Chapter Text
“Beautiful.”
Rose stood just outside the concert hall, fluffy black gloves covering her freckle-covered hands, little puffs of white clouds forming with her breath. She stepped forward, arms wrapping around her girlfriend’s thin waist, and she tugged her forward. “Absolutely beautiful.”
The other redhead huffed at her words. “You say that at the end of every concert.”
“That doesn’t make it any less true.” Rose glanced from the other woman’s brightly painted lips to the rouge of her cheeks to the deep ocean blue of her eyes. “You’re beautiful,” she pulled her closer, “the music is beautiful,” she pressed a kiss to her cheek, “the crowd watching you is beautiful,” she brushed her nose against the other woman’s, ignoring how red it was from the cold, “need I go on?”
“No.” Heidi stepped back, pushing at the arms around her waist until they fell away. She walked past her girlfriend, brushing the snow from her milk maid dress, the green apron, the white sleeves, the short skirt. Some of the snow was real, falling from the clouds above them as they spoke, and some of it was fake, left all over her from her earlier performance. “In fact, I would prefer you stopped there.”
Her German accent was thicker when she was mad.
“Is something wrong, dear?”
Rose slipped into sweet pet names when she was mad, and despite her voice being soft and gentle, the underlying venom stood out to the other woman, even more so by the clunk of her boots through snow that should have softened their sound.
“This is – how do you say – it feels a little old.” Heidi stopped a few feet away, crossing her arms under her chest. “I have a concert and you wait for me to come out and you tell me I’m beautiful and then we go back to our hotel and—”
“—we have amazing sex—”
“—yes, that, but it’s the same. Every time.”
The snow fell on her thick blue patterned scarf, sticking to it and staying without thawing. Rose’s breath continued to crystalize in the air as she stepped forward, voice hushed and confused. “Are you trying to say that I’m…boring you?”
It hung in the air between them – that word – and it left its bitter taste on Rose’s tongue. Boring. She refused to step any closer to her girlfriend, her hands clenching into tight little fists inside her fluffy black gloves.
“Yes.”
It was one of the few good things about Heidi – her refusal to hesitate when she’d made a decision – and now she turned to face Rose, her cheeks turning red in the cold. “I think that it’s time that we end,” one hand lifted, moved back and forth between her and the other redhead, “this. Whatever this is.”
Rose’s jaw clenched, her teeth gritting together, but she tried to grin. “You’re sure you want to say that before the amazing sex?”
Heidi’s face flushed a deep red – this time not from the cold – and Rose took a sense of joy from that. At least she could still embarrass her. “We could have…what is it the Americans call it in their absurd little shows – the break-up sex. And there’s also the one last time sex.”
Rose grinned and stepped forward to bridge the gap between them. She brought up one hand, brushed her gloved fingers along Heidi’s exposed collarbone, and gave a brief sigh. Her head tilted forward just enough so that her teeth could graze against the other woman’s earlobe. Heidi shivered under her touch. Then Rose whispered, “No.”
She stepped away, leaving Heidi shivering. “Bold of you to assume I would want that.” Not that Rose wouldn’t enjoy it – there was something to be said about the appeal – but when the woman breaking up with her suggested it? Not bloody likely. “Besides, why would you want more of boring?”
Rose didn’t see Heidi move after her as she walked away, but she didn’t need to either. The regularity of their relationship had been slowly choking her as well. She just would have had the gall to wait until after the sex. No point in jeopardizing that just because she had no intention of staying longer. If anything, the only part of the whole situation that bothered her was that Heidi said something first.
As she sat down in her little rental car, Rose made sure her plane ticket still sat in the passenger seat, glancing over it once before driving away. She wasn’t in the market for anyone new; if anything, a hotel around the holidays would be good for women who were finding themselves frustrated with families and the downside of their vacation. Well, she’d made a living being the fun little secret of miserable families.
And she had no intention of stopping that now.
But, as fate (or something else) would have it, being the fun little secret was not in the cards for her this year.
