"What the hell are you doing? Stop!" Taylor yelled angrily. He could feel the redness in his cheeks and he clenched his fists tautly. The ice kept coming, and the little boy kept laughing. He seemed to think it was a joke.
"Make me!"
Taylor felt useless. He felt worthless. His only exit was blocked by the boy but he refused to let him get away with what he'd done. However, the only thing he could think to do was beat the boy at his own game. He picked up five pieces of ice off the floor and one by one flung them at the
little boy.
The boy screamed and Taylor stopped only to laugh before
gathering more ice, all of which had been previously tossed at him. Throwing ice and redeeming his child instincts evoked a sort of pleasure in Taylor.
"Mom!" the boy yelled frantically, peering around the vending room corner and out into the long corridor.
Taylor was unaffected and tossed another ice block at the boy. It hit his back and tumbled down to the carpeted floor, right in front of a pair of black shoes. Taylor looked up to the face of the one who wore black shoes.
"Sir!" the face exclaimed. "Do you know this boy?" she asked. She was part of the hotel's housekeeping. She had on a maid's uniform although she looked much too young to be a maid. Taylor had thought maid's were usually older. "Does it matter?" Taylor snapped. He immediately wanted to take his words back but did nothing to condemn his behavior. She probably had power to evict him from the Tulsa Resort.
Taylor was sure being caught hurling ice at a much younger boy, whom he had no relation to to make matters worse, might just be behavior enough to get him kicked out. His headache suddenly worsened.
"Sir," she started firmly, "he was yelling for you to stop throwing ice at him! If you refuse to stop, I'll report you to the front desk! Not only that but now I've got this ice mess to clean up and I don't get off till the floor is
clean! I should report you!"
Taylor racked his brain for something intelligent to say. "He started it!" he yelled defensively. Way to go Taylor. So intelligent. "I was just protecting myself."
"Make him clean it up!" the boy ordered from below. He held his bucket of ice in his hands and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a thin grin.
The maid smiled sweetly at the little boy. "Why don't you go back to where you should be now, and let me handle this."
The boy nodded slightly and bound out the door with speed Taylor hadn't expected.
"Did you know him? Is he your little brother?" she now asked Taylor.
Taylor laughed half-heartedly. "Did he look like my brother?" Taylor recalled the boy had had dark eyes, skin, and hair and he was rather large around. His looks had no bearings to that of Taylor's.
"No, I guess he didn't," she said, kneeling on the floor to pick up the quickly melting ice.
A wave of sympathy came over Taylor now, and he felt the urge to help out, to be nice. "Sorry about the mess," he said, as if it would be any consolation.
The maid sighed and looked up at him. Her brown eyes were sad, and her mouth was in a firm pout. "I'm used to it. Time to find a new job, I think."
Taylor nodded. He felt sorry for her. She seemed so melancholy and she was probably around the same age as himself.
"Here let me help," he said, stooping down beside her. He helped to pick up the last few pieces of ice and turned to watch her. She was actually very attractive, despite her sadness. She used a rag to dry up the remaining water and slinked the water out into the discard tray of the ice machine.
Taylor watched her twist the wet rag to rid it of excess dripping water. She did so very quickly and Taylor found himself locked in a stare. His eyes found their way from her hands to her covered shoulders, and then he met her striking green eyes.
Realizing he'd been caught staring he blushed a little then as naturally as possible looked back to the manner in which she twisted the damp rag; certainly not that interesting.
A loud buzz sounded somewhere inside the machine as if something had gone wrong, and before a word could be said, the machine began spitting out ice like a cannon.
The maid's gasp cut through the air like a knife and Taylor immediately stood up to help her.
Holding her apron open in front of the machine, she caught all the falling ice in her dress. She did this, too, like a pro, so gracefully, if that fit the current situation, and Taylor rushed around the room in a frenzy, wondering what he could do to help.
Finally, Taylor searched for an electrical plug to pull in the back of the machine, feeling proud that he had discovered the best solution to the problem and almost laughing for not thinking of it sooner.
Finding the outlet, he yanked on the plug, and the red glow of the soda and snack machine came to an abrupt end. Wrong plug.
"It's over there!" the maid exclaimed over the roar of the machine, throwing her head in the direction of the vending machines that had just gone dead.
"Hurry! It's cold!" She directed loudly. By now her apron was nearly full of ice and a few lone ice cubes tumbled over the side of her apron. A steady stream of water dripped from her apron to the floor.
