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Roman stood outside of his hotel room door with the key in his hand. He was having another out of body experience, as if he were drunk, even though he hadn’t touched a single drop of alcohol tonight. It must have been the fear of the unknown, the anxiety of wondering whether Chloe was waiting for him inside.
His legs were numb, and his hand felt unattached to the rest of his body as he swiped the hotel room key across the door. The little green light made a clicking sound as the door lock unhinged.
He pushed the door open with a pounding heart and sweaty palms. The lights were on, which gave him an instant flood of relief. Chloe must be inside of there somewhere if the entire place was lit up like Times Square. Every single light in the entire penthouse suite was on.
“Chloe?” Roman called out, placing the key card onto the counter in the little kitchenette as he took a look around assessing the area. “Chloe are you here?” He called out again, but he was met with silence.
He was greeted by empty air and space around him. Chloe was nowhere to be found here either. His worry was reaching panic level. After searching every room in the suite, he decided that it was best to try her unofficial room down the hall that his assistant still booked from formality purposes.
Chloe’s room was at the end of the hall by the elevators. He gently rapped his knuckles against the side of the door. He didn’t have a key to access her room. “Chloe?” He whispered softly, careful not to wake any other hotel patrons sleeping in adjoining rooms.
There was no answer from inside. He wondered if she might be in there sleeping, unable to hear him calling out to her. Was she angry at him in some way, perhaps the reason for her absence? Was she giving him the cold shoulder? It didn’t seem like Chloe’s demeanor to do something like that. If she was angry with someone, she would be the first to broach the subject, wanting to deal with it head-on.
Perplexed, he waited for several minutes, continuing to knock before eventually giving up and trekking back down to his suite at the other end of the hallway, past the elevators. He still needed to find his cell phone.
He walked back into his room, turning the entire place upside down. Frustration fueled his ambition to find his phone. He finally stumbled across it. For whatever reason, he found it sitting in one of his empty drum cases.
He picked it up, going into a frenzy as he immediately noticed what seemed like dozens of missed calls from Chloe. A sliver of relief enveloped him as he realized that she had been trying to contact him after all. He had also noticed that the ringer was off. There were no voicemails, so the mystery as to Chloe’s whereabouts was still on the table, floating out there in the open.
He immediately jumped in to dial her number, sitting down on the edge of the bed with crisp, fresh sheets from housekeeping. Too wound to sit, he stood up again and began pacing the room.
The call cut directly to voice mail. Why was her phone turned off? Was she in a no service zone? Roman paced the room with rising panic.
He glanced at the clock. It was a little after two in the morning now. It would be considered rude and reckless to call Emelia at this hour, probing her for information on where Chloe had disappeared with no guarantee that Emelia would be any more knowledgeable to Chloe’s whereabouts than he was.
Without any texts or voice messages from Chloe, Roman was stuck in limbo.
He could only hope that by some fleeting miracle, she was in her hotel room sleeping soundly. Even as much as he tried to convince himself of that scenario, it just didn’t seem feasible.
Why wasn’t she at the show? Why had she called him dozens of times? It wasn’t like Chloe to just vanish out of nowhere like a ghost in the night. She had to be somewhere, and Roman was bound and determined on finding her, even if it took all night.
He grabbed a jacket from the closet and threw it over his arms. He plucked the room key from the table right where he had left it. Roman didn’t have an agenda for now. He didn’t necessarily want to wander aimlessly all through the city trying to find Chloe. He knew it was a crazy and outlandish assumption to entertain the concept of that working out, but for now, it was all he had in his moment of desperation.
The lobby was quiet. A receptionist was staring at a computer screen, standing up in front of it while clacking away at a keyboard. Roman approached her.
“Excuse me,” he placed his hands on the counter.
The receptionist gazed up at him, but there was no recognition in her eyes as to who he could possibly be. She gave him a genuine, kind smile.
“Are you checking in, sir?” She chimed through a pair of heavily made-up lips.
Roman shook his head. “No, I’m already staying here,” he explained. “I was wondering if you happened to see a petite woman with short blonde hair come through this lobby recently?” He pulled out his phone and showed her a picture of Chloe.
She gave him a regretful frown. “I’m sorry sir, my shift just started thirty minutes ago. I’ve been in the back for most of it while we did the shift changes.”
“Oh...” Roman trailed off, disappointingly glancing over his shoulder.
“I can be on the lookout for her though,” the woman enthusiastically offered.
Roman glanced back at her. She had sleek red glasses and jet black hair. “Please do.”
“Of course, sir.” She spoke with a thick German accent.
“Great.” Roman drummed his fingertips against the cool marble reception countertop. “Thank you.”
He left the lobby and walked down to the indoor pool area, thinking perhaps she went for a night swim. When he approached the glass double doors leading into the spa and pool area, he discovered the doors were locked. He glanced up at the sign on the wall. The hours were nine in the morning until midnight. It was already long after midnight now. Chloe couldn’t be in there.
He walked over to the gym, finding the same problem. The gym only stayed open until midnight as well. Roman was striking out around every turn. He was going to have to give up soon and call it a night.
In one last feeble attempt at locating her, he walked out into the street. All was quiet, peaceful and serene. It was a powerful contrast from the switch of torment rattling through his mind. The noise of his brain was relentless. He felt like running up and down the empty sidewalks, panning the area while crying out Chloe’s name.
He knew that would be a search in vain. He walked back through the lobby and punched the elevator button up to the top floor. He would just have to try his best to get some sleep, even though he knew he would probably be restless for most of the night.
In the morning, if Chloe still hadn’t turned up, he would contact the authorities. She couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, vanishing without a trace. There had to be some explanation; he just didn’t know what it was yet.
He wandered back down to his hotel room, swiping the key against the door. He closed it behind him, making sure to leave the top latch unhooked just in case Chloe arrived in the middle of the night or the early morning.
Going into the bathroom, he splashed his face with cold water. It wasn’t as refreshing as he had hoped. His skin was numb and tingly, unresponsive like the rest of his body. He patted his face dry with a towel, heaving a hefty sigh that contained the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then he walked to his bed and flopped down face first, extending his arms out by his sides.
Roman laid there for several minutes. His face was pressed into the pillows, and it was becoming harder to breathe. He didn’t want to suffocate himself, so he pushed himself back up on his elbows and adjusted the pillow directly under him.
A white note floated to the floor like a feather, delicately spinning through the air. Roman stared at it, unable to move for a moment or two. How did he miss that before in his grand-scale search of the room? He had torn the place apart.
The note had somehow been pushed under the pillows and seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Roman waited until it fluttered to the floor in almost slow motion. He noticed some scribbled writing as it landed face down.
He recognized it immediately to be Chloe’s handwriting. He snatched it up and scanned it, his eyes darting from right to left.
Roman, I’m so sorry to leave in such a rush. I promise you that I am okay. I am safe. My father is very sick. I received a call from my sister who was in tears, saying he had made a turn for the worse. I had to make a snap judgment decision to get on a plane and go home to be with my family. I hope you understand and will be willing to look past this if and when I return. I’m so sorry. Chloe.
He blinked, shook his head and stared at the note until his eyes blurred over, and the words became one scrambled mess of ink on the page. He didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know how to react. His heart ached for her, guilt piercing him that he wasn’t here to support her in her time of need.
He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. He did so until his eyes became heavy, drooping into the temptation of sleep. He wouldn’t be able to deal with this problem until the morning, but at least now, he knew where Chloe was.