. "Yes."

"Right." Linda nodded slowly, clearly filing it away for later, and said nothing else, which was somehow worse.

Jessica walked ahead toward the desk. She didn't want to talk about it. Not yet, maybe not at all.

Her phone buzzed in her bag before she'd even clocked in. She almost didn't check it.

Then she did.

Made it out without you charging me an extra digit this time.

She stared at the screen for a second too long. Then, despite everything from the last ten minutes, she smiled.