Taylor did hurry, running despite his headache the small distance to the other outlet. He emptied all of two outlets, the very last one he tried finally shutting the machine off. Cautiously he turned back to her and the ice machine to make sure it had in fact turned off. Only A few ice cubes tumbled out and into her apron before the roar died down and both heaved a sigh of relief.
"Will you open that door for me?" she asked loudly. Again she thrust her head to the right towards an exit door, seeing as her hands were unavailable at the moment. Taylor turned around in search of the door and found it behind him. He pushed it open and a burst of sunlight flooded the small vending room.
The maid scurried to the door and dumped her apron full of ice out on the grass. She sighed another loud sigh of relief and looked at Taylor exhaustedly. Taylor let the weight of his body lean against the door and the stress of the situation slowly evacuate. Thinking about the comotion, he couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" The maid wondered. "That was anything but funny!" She looked royally angry.
"Oh come on. Don't try to tell me you don't think that was funny."
"It wasn't!"
Taylor laughed again, as they both reentered the vending room and Taylor let the door close behind him. His head pounded with pain but the laughter kept coming, until he could feel it in his stomach. He had no idea what had possessed him to laugh like such and idiot, but he couldn't help it. It felt good to laugh. The whole situation seemed fake to him, unreal and hilarious.
The maid glared at him with angry green eyes but she couldn't watch the hysterical teen without stifling a laugh of her own, as hard as she tried. "It is not funny!"
"Then why are you laughing?"
She laughed harder and shut her mouth. She was trying so hard not to laugh, and with her effort her cheeks turned a lovely shade of red, which only made Taylor laugh harder. "Well... because you are! I can't help it! Stop
laughing!"
Taylor calmed himself. "I'm sorry," he said.
"For laughing?" she asked, giggling and not caring. She almost calmed herself. "You're right, it was funny." She smiled and her eyes no longer had even a trace of sadness in them, like they had before. As if she'd tossed it out with the ice, with no intentions of picking it back up. Her eyes were amazing, so stunning and green.
"Not for that, for throwing ice at that kid," Taylor said. He smiled sheepishly at himself. He knew he how foolish he'd looked and he felt ashamed of his actions. "And you know... for causing the ice problem."
She smiled again. She had a beautiful smile, and it worked with her laughter to drain away all remaining sadness from her face and eyes. "Don't worry about it," she said. "I'm just glad it happened to me and not to a guest at the hotel."
There was a pause in all action, an awkward moment of silence, and Taylor didn't want it to end. He didn't want to leave this girl. This was one of the rare moments of bliss he'd always remember and he couldn't let it come to an end just yet.
"Taylor Hanson," he said suddenly, thrusting his hand out towards her.
She looked at him timidly for a quiet moment before taking his hand and returning the friendly gesture. Taylor never wanted to let go. Her hand was soft but cold from the ice, and it sent a shiver through his entire body.
"Nice to meet you, Taylor Hanson."
"You too. And you are..."
"Oh! Im Julie. Julie Callaway." She pulled her hand away and used it to brush away a strand of brown hair that had fallen into her eyes. A nice name, Taylor thought.
"No offense or anything," Taylor started, "but you seem a little young to be working as a maid in this hotel."
"Yeah well you seem a little old to be throwing ice at a little kid." Her eyes were sincere, but her smile was laughing. He wanted to kiss her at that moment, but he couldn't. He'd known her only a mere, but wonderful 5
minutes.
"How many times do I have to apologize to you for that?" He
drudged out the unwillingness but she read between his lines.
"I didn't ask you to apologize." She checked her watch. "My dad owns this hotel," she answered, "And now I've gotta run. I'll see you later, Taylor. Maybe." She began to walk towards the corridor, leaving Taylor
stunned, but she quickly turned around. "I'll uhh.... I'll be serving breakfast tomorrow in the restaurant. Cafe Callaway. It's free... the continental. You
should come down." She blushed slightly and Taylor thought it was cute.
He nodded gratefully. "I'll be there."
She smiled again. "Have a nice stay Taylor," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"See you, Julie." Her name rolled off his tongue so easily, as if he were born to simply utter that name. Julie.
Taylor too left the vending room, heading to his room. His headache was still present, but he walked with joy in his steps.
The room was still vacant when he returned. Suddenly very tired, he changed his clothes and brushed his teeth. The moment his head hit the pillow he was out. |
