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“Since it’s your job, you should consider being a little more polite to the people asking for your help,” I told him sharply.
Something about the guy’s attitude just rubbed me the wrong way. Especially the way he’d spoken about Shay. The female receptionist at the other end of the desk stifled a grin at my statement. Clearly, she wasn’t Lloyd’s biggest fan either.
“Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Lloyd responded, his face darkening.
Before I could respond, a familiar voice asked, “Is everything okay here?”
I turned and found Rhys standing a few feet away. Shay was next to him, his expression surprised but his eyes warm as they landed on me. It looked like they were in the middle of something because Rhys was holding a radio and a scratchy voice came through giving details of an incident in the hotel’s restaurant. Shay’s eyes held a question, and I stepped up to him, pulling his phone from my bag.
“Hi,” I said, my voice breathy. “I’m so sorry for just turning up like this, but I mistakenly put your phone in my pocket this morning, and—”
My words cut off when Shay stepped closer, taking his phone and briefly pressing his hand to the small of my back before he turned and signed something to Rhys.
“It’s fine. I can deal with this myself. Jean is in the office. Go and tell her she can take her break,” Rhys replied to him.
With that, he went, and Shay took my hand, his fingers gripping tightly as he motioned to the left and led me away from the reception desk. I took a quick peek at Lloyd, who was still glowering at me while checking in the couple who’d been waiting behind me.
The whole time Shay held my hand, my heart pounded, my skin tingling where our palms touched. He opened the door to a windowless office room that had a wall of monitors showing security footage from various parts of the hotel. A woman with short brown hair sat on a swivel chair, turning when we entered.
“Is it my turn to go on break?” she asked as soon as she spotted Shay.
He nodded, and she stood immediately, rubbing her hands together. “Great. I’m fecking starving.”
She smiled at me politely before heading for the door. Just before she left, she motioned to the swivel chair next to the one she’d been sitting in. “Don’t sit on that one, by the way. The spring’s broken. It’s a bloody death trap. I already mentioned to Rhys it needs to be replaced.”
Shay acknowledged her with a glance, and she went, leaving me alone with him in the small room. I had a sandwich in my bag I needed to eat before I got back to work, but I could spare a few minutes with Shay.
He took the seat his coworker had vacated, then grabbed a mouse and flicked through footage on one of the screens. When he was satisfied with whatever he was looking at, he turned around to face me.
“I feel so terrible about taking your phone. I would’ve waited to give it back to you on the way home, but I worried there might be an emergency, and you wouldn’t be able to call anyone.”
Shay’s expression softened as he gazed at me. He didn’t respond with a written message, nor any other form of communication, but from the way he was looking at me, I could tell he wasn’t mad at me for turning up.
“That receptionist is a bit of a snoot, isn’t he?” I continued because he just kept looking at me in a very intense way, and I felt the need to fill the quiet. “He kept saying he didn’t know who you were when I asked for you. Well, I suppose that doesn’t sound very rude on the surface, but it was the way he said it, you know?”
Shay’s expression was flat, a flicker of annoyance in his eyes as he listened to me, like he was bothered on my behalf. I glanced at the time on the digital clock next to one of the monitors. “Anyway, I should probably get going. I’m on my lunch break, and I haven’t eaten yet.”
Stay, Shay signed at me, and I was so surprised I understood what he said.
I smiled. “Did you just ask me to stay?” He nodded, and I smiled wider. “Wow, I actually got that. All those bus journey lessons are beginning to pay off, eh?”
I was so pleased with myself I moved to sit on the seat next to him before I remembered his coworker saying it was a death trap. Instead, I perched on the edge of the narrow desk before digging in my bag for the sandwich and bottle of water I packed. I gestured to the wrapped sandwich. “Do you want half?”
