Page 12
It was something that drove a lot of the guests crazy. Especially when they went around airing everyone’s dirty laundry.
“You know 2B? He totally brought home a sex worker last night. She left only ten minutes later.”
Or, “1C left his blinds open last night. We saw him pleasuring himself to a cooking show.”
As for me, who had no sexual encounters—either alone or with a partner—to worry about them gossiping about, I appreciated how close an eye they were keeping on things.
“I did.”
“Did you give him the papers?”
“Wait. Wait. Wait,” Jill called from inside the room. Something crashed, Jill cursed, then something else crashed. “Don’t talk to 2G without me!”
They both knew my name. But in this place, we all called each other by our room numbers.
The door flew open, and there was Jill.
There was no mistaking the family resemblance with these two women. Both were short and full-figured with round faces, dark hair, and the most gorgeous dark green eyes I’d ever seen. Really, the only true difference between them was that Janet had a straight lob and Jill had a curly one.
“Are you bleeding?” Janet asked, looking down at her sister’s foot.
“What?” Jill asked, looking down. “Oh, no. I think that’s ketchup. I knocked over our leftover lunch.” Janet passed her sister a napkin and she reached down to wipe the ketchup away. “Okay. So. The bastard.”
“I just asked if she served him.”
“Well, I didn’t do it. But he was served, yes.”
“Did you have your lawyer come?” Janet asked. “That was probably the safest bet when giving a dangerous man bad news.”
“No, actually. I couldn’t afford to pay him for another hour of his time.”
“We get that,” Jill said, leaning into the doorway of their room.
Unlike most of the residents, Janet and Jill’s room was full of personality. They’d been staying there for well over a year and had put up their own curtains, bedspreads, and a whole recording area.
They told me once that they’d both quit their jobs and sold a bunch of their belongings to buy their equipment. Then they gave up their lease on their apartment to move into the extended stay motel because the room cost, all expenses included, was less than half what they’d paid in rent.
They wanted to give their podcast and streaming channels a real chance without having to try to work it around their previous shift work jobs.
I’d made it a point to always watch, like, and comment on all their videos to give them a boost. Though, even just since I’d moved into the motel, they’d gained several thousands of new subscribers, so they seemed to be getting somewhere.
“So, who served him?” Janet asked.
“Well, I was about to have a little panic attack, and this guy who was working construction saw me and asked if he could help.”
“Was he hot?” Jill asked.
“Incredibly so.”
“And you didn’t get us a picture,” Janet said, tsking. “Did you get a name?”
“Cain.”
“So, you talked,” Jill said.
“He offered to get me a drink. He was working on a bar.”
“Please don’t tell us that you followed a strange man into a closed bar,” Janet grumbled.
