He steps forward, cupping my chin, his eyes reflecting the resigned sadness I feel. “See you soon.” After pressing a kiss to my cheek, he throws on clothes and takes off.
I collapse on the bed, scrubbing my hands over my face. I would meet the potential love of my life on a vacation weekend away from home.
At this point, I’m wondering what else life plans to throw at me.
Chapter Six
TIGO
After a quick shower and change of clothes, I hustle over to the main building to talk someone into covering me today. I’m still reeling from asking Cato to move here for me. I don’t even know what came over me, aside from a strong need to keep him.
Today just has to be chill. I’ll show him everything I love about the city and hope he loves it too. Enough to get him to see the possibilities. I just refuse to do a long-distance thing. It’s too hard. There’s too much pining and loneliness. Even for Cato. I can’t put either of us through that. If this weekend is all we have, at least we can make it amazing.
Inside the lobby, I see Howie standing behind the counter, holding an inflatable flamingo and staring down at the counter.
“Morning, Howie.”
He looks up, his brow pinched. “Hey. You didn’t see how these stupid things got in the fountain, did you?”
“No. I would have told you. We all would, How.”
He exhales, slumping his shoulders. “It’s driving me crazy. There’s only one person in this world who knows how much I hate flamingos, but he’s been gone a long time.”
“Dead?”
“No. Only in my heart.”
“Ah. Former love?”
Howie nods. “Way former. High school. We had dreams together. We were gonna run off to Europe and build a life there where we could be free.” He sets the flamingo down. “Anyway.”
“What happened?”
Howie shrugs. “Don’t really know. His parents told my parents we weren’t to speak anymore, and I never saw him again. I heard rumors that his parents shipped him off to a strict boarding school.”
“I’m sorry, Howie.”
He waves me off. “It was a lifetime ago.”
I want to ask how flamingos play into it, but a few guests walk through the door, effectively ending our walk down memory lane. I head over to the restaurant, happy to find Fitz and Zane chatting as Fitz takes chairs off the tables.
“Morning, guys.”
They both turn to me. Zane nods in his typically stoic way while Fitz waves.
“I have a favor to ask, Fitz.”
“Let me guess. You need to take today off to spend with our guest?”
I chuckle. “Uh, yeah, actually.”
“It was a good date then? Oscar said he saw you guys looking all mushy.”
I shake my head but can’t avoid the grin tugging at my lips. “It went well. I want to show him around town.”
“No problem, man. I got you.”
When I walk back through the lobby, Howie is dealing with a customer who doesn’t look too happy. I jump behind the counter to help the other customers check in and get to their rooms. I can’t hear what the argument is about, but when Oscar happilyenters, he pauses, looking around for a quick escape. It’s too late. The guest sees him and points.