A Place In your Heart

Chapter 2 : Playboy mode; Activated!

By noon, the lobby had filled up again...a tour group at the far end, someone's suitcase wheel squeaking annoyingly across the marble, a kid weaving around the potted plant while his mother apologized to nobody in particular.

Work!

"Stressful as always".

Jessica was midway through a checkout when the glass doors opened.

She didn't look up. People came and went all day.

Opening the glass door happens a million times a day.

Then she heard him laugh. Even is laugh was glued to her memory.

She knew it was him before she even turned her head. Which was annoying, honestly.

Manuel walked in with a woman beside him ..... tall, curvy, dressed like she had somewhere important to be or someone she wants to impress. Her hand rested on his arm as she said something, and whatever it was, it made him laugh and laugh again.

Jessica's hand paused over the keyboard.

She made herself finish the checkout. "Here you go," she told the guest. "Have a good one."

"Thanks."

He left. She didn't catch his name.

Manuel and the woman were heading for the elevators now, unhurried, the same easy walk from that morning. The woman touched his arm again,this time it felt very romantic.

Jessica looked back at her screen acting unbothered....but she was .

She didn't know why it bothered her...that was the annoying part. Nothing had happened between them. He'd handed her his ID. They'd talked for some minutes. That was it. Somehow she'd decided he was different with her, which was stupid, clearly, now that she was looking at proof otherwise.

"Hey, Jessica."

She glanced up. Manuel had spotted her, smiling the same easy smile from that morning, like the day was going just fine for him.

Any other time, that smile would've done something to her and the rhythm of her heartbeat would have changed Right now she just felt tired.

"Good afternoon, sir."

His smile flickered. "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Nothing." A small, uncertain laugh.

The woman glanced at Jessica... quick, assessing, gone, then looked back at Manuel. "Are we going up dear"?

"Yeah." He nodded toward the elevator, then looked at Jessica once more. "See you later."

"Sure."

The doors opened. The woman stepped in first. Manuel followed holding her hand and right before the doors closed, he was still looking at her, not just at her.... her waist.

Jessica didn't know what to do with that, so she looked down at her screen instead.

"Ma'am?"

She blinked. Someone was waiting at the counter.

"Sorry, so sorry." She finished his checkout half on autopilot, handed him his receipt, put on the polite smile she used for guests. "Have a nice day."

"You too."

He left. Jessica sat back and stared at nothing.

This was stupid. She barely knew the man. Short convos, greetings and a card on the counter wasn't a relationship. And yet here she was, ruining her own afternoon over some woman she'd never met.

She got through the next few hours the way she got through slow afternoons — answering calls, checking people in, nodding along while guests complained about the air conditioning. But she wasn't really there. She typed a room number wrong twice. Once she forgot to hand over a key card until the guest was already halfway to the elevator.

She wasn't herself throughout the day..

Linda noticed. Linda noticed everything.

Around two thirty she set a bottle of water down next to Jessica's keyboard without saying anything at first.

"You're quiet," she said finally.

"I'm working."

"You've been working since eight. You were talking then."

Jessica shrugged and didn't answer.

Linda pulled a chair over and sat, arms crossed, watching her like she expected something to crack.

"It's him, isn't it."

"Who?"

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"That face."

Jessica opened the water bottle instead of answering, took a sip mostly to buy time.

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Okay," Linda said, in the tone that meant she didn't believe a word of it.

They sat there a minute without talking. The air conditioner clicked off, then on again. Somewhere behind them a bellhop argued cheerfully with a guest about the quickest way to the parking garage.

"You looked happy this morning," Linda said eventually.

"I was in a good mood."

"And now?"

"I'm fine."

Linda followed her gaze toward the elevators, like she already knew where it would land. "So this is about Manuel."

"I'm not upset."

"Jess."

"I'm not."

Linda held up both hands and let it drop, which somehow felt worse than if she'd kept pushing.

Jessica turned back to her screen and pretended to be busy. She knew Linda didn't buy it. She didn't really buy it herself, either.

A few minutes later the elevator opened and Manuel stepped out, alone this time. He looked around, spotted her, and smiled again... same as always, like nothing was wrong.

Something in her chest reacted anyway, whether she wanted it to or not.

She looked back down at the keyboard.

His footsteps got closer.

"Hey."

"Hi." She kept typing, though there was nothing left to type.

"Busy?"

"Very."

He leaned against the counter, same spot as that morning. "You've been acting strangely."

"No, I haven't."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

He looked at her a second too long. Whatever teasing had been in his face earlier was gone — now he just looked confused, like he was trying to work out what he'd done.

Jessica didn't know what to tell him. She could hardly say, I saw you with some woman touching your arm and decided you were special, which was clearly stupid of me. So she gave him a small, tight smile instead.

"Is there anything you need?"

He paused. "No." He straightened, hands going into his pockets. "Just checking."

Then he turned and walked off toward the restaurant side of the lobby.

Jessica watched him go longer than she meant to.

Linda appeared beside her again. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Something's definitely going on."

Jessica didn't answer. She was still looking at the spot where he'd been standing.

For the first time all day, she wished she'd never noticed him in the first place — and even as she thought it, she wasn't sure she meant it.