AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Guess you can say you’re doing your bit for the environment, eh,” Rhys went on, and I shrugged as he stood from the chair he’d been sitting in and clapped me on the shoulders.
“You watch the monitors for a while. Page me if you need me. Carl will be in at twelve to take over, then you can hang around reception after lunch. There’s a big group checking in from the States later, so it’ll be busy out front.”
Okay, I signed, and he left to go to his office. All members of the security team carried small pagers to enable me to communicate with them easily. Rhys had arranged it when he hired me, and thankfully, everyone seemed fine with carrying them. My cousin split his time between that Balfe Hotel and the other one out by the coast. Both were owned by the wealthy Balfe family, who Rhys had grown up with, though I knew he had a bit of a hard time being the only one in his friend group who didn’t come from money. Still, the Balfes loved him. So much so he might as well have been another member of the family.
I focused my attention on the monitors, but my mind kept wandering back to Maggie, wondering where she’d been that morning. I tried to quit fixating. She was probably just late. And besides, I didn’t even know her. It was none of my business where she was.
About an hour into my shift, I got up to grab some coffee. Another of the security staff, Jean, had arrived and was sitting at the monitors with me. Jean was a quiet woman in her forties, and we didn’t interact much because she didn’t know sign language, but I still liked her because she was decent and respectful towards me. She didn’t act put out by the fact she couldn’t communicate with me in the usual ways.
I typed out a quick message and showed it to her.
Cup of coffee?
Jean glanced at the screen, then nodded gratefully. “Yes, love. Thank you.”
I typed some more.
Milk, two sugars?
Jean smiled. “It’s three sugars, and you know it. Quit trying to get me to be healthier, ya cheeky fecker.”
I grinned and went to get the coffees. The staff break room wasn’t too far from the security office, and there were a few workers in there when I entered. I didn’t really interact with the staff who weren’t on the security team, and they tended to view me as a bit of an oddity, but that was always the way. No matter where I worked, there were going to be people who viewed me as strange.
As I hit the button on the coffee machine, I heard a familiar pair of high heels clip into the room. Stephanie Moran was the hotel’s PR Manager. She was also Rhys’ fiancée. The first time he introduced us, she’d asked me how I liked working there. When Rhys explained why I wasn’t responding, she’d paled and looked incredibly embarrassed.
Later, I heard her scolding Rhys for not warning her about me and how humiliating the interaction had been. I felt bad for causing a fight between them and had tried to slip Stephanie a note saying I wasn’t offended, but she avoided me like the plague. I could never tell if it was because she was still embarrassed about our first meeting or if she simply didn’t think I was someone worth making an effort to get to know.
There were people who discounted me simply because of how I was, but I tried to give Stephanie the benefit of the doubt because she was getting married to my cousin.
I turned, holding the two paper coffee cups for me and Jean, when Stephanie’s gaze landed on me. I gave her a nod, and her eyes flared in panic like she was anxious I was going to try and have a conversation with her in sign language or something. I didn’t stop and continued on my way to the office.
Glancing back when I reached the door, I saw her shoulders slump in relief.
Maybe something about me made her nervous. It happened. People often thought someone so silent wasn’t to be trusted. Like not being able to speak meant I was keeping secrets, hiding a dark side. Ridiculous, yes, but you never could tell what crazy ideas people would concoct.
And to be honest, a small part of me was a little bit bothered by her avoidance. Rhys and I were family. We were close, and given my mutism, there were very few people in my life whose companionship I valued. Rhys was one of those people. We spent a lot of time together, and if his life partner was intent on pretending I didn’t exist, then I worried it might cause Rhys to become distant with me over time, eventually favouring her over me.
