Luxury

“Aaron, please?” Bethany whined from the backseat. Aaron groaned, glancing at the side of the road for signs. Finally a green block materialized out of the horizon. “That one,” Bethany piped up, pointing at one of the hotel pictures on the puke green board.

       “Alright Beth,” Aaron sighed, turning off on the exit. Next to her, Jace was snoring against the headrest. From the back she suspected James was doing the same. Pulling in the parking lot of the hotel, Aaron lifted the roof of the car and stepped out, taking the keys with her. She moved around to the passenger side and opened Jace’s door.

       “Hey, wake up,” she said, gently shoving at his shoulder. Slowly his eyes began to open, flickering and then resting, confused, on her face.

       “What?” he mumbled.

       “We’re a hotel, you need to wake up,” she explained. He fumbled for his seatbelt, unclipping it tiredly. He reached out to put a hand on the roof of the car and slipped. Aaron stepped forward, grabbing his arm and helped him out. James was walking fine on his own next to Bethany but Jace seemed to be having a bit of trouble. He stumbled forward nearly throwing himself at Aaron’s feet.

       “He’s always like this when he wakes up,” James laughed. “I’ve never figured out why but it is amusing.” Aaron chuckled and threw one of Jace’s heavy arms around her shoulders. She locked the car and the group made their way towards the front of the hotel. When they stepped inside, the receptionist glanced up at them, giving them a warm smile.

       “Hi there,” the woman said. “How may I help you?”

       “Do you have any rooms available?” James asked, stepping forward when Aaron stumbled with Jace across her back.

       “We do,” she smiled, clicking on the computer. “We have several master suites.”

       “Do you have anything smaller?” James asked, cringing at the amount the suites probably cost.

       “We don’t I’m sorry. We are quite full,” the woman said, smiling apologetically. “The suites are $105 a night or $240 for three days.”

       “I got this,” Jace slurred, stepping up tiredly to the counter. “We’ll take a master suite.”

       “Jace!” Aaron cried. “No. Think about this, you’re too tired to be making a decision like that. We can try to find another hotel.”

       “No, no,” he groaned. “It’s fine. My parents gave me a debit card for things like this.” He shuffled around in his pocket and pulled out a black leather wallet. A shiny silver card materialized out of a fold and was slid across the desk to the receptionist. It was swiped and the receptionist’s face brightened as she glanced at the computer screen.

       “Thank you Mr. Atkinson, you and your friends have a wonderful time. Your room is Room 712,” she handed Jace three plastic room keys, giving him a radiant smile. Jace made to move forward, only succeeding in stumbling over his own feet. Aaron jumped forward and threw the arm back around her shoulders. She slung an arm around his waist and followed James and Bethany to the elevators. They all rode to the top floor and stumbled towards their hotel room.

       Stepping in the room, except for Jace, all their jaws dropped. To their right was a full kitchen with a breakfast bar next to a door that led to a huge porcelain bathroom with a stand up glass shower and a large hot tub style bath tub. Directly in front of them was a huge living room complete with a plasma screen TV that hung on the wall in front of a long, plush, red couch and glass coffee table. Walking into the room the explored other doors. One door led to a gigantic master bedroom with a king size bed with white and gold trimmed covers. Attached to the master bedroom was a small walk in closet. Another TV was hooked up in front of the bed. Across the living room from the first bedroom was a second, just a grand and large as the first except with soft scarlet covers. Aaron walked with Jace to the large wall behind the couch. Throwing open the heavy black curtains she found a wall length window that looked out onto a large outdoor pool. Aaron sighed and took in the luxury of their new hotel room.

       “How can you afford this?” she asked, staring up at Jace who had recovered his balance.

       “I told you, my parents,” he laughed, glancing back down at her.

       “And they don’t mind?” Jace just shook his head, smiling. Aaron whistled and glanced around the room.

       “Oh, we need our bags,” she said. “Do you want to help me?”

       “Sure.”

       “Beth? James? We’re going down to grab everybody a bag for the night. Anything specific you need when we’re down there?”

       “Can you grab my green bag?” Bethany asked.

       “Just my black and red duffel bag, thanks,” called James who was lounging on the red couch. Aaron nodded at them and headed out of the room with Jace next to her.

       Silently, they rode next to each other in the elevator and out to the car. She unlocked the car and popped the trunk. She grabbed her own neon orange duffel bag and a suitcase and grabbed Bethany’s requested green bag. Slinging her duffel bag across her shoulders, she pulled Jace’s bag from the trunk and set it on the ground. Jace pulled open the back seat door and snagged James’s bag, throwing it carelessly across his back. He walked around back to the trunk and picked up his own duffel bag, waiting while Aaron struggled with the two suitcases and the duffel bag on her back.

       “I can grab that,” he said, indicating one of the suitcases that refused to roll gently across the pavement.

       “It’s okay. Don’t you have a hurt shoulder anyways?” she asked. He shrugged and walked next to her through the parking lot. The woman at the desk was gone when they walked back into the hotel so they passed quietly through the lobby.

       When they got back in the room, they dropped the bags off near the door and joined James and Bethany on the couch. The two had flipped through the channels and found a movie that was playing on HBO. Aaron could feel the tiredness in her eyes as she sat through the movie. Jace’s arm moved around the couch behind her but she didn’t mind, he had warmth that seemed to radiate around her, lulling her to sleep in comfort. As her eyes shut she could feel Jace’s hand on her shoulder, and her head resting gently against his arm.