“ i’ve been alone for so long i’m afraid i don’t know what it’s like not to be. ” (@architectofhope)
miscellaneous starters . accepting . @architectofhope
Whenever Reeve visited the inn, Melissa made sure to reserve him one of the free rooms for whatever he needed – some hours of restoring sleep in a soundproof room; a long, hot bath; or even a freshly prepared meal from the kitchen that he could enjoy instead of anything that came in a can or could be labelled as junk food.
What the director did, on ninety-nine per cent of the time, was to turn the room into a secondary workstation. Melissa had no idea how much gear he could carry around, but soon or later there would be a myriad of cables on the room floor, connecting screens, keyboards and other pieces of hardware so he could work. Her flower arrangements were all dislodged from the desk and the lamps turned off so he could use the power sockets.
That visit qualified as a another one where he needed a secondary place to work – and the man had been shut in the room for the last five hours, at least. Melissa had to check in – he should have at least ordered some food, but didn’t. The poor man should be starving.
She then made her way upstairs, a tray in her hands with some fresh pasta and a bottle of wine. Since the inn was not yet open, she had the time to take it up herself, dressed as plainly as she could – grey sweatpants, a faded green tank top and one of her trademark floral-pattern robes over it all. There was no use for flashy dresses and heels outside of work hours, after all.
She knocked on the door – but no one answered. After three times, she just cautiously turned the doorknob and peered inside, seeing Reeve sitting at the desk where his computer was, completely entranced with work. Typical.
“Reeve?” she called louder this time, and it got a reaction out of the director – he moved on the chair, turning around to see her entering the room and smiling at her in that sheepish manner of his. Chuckling, she closed the door as she entered and went towards the bed, the nearest place to sit close to him. “You’ve been alone in here for at least five hours.”
“I’ve been alone for so long I’m afraid I don’t know what it’s like not to be,” he replied to her with a small smile, and Melissa had to look up. His words… His voice was soft, like he was telling her a joke, but the madame wouldn’t have it – not at all.
Reeve Tuesti was one lonely man and it broke her heart because he didn’t deserve that. With everything he did for others, very few people seemed to reach out to him in return.
“A man alone in a whorehouse? You gotta to be kidding me, director” she smiled back at him, moving on the bed and crossing her legs, placing the tray right in front of her on the mattress, “I won’t have that. What sort of things will people say if they find out about that? You’ll ruin my business.”
She patted the bed next to her, close to the food – and the look she gave him left no room for disagreement. “You will not wreck my reputation, Tuesti. Come here, you’ll eat this now and we’ll share it – I’ll be damned if I let you stay one more minute by yourself while you’re my guest.”
“But Melissa, I still haven’t fini-“
“I’ll disconnect everything if you don’t come eat with me this instant.”
Unsurprisingly, her threat worked wonders – and Reeve finally made himself comfortable on the mattress to dig in the pasta with her. If he noticed Melissa’s victorious smile, he said nothing of it.
