Suite 138

It was exactly 2:38pm when Catherine Gerrard alighted the black conventional taxi that had driven her straight from the airport. With her luggage in hand she stood at the main gate of the resort watching two security officers each holding a metal detector conduct a mandatory search on her. Minutes later she was ushered in by the security men who apologized for the inconvenience. Once inside, she found a totally different world.

The entrance of the 15 kilometer private resort had a most surreal scenery with the brightest and most intricately decorated Christmas tree Catherine had ever seen. Her eyes slowly and with considerable difficulty wandered away from the singing beauty, her face lit up when she saw a garden path paved with snow. She treaded subtly across the path, relishing each step till she reached the garden. It was a sight to behold! A wide range of roses, lilies and tulips lay breathtakingly on the pavilion, she reached down to caress the flowers, wiping off crumbs of melting snow from them. Winter was becoming her favorite time of the year. It was barely minutes till she started daydreaming. She fancied that she would catch a ride with Santa Claus on his sleigh and tour the rest of the resort. It was not until a yellow beach ball came flying towards her that she regained consciousness of her surroundings and stretched forth her hands to make a perfect save. The owner of the beach ball came running after it and frowned when he saw Catherine with it. "Sorry ma'am" he muttered apologetically. "Hey" Catherine began "It's okay" giving him a pat on the shoulder, she released the ball in her possession and beckoned on the little "Go get it champ!". She watched the boy leave with a brightened countenance. She allowed her imaginations to once again run wild as she pictured having children of her own and coming to a retreat just like this one with her family. "Little man come back here" were the words that brought her back to reality this time. Catherine surveyed the Oscar winning performance between an irritated dad and his exuberant seven year old son. "I've got you now" was the father's shout of triumph when he finally got hold of his son who was taking a trip to tickle town. She debated introducing herself to the family but decided against it. She had a whole fourteen days to do that. Feeling exhausted she headed back to the entrance door to get checked into her suite.

A couple of minutes later, she was in the hotel lobby swaying to the rhythm of a genre of the sweetest opera. A waiter approached with a tray consisting of a glass each of whiskey, champagne, ice tea and sparkling water. Her first motion was towards a glass of whiskey but she had a rethink at the last minute and chose the ice tea instead. While she was here on vacation, it was fully paid for by her company and she would not like to give them a bad name by having alcohol on the first minutes of her stay. She approached the counter to get the keys to her room when the receptionist flashed her a questioning stare, "Oh" she blotted, sorting through her belongings to retrieve an invitation card. Catherine wondered why the hotel receptionist took so long looking at the card, it just contained a photo of her, her full name Catherine Gerrard, her company's name Jeannine Cushions, her room number Suite 138 and how long she'll be staying two weeks. Catherine who was starting to grow impatient took a trip down memory lane to the day she got the glorious news. It was at a board meeting while they were reviewing their stock value, it was discovered that Jeannine Cushions' stocks had risen to an eighty percent high because of Catherine's innovative strategies. To reward her, the company gave her an all expense paid vacation to a resort in Florida on the condition she shared a suite with a just as competent co-worker. Though she was not told who, she hoped it was Stella Maxwell. Stella was a great worker and a friend. For the first time since she got to the resort, it occurred to her that she had not spoken to Stella or any of her superiors. She reached for her phone but before she could call anyone, the receptionist jingled the keys to signify she could take them and leave. With the lobby already getting crowded, Catherine resolved that she would give them a call as soon as she got inside her suite. After some minutes in the elevator, she arrived at her floor and immediately spotted Suite 138. Excitement getting the better of her, she stabbed her key into the hole in mild anticipation of the pleasure that awaits her and Stella in the suite. The door flew open and Catherine got the biggest surprise yet. What did she see? A chocolate fountain with a side of whipped cream? However tantalizing that sounded could not match what she saw. Was it perhaps a dozen bouquet of red roses strewed all over the spacious suite? Not even that came close. Or was it Stella? Oh! if only it was Stella. She unfortunately couldn't dig into the chocolate fountain for there was none or savor the sweet scents of roses all over the room and neither could she be rest assured of two weeks of fun with her office girlfriend Stella. Instead all she saw was a grown man wearing nothing but shorts wiping himself with a towel that had the tag Suite 138. Catherine wanted to scream and she did, alerting the stranger who for some reason did not hear her open the door, step inside or drop her luggage. 

"I think there's a mistake somewhere..."

