It was Monday morning. Kelli stood at the hotel's front desk with her head bowed as she skimmed through the photographs Charlotte had posted on social media from the bachelorette party over the weekend. In them, her beautiful family members ate, drank, and laughed in front of the water, occasionally in swimsuits, their eyes getting increasingly glossy as the day wore on. In one that seemed to have been taken much later in the day, Amanda wore a floral headband and held a bottle of champagne, one arm slung around Audrey. They laughed as though it was the only thing they knew how to do.
Kelli’s stomach felt very cold. She’d missed a genuinely beautiful weekend with family because she’d been needed here.
Since Saturday’s opening, Kelli had spent little more than a few hours at a time away from the hotel. Last night, she’d managed to leave around one in the morning, but had awoken three hours later, slick with sweat, worrying about an order that was supposed to arrive that morning. Had she remembered to tell Piper to be there early to receive it? She couldn’t remember. So, she’d jumped in the shower, done her makeup, and returned to find Piper there, bright and early, saying, “I thought you told me to be here for the package!”
But Kelli had been up and ready, so she’d thrown herself into the numerous other tasks that seemed never-ending. She’d begun to wonder if she would ever have a normal, non-panicked thought again.
One thing she hadn’t fully anticipated was how little guests seemed to respect the staff. More than once, she witnessed guests berating staff members for “not carrying their suitcases correctly” or “not being prompt with the valet of their vehicles.” This bothered Kelli a great deal. Yes, the guests were of the richer variety of Martha’s Vineyard vacationers, but where was their empathy?
“How are you doing?” Susan asked Piper privately after lunch, right after a woman had come down from room seventy-seven to complain about the draft in the hallway.
“I’m fine,” Piper said, her eyes a little too large.
“That woman wasn’t very nice,” Kelli pointed out.
“That’s just hospitality,” Piper said. “I’ve worked at hotels for years, as you know. I’ve found ways to let those complaints roll off of me.”
“Do you have any tips?” Kelli asked.
Piper laughed. “Just give yourself some time. You’ll find your own way through this.”
Kelli wasn’t so sure.
Around three, Xander arrived at the hotel to help Kelli with some important paperwork. Together, they sat in the safety of her office and held each other as Kelli mumbled all her worries. Xander said all the right things, then hurried downstairs to ask the chef to make Kelli a sandwich and a salad.
“You need to take care of yourself,” he told her as he placed the food on her desk. “I’m going to sit right here until you finish all of it.”
Kelli rolled her eyes. “Are you my mother?”
“I’m not. But if you want me to call Kerry Montgomery right now and ask her what she thinks about you eating that sandwich, I will.”
“You’d really use Kerry Montgomery against me?” Kelli asked with a laugh.
“Don’t try me.”
Unfortunately for Kelli’s sanity, Xander had to head out around seven to meet a business associate who was on the Vineyard for just that night. Kelli again found herself in the madness of an evening at a brand-new luxury hotel, her feet aching and the inside of her mind a scream.
This all came to a head around nine-thirty when a man appeared at the front desk. He wore a name-brand suit jacket and Italian leather shoes, and he stared at his fingernails as he spoke to Piper.
“My mother is really quite upset with her room,” he said in an English accent.
Kelli, who stood behind Piper, perked up her ears, sensing that there was something really off about this guy.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Can you be more specific?” Piper said.
The man sounded bored. “Something or other with her room, or her bathroom, or a window. I’m not quite sure. Could you send someone up to check?”
“Certainly, sir. And is there anything we can do for you this evening?” Piper asked.
“I’ll be at the bar,” the man said. “My mother is in room 401.”
Piper, ever professional, sent two employees up to the man’s mother’s suite, where they found nothing really wrong. But within the hour, the man returned to the desk again to say that his mother continued to complain of something in her room.
“She’s threatening to check out of it isn’t worked out,” the man said, sounding bored.
Kelli was flabbergasted. She stepped beside Piper and said, “We sent our employees up to your mother’s room to check on your mother, but she seemed fine. Is she telling you something that she isn’t telling us?”
The man shrugged simply and said, “I’m sure you wouldn’t want my mother to tell her very affluent friends how flippant this hotel has been with her needs.” He then returned to the bar, where he ordered a double scotch and gave his full attention to his phone.