Rose stood at the counter in the hotel lobby, her arms crossed about her. She’d been standing there so long already that she’d stopped tapping her foot, and while she wished there were a line of other unhappy customers waiting behind her, there’d been another hotel clerk to take care of them while hers looked into her particularHeidi situation. She leaned back against the counter and faced outward, eyes scanning the bright happy blue of the Miami-based hotel. It felt far too cheery for mid-December, but she didn’t question her choice of location. She’d grown up near mountains with tons of snow, and after a break-up – even one she’d anticipated – being in a warm, cozy cabin with a mug of hot chocolate crowned with marshmallows and curled up under blankets in front of a fireplace while she could see the snow drifting slowly down just outside her window—
That was for couples. It wasn’t for someone like her. Not on her own.
It would feel…lonely.
And the entire point of this excursion was to not feel lonely. Even if she was sitting alone in a hotel room in the middle of Miami, Rose wouldn’t feel lonely. All she’d have to do was change into a bathing suit – incredibly revealing, of course, as per her usual – and lounge by a pool or on the beach with an ample amount of sunscreen to make sure she didn’t burn a shade as bright – or brighter – than a lobster. Or maybe she’d find one of the many nearby girl bars and hook up with someone there. It was nearing Christmas, after all. There were sure to be women looking for someone to keep their bed warm while they avoided family who wanted nothing to do with them anymore (or family who didn’t know the truth and wouldn’t know how to react if they did).
Her fingers rapped against the counter – once, twice, three times – and she turned back to see the computer that had been left open and alone while her clerk went to go find yet another superior. His manager hadn’t been able to help her either. At this point, they had to be looking for the hotel owner himself – who must be busy, given the time of year.
Rose looked around her and, seeing no one who would care enough to do or say anything about it, slowly began to turn the computer screen to face her—
“Ms. Clement?”
Rose hastily stopped her movements and turned just enough to face a man who appeared to be all too charismatic and charming. Most women might be cowed by his sheer aura. He had that whole rich young man with a good physique and nice hair thing going for him – like a male swimsuit model, which, given their location, probably worked out really well for him.
But not on her.
“Yes?” Rose said, her voice soft, head tilting ever so slightly to one side so that the waves of her red hair fell just so along her shoulder. Just because she wasn’t interested in him didn’t mean that his potential interest in her couldn’t work in her favor. So long as he didn’t turn out to be a real creep.
“I’m Rafael Solano. I own the hotel.” The man clasped his hands together. “I heard we were having a little bit of a problem with your room.”
“The one I paid for months in advance? Yes,” Rose replied, her voice low, “I know.”
She might as well not have said anything at all for the way the owner continued without any look of chagrin. “It seems we have overbooked.”
“That’s what the clerk told me.” Rose leaned her head on one hand and gave the hotel owner a rough stare – one that was rougher than normal given her exhaustion from hours on a plane and the oncoming jetlag. “But I don’t think that’s any way to treat one of your customers.” She paused and then continued, very carefully, “Your paying customers.”
“I can’t kick out any of the people who are already here, Ms. Clement.”
Rose might have believed him – might – if he seemed to show an ounce of regret for her situation. Instead, his face was carefully crafted into one of those expressions that refused to be of any use to anyone. Posing for a picture. Anticipating an attack. Defending his actions. All of the above.
“Then what would you have me do, Rafael?” Rose intentionally used his first name so as to make him uncomfortable. It was petty, to be sure, but given her own lineage, she didn’t particularly care. It was a hotel owner’s duty to take care of their customers first and foremost, and when they slacked on his duty, as Rafael was doing now, then they deserved absolutely no respect from her. Besides, he’d given her his first name, hadn’t he? So why shouldn’t she feel free to use it?
Rose hummed a sad tone, lips falling into what she knew was a cute little pout – a tactic she’d used far too many times to think it would do her any disservice here. “I’m sure all of the other hotels are booked, too.”
“There is one,” the male hotel owner said, raising his finger. “When any of the hotels around here have overbooked this time of year, we send our customers there.”
“So you’re saying this is a frequent problem?” Rose asked, curiosity masking the frustration in her tone. When Rafael didn’t say anything and his expression didn’t change, she sighed. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing,” Rafael said a little too quickly for her liking. “It’s just a little further from the beach than most of our customers would like.”