"Yeah, you think?" She said sharply cutting him off. "I'm with my company, we booked this suite and I have been given a reservation in this room" Catherine flashed him the keys in her hands as proof. 

"Okay miss, listen up" He stared at her till she paid attention to him before he continued. "I'm George Monroe and I work with the marketing team at Jeannine Cushions" George reached for his ID and showed it to her as his proof.

"If this proves anything, it's that you are a no good fraud." Catherine had lost all ounce of excitement now. She was furious "how could you stoop as low as faking an ID to rob from my company." George had a confused look on his face which she mistook for guilt so she went on "I also work at Jeannine Cushions and I have never seen you there before. Whatever your game is, it's over."

George still maintained his puzzled look and without uttering a single word in his defense picked up the suite's telephone and dialed the hotel reception. 

"Hello, how can I help you?" the receptionist answered.

"Hey Helen, it's George. Is Steve in?"

"Yes sir"

"Great! Send him in" immediately he hung up, Catherine was beginning to have the puzzled look but he said nothing to her.

The door was flung open by the assistant manager of the resort. He looked least surprised to see George and Catherine together. He let out a soft sigh, then asked "What seems to be the problem?"

Catherine stood up from a couch she was recently situated "Thank goodness you are here sir" she cleared her throat and continued "This fellow is impersonating a worker in my company, kick him out!"

"I'm sorry I can't do that ma'am" Steve browsed the expression on both parties. "And yes, he is a member of Jeannine Cushions just like you"

"How?" both of them echoed

"I can't really answer that"

"Who then stays in this suite?" Catherine asked

"Both of you were checked into this suite so it belongs to you both" he discouraged any further questions with a flick of his brow "I am having a meeting in five minutes so I'm afraid I can't take any more questions. Enjoy your stay here roomies" with that he exited the room.

                  ***

A couple of minutes after the video conference call with Jeannine McGorret the CEO of Jeannine Cushions, Catherine had figured it all out. The call which went on for forty five minutes and seemed like an eternity for her had revealed George to not only be an employee but also a valued one in the company's branch in Florida. He had also visited the resort a couple of times to finalize deals between Jeannine Cushions and Alfonzo resorts. Apparently the two organizations had maintained a healthy business relationship over the years and George Monroe played a good role in that. Little wonder Catherine thought how he knew the names of the hotel staffs.

Tired and disappointed, she laid back on the couch hoping he would leave. He had as much right to be there as she did. While she improved the stock value of Jeannine Cushions by eighty percent, he tripled the company's sales within one year. Jeannine explained to them both that they deserved to be there. In her words "You both did exceedingly well for the company and it was an unanimous decision from the board to treat you to this Christmas vacation. Do enjoy yourselves." Catherine laid her thoughts on the words 'decision' and 'board'. They were all in on it she thought, Mr Baker, Mr Harrison.

Catherine knew the company had other branches, she just didn't expect them to be as big as hers or be part of the gift trip. But then thinking back to the garden with all it's fresh flowers, the Christmas tree, the Chinese-Mexican restaurant and all the other places unexplored, she resorted to staying. The only problem was him. The room only had one bedroom, though it could fit a family of three, Catherine wasn't interested in sharing a bed with a stranger. Aside from that, was the fact that she baselessly accused him of identity theft and fraud. How on earth was she going to apologise for that when she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Room service rang the doorbell to their suite with the dinner she ordered just after Jeannine called. George answered the door and took a tray of freshly baked bread, some corn dogs and steaks from the waiter who hurried away. He placed the tray on the table in the center of the room. 

"That's..." Catherine voice trailed off as if she was unsure of what to say, then suddenly it hit her "that's mine" she finally said.

"I know" he said flatly "I was just getting it for you. Don't worry, I'm not stealing this too" he was grinning now. It wasn't really funny at first but after some time it felt mildly amusing. The look on Catherine's face when she saw him in the room for the first time was priceless. Her eyes were all out, her brows tilted to one end, her mouth wide open. Remembering this brought a smile to his face, a smile he could not conceal from Catherine who had been lost in thought till she saw him smile. George wondered what she had been thinking of. Catherine could not fathom why he would be smiling about something that would have brought tears to her eyes. Nonetheless it was an opportunity to apologise. An opportunity she grabbed with both hands.

"I'm really sorry for earlier" was all she said and apparently was all that was needed.

"It's okay" he said with a smile and thus began a blissful vacation for both Catherine and George.