Kelli took a deep breath, reminding herself that this hotel was her dream, then decided to go up to room 401 by herself to ensure the older woman was taken care of. She took the stairs, using the time to focus on her breathing, then knocked on the door to find a woman in her mid-seventies, her hair a shining silver and her robe a similar shade, clearly expensive, as though it had recently been spun by silkworms.
“Good evening,” Kelli said with a smile. “I hope it’s not too late to disturb you. Your son has informed us that you’ve had a difficult night, and I wanted to make sure that you’re all right. Is there anything we can do?”
The woman had beady eyes that seemed to go straight through Kelli, whom she probably didn’t deem “rich enough.” “Yes. I’ve struggled endlessly to get this television to play what I need it to play.”
Kelli swallowed, trying not to spin-out with rage. She was the manager of this hotel— it wasn’t up to her to fix people’s televisions, was it? With a smile, she stepped into the woman’s ornate suite, which Kelli herself had decorated with gorgeous artwork and sublime curtains, then picked up the remote control to adjust the television to play what the woman wanted.
“Isn’t that nice,” the woman said, although she didn’t sound pleased.
“Is that all you need?” Kelli asked.
“I suppose so.” The woman placed bifocals on her nose and sat at the edge of her bed, no longer interested in Kelli’s presence.
Flabbergasted, Kelli bid the woman goodnight, then headed into the hallway. But just after she’d clipped the door closed, it opened again, and that same woman peered out at her.
“Miss?” The woman blinked.
“Do you need something else?” Kelli wanted to fall to the floor and weep.
“It’s just that I expected turn-down service,” the woman said. “And I haven’t received that yet.”
Unfortunately, Kelli was suddenly reminded of all the items on her to-do list, of all the horrifically time-consuming things she had to do when she reached her office. When would she ever have time to sleep?
Just before she lost her nerve, however, Sandra swooped in from the left, all bright and smiley, and said, “I’m happy to do your turn-down service, Miss Jennings.”
Kelli breathed deeply, locking eyes with the twenty-something staff member she’d just met the other day, the one who’d saved her after her shoe had broken.
“Sandra,” Kelli said, as Miss Jennings receded into her hotel room. “You’re a lifesaver!”
Sandra waved her hand. “It’s no trouble. I heard a rumor that you’ve been at the hotel for fifty-plus hours since Saturday. Why don’t you go home? Get some shut-eye?”
Kelli blinked at the young woman, incredulous. “No wonder you’re friends with Amanda,” she said finally. “She’s always looking out for people, just like you.”
“It’s my job,” Sandra corrected. “But yes. I hope I have a tiny bit of Amanda Harris’ kindness and compassion.” She then waved as she passed through Miss Jennings’ doorway, prepared to give her the service she needed to get to bed.
And although Kelli remained at the hotel another thirty minutes after that, neither Miss Jennings nor her son complained again.
That night, Kelli collapsed in bed just a few minutes before Xander returned home. After he removed his clothes, he clambered into bed after her and curled himself around her, cuddling her.
“How was the rest of your day, baby?”
Kelli tried her best not to cry. “This is so much harder than I thought it would be. And the guests all have minds of their own!”
“Hospitality is a beast,” Xander said. “But remember what we talked about? About you hiring someone to pick up your slack? It’s purely selfish, of course. I just want you here more often.”
“I’m sure you want me sane, too,” Kelli said.
“I don’t need you to be sane, but I think it’s more comfortable for both of us.”
Kelli giggled, in her first good mood of the day, then kissed Xander gently with her eyes closed.
After a long, comfortable pause, Kelli settled her head back on the pillow and said, “I’ve been really impressed with this newcomer to the island. Amanda’s friend, who happens to work up at the hotel.”
“What’s her name?”
“Sandra,” Kelli remembered. “Maybe I could finagle a way for her and Piper to be my second-in-command staff.”
“Wow. Look at you, learning to delegate.”
Kelli elbowed his stomach, making him laugh. “I’m serious, Kelli! Delegation is supposedly the number-one thing good leaders learn how to do. If I was a leader, I would delegate all the time. But as you know, I work for myself and don’t really play well with others. Except you, of course.”
“And I appreciate your help every single day,” Kelli said as she slowly drifted off to sleep, already breathing easier. Very soon, she would structure the Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel staff workload to allow herself more time with Xander, more time to sit comfortably in the ballroom at the hotel and dream about the hotel’s dramatic past, and more time to just feel the peace that had come this late in her forties. It was time.