“Myself included.”
“As I’ve said, there isn’t anything I can do about that right now, Ms. Clement.” Rafael gestured to the bags standing next to her. “We can send you there and cover any bills you have from the hotel, or you can take a refund and find somewhere else to stay for your vacation.”
Find somewhere else to stay as if they hadn’t already discussed how every hotel within a reasonable distance was already fully booked. Rose wondered, briefly, if this other hotel was on a rotation – that one was picked as the bum hotel each year for potential random customers or overbooking issues – but there was no way that was the case. With booking filling up hotels months in advance, any hotel owner worth their salt would be absolutely crazy to give up definite customers for only potential ones with no assurances they would have any at all.
“What’s the address?” Rose asked, her teeth gritting together. She couldn’t – wouldn’t – adequately voice her displeasure here and now, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t find some way to deal with this hotel owner and his overbooking mistake, especially given that he’d indicated this was not the first time it had happened – even if it was something that happened with other hotels in the area.
Given enough research, her stepmother should have more than enough ammo to go to war over this.
Morning shone bright over Longbourne. The sun hit the waves as it crested the boughs of the trees surrounding its lake, sending glimmers across the little town’s primary draw. Even in the winter, with snow covering the treetops and more feet of it piled high on the ground, there wasn’t much to draw tourists to the few houses surrounding the lake, to the inn resting just on the edge of the town. In the summer, the lake was much better – fishing, water skiing, swimming – and at night the hopeful luminescence of the creatures dwelling within, but in the winter, the only draw was holiday tradition. And while Longbourne could be said to have a lot of that, it wasn’t as flashing or booming as other towns, nor did it have the same appeal for snowboarding or sledding the same way cabins tucked away in the mountains did. All in all, the little town was quiet during the holidays, full of families visiting their loved ones who lived there, and that was just the way they liked it.
“Mama, mama!”
A little girl with bright red hair and an emerald green knitted cap came running through the front door of Longbourne’s primary inn, boots clunking on the wooden floor as she tracked snow and water behind her. When there wasn’t any reply, she ran to the front desk, which was so tall she could just barely peer over the counter, and she jumped up, using her arms to pull herself over the top to see if there was anyone behind it. No one there! She fell back with a loud thunk as her boots hit the floor and wiped the back of her hand against her bright red nose. Her face was still pale from the cold, making the freckles dusting her cheeks stand out even brighter. She pressed her lips together, biting on her lip, and looked around the empty main room.
Oh!
The girl ran back to the front door, ignoring the wet footprints she’d left behind, and sat at the front door to pull her boots off. She stuck her mittens into her neon bright coat pockets and then hung the coat on the stand just inside the door. Then she sniffled once, pulling on the ends of her oversized forest green sweater, and ran to the basement stairs.
“Mama?” she called through the open door. Normally it was locked shut to keep her from exploring, but now it was open wide with bright lights shining down on a rickety staircase. “Are you down there?”
“Mia, you stay up there!” a woman’s voice shouted from below. “I’ll be—” and there was a sharp grunt “—right up!” The woman appeared around one corner of the stairs, hoisting a huge plastic red tub with a green top.
“Do you need help with that?”
“No!” She set the tub down on one of the stairs, wiping the strands of brown hair that had pulled themselves out of her messy bun out of her face and tucking them behind one ear. Then she took a deep breath, wide eyes meeting her daughter’s, and she grinned. “Okay, okay,” she said, waving the girl forward with one hand, “you can help. This thing is so big and heavy that I need all of your massive strength to get it up there!”
Mia giggled and stumbled down the first few stairs. She grabbed onto one of the corners.
“On the count of three! One, two, three!”
They lifted the huge tub together! Mia could feel the plastic edges digging into her fingertips, but she kept a tight grip on the edge, walking slowly backward up the last three stairs. “Okay,” her mama said, “now just drop the edge on the floor there, and I can push—!”
Mia dropped the edge just like her mama told her, but then she sat on the top of the tub. She giggled again as her mama gave a loud oomph! sound and kept giggling when she seemed to collapse on the floor once the tub finally made it all the way up. After a few seconds of listening to her mother’s heavy breathing, Mia crawled to the other end and laid flat on top of the tub, peering over the edge. Her mama looked up with a final, deep sigh. “No more basement trips.”
“No more basement trips,” Mia echoed with a solemn nod.
Her mama squinted, and she bit on her lower lip as she looked back to the stairwell. “Except for more Christmas decorations.”
“More decorations,” Mia echoed again.
Her mama looked back with that same worried expression. “But first,” and she heaved forward, pushing the tub.
It went nowhere.
Mia giggled again. “Mama’s weak.”
“I’ll show you weak!” The woman gave another grunt and moved into a crouch. Then, with a huge inhale, she began to push the tub with her daughter on top of it, slow at first, and then faster as she kept going, until the tub whooshed as she pushed it into the main common room area. When she stopped, she fell back on her butt, hands flat on the floor. “Now,” she said, finally, between heavy breaths, “you,” she gasped, “wanted to tell me,” another gasp, “something?”
“Yeah!” Mia exclaimed as she propelled herself off of the plastic tub. “There was a woman outside who looked just like me!”
Her mama froze while lifting the green lid from the red tub. She swallowed once. “What?”
“A woman! Who looked like me!”
As Mia was speaking, the bell over the front door tingled pleasantly, and a bright grin split her face. “It’s her!” she said in a hush before even seeing who had entered. “It has to be! She’s gonna stay here with us!”
Her mother didn’t correct her, but she stood up slowly, brushing her dirty hands against her tan yoga pants. “Can you unpack this for me?” she asked, placing the tub’s lid on the floor next to it. Inside the tub were tons and tons of Christmas lights for decorating the windows of the hotel, their cords all tangled together. “And maybe straighten them out?”
“Mama, I don’t want to play with the lights, I wanna—”
“Hush,” her mama said, her voice a whisper. “If you do a really good job, we’ll go to Dee’s for hot chocolate and cookies afterward. Sound good?”
Mia pouted until her mama tugged down on her emerald green knitted cap, then she swatted at her mama’s arms. “I’ll get them, I’ll get them, I got it!” But for all her exclamations, the only thing she got as an immediate reward was a kiss on her cheek, which she wiped off as soon as she could. “Yuck!”
Then there was another ding, this time of the bell at the front of the desk, and Mia pushed her mama forward. “Go! She looks just like me!”
The woman stepped away from her daughter. She could see the redheaded woman her daughter had mentioned as she went to the front desk, and she pasted a huge grin on her face as she stepped behind the desk. “Sorry about the wait,” she said with her bright smile. “My daughter and I were just starting to pull out the Christmas decorations.”
“The week before?”
“Yeah. It’s been so busy with school and the holidays that we just didn’t have time until right this second.” Her smile didn’t drop as she continued, but her gaze did, focusing on the sign in sheet as she flipped it to a new page. “I take it you’ll be wanting a room, right? That is why you’re here?”
“Yes.” The redhead’s bright blue eyes focused on her, jaw clenching tightly. “The other hotels were all full, so they sent me here.”
There was a flicker of understanding that passed behind the hotel owner’s eyes and a slight scowl of disbelief. “I told him not to do this again.”
“Well, you telling them didn’t fix things.”
The hotel owner sighed. “Luisa Alver,” she finally said, holding out a hand. “My name, not anything really important, but you were probably looking to avoid all of the winter holiday fun by spending it under the hot Miami sun and,” she looked up, meeting the redhead’s eyes with a discontented look, “you probably booked months ahead of time, because you seem like the type, and the hotel owner told you they just decided to sell your room for a higher price because they had somewhere there right that minute and they were tired of waiting on you, even though you’d flown from all over the world to get there. Right?”
“I just want a room,” the redhead said, ignoring Luisa’s outstretched hand. “It’s been a very long day, and right now, all I want to do is sleep.”
“Jetlag?”
“No.” The woman’s jaw tightened again. “Just tired.”
“Right, right.” Luisa tapped the sign-in sheet with two fingers. “Just put your name there and a phone number where I can—”
“You want me to put my phone number in a log where anyone who signs in can see it?”
“Well, no, but—”
“You have a spot for phone numbers right there.”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Doesn’t that seem like a bit of an oversight, given our day and age?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“But what?”
“If you would just let me finish,” Luisa said, her voice strained. But she didn’t snap. She maintained her composure as a very good customer service employee, ran a hand through the untidy strands of her dirty brown hair, and sighed. “We don’t get very many customers here in the winter.”
“I can see that.”
Luisa sighed again. “Sign here,” she said, tapping the sign-in sheet again. Then she pulled a sheet of paper from the back desk and turned back, handing it to the redhead. “Put your contact information here.” She turned away again, going through the keys to determine which room would be best. “The cost of the room is—”
“I don’t care about the cost,” the redhead said as she put her name and number on the separate sheet. “I just want a room.” She pulled a green bill out of her pocket and placed it on the counter. “This should pay for now. Let me know when you need another one.”
“That’s not really how this—” Luisa started to say as she turned around with a key to the biggest room they had. She couldn’t say whether she’d chosen that room because it was big or because it was on the top floor and there was no elevator and she wanted to be petty. Maybe a little bit of both.
“I’m Rose, by the way,” the redhead said, “if you couldn’t read from the signature.”
Luisa opened her mouth to say that she could read cursive fairly well, given that the newer classes didn’t really teach it anymore and the art was being lost in the big cities, but she could tell that the woman’s voice was suddenly more than a little bit softer. She took a deep breath, holding the key in hand a little longer. It seemed like the other woman – Rose – was finally actually paying attention to her as a person instead of as…whatever she’d been doing before.
“I’m Luisa,” she said again, hesitant. “Most of our rooms are empty, so you can pick whichever one you want. I thought you might prefer our biggest room; it’s more of a honeymoon suite – king-sized bed, fireplace, even a little kitchenette, if you want – but it’s on the third floor, so if you have a lot of heavy luggage….” She kept waiting for Rose to interrupt, and her voice faded away when she found that the other woman seemed to be listening intently to her.
“Is that the room you would take?”
Luisa shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. My daughter and I live here, right down that hall,” she pointed to a hall that led away from the common area, “and we have more than enough room there.”
“If you were staying as a customer, not as the….” Rose stopped. “You live here? Employees live in the hotel here?”
“The owner does.”
“Ah.” Rose’s lips pursed into a tight-lipped smile, and she nodded once, brushing fingers along her forehead. “The owner. You’re the owner.” She rested her head on her fingertips. “I’m sorry for the rudeness, I—”
“—thought I was just the desk clerk.” Luisa handed the key over. “Take the big room. I’ll help you carry your luggage.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
Luisa shrugged as she walked out from behind the front counter. “No, but it’s a nice gesture. Hotel owner, small town, we’re big on nice gestures around here. Besides, it’s cold and snowy, and you,” she turned back, smiling at the redhead’s pale, freckled face, “probably get really cold really easily. Gives you a red nose and makes your freckles stand out, right?”
“How did you—?”
“Mia!” Luisa shouted, and her daughter came running immediately into the main room.
The little redhead looked from her mother to Rose and back again, grinning. “Just like me,” she whispered again. “Didn’t I tell you, Mama? She looks just like me!”
Luisa nodded once, tapping her daughter’s nose with the tip of one finger. “She does. Just like you.” She turned back to Rose and seemed to wince. “Lead us to your car, and if you don’t have too much, we should be able to get everything up in one trip. Just point us in the right direction.”
It wasn’t until they were halfway up the stairs, all three of them carrying something – Mia carrying what appeared to be a cardboard box – that Luisa said, voice cheerful, “And, since you think we’ve waited so long to put up Christmas decorations, you are free to come help us. We’ll still have a tree to pick out tomorrow, and trust me,” she continued, the cheer not dropping from her voice as the reached Rose’s room, “you haven’t lived until you’ve had hot chocolate and cookies at Dee’s.”
“Haven’t lived,” Rose echoed with a grim expression that couldn’t quite be read. “Sounds wonderful.”