Dad told me that I was going to work here for the summer, before going off to college. I personally do not think that I need to build character, and if so, I would be perfectly able to do that in the Hamptons with all of my friends.
So here I am, standing in a group full of new employees for the summer, and I am one them.
"Welcome to Albright Hotels everyone. Today we are going to go get to know each other trough fun activities. My name is Anne Willow, and I will be your mentor today."
Great. I have met this woman so many times, because dad loves her. I think she is one of his favourite employees, possibly because she earns him a lot of money trough marketing the hotels. She is the one introducing Albright Hotels to the European market, and that really helped take the business to a whole other level. I think that is what bought us the giant house on the Upper East Side, so I guess she is okay.
"I am going to pair you up with a friend from another department than you, and together you have to solve all the activities on todays agenda." She said with an exciting voice.
When I get home, I am going to kill dad for not preparing me for a day like this. I mean I have been growing up in this hotel; there is not one single thing I do not know. Plus, I am only here for the summer, so I do not need to mingle with people from other departments.
"Leonora, you can team up with Trey. He is going to be a waiter. Leonora is going to be in the reception." She said while pointing to Trey.
He looked at me and smiled. He was handsome enough. This day might not be quite as awful as I expected.
"I am Trey." He said while offering me to shake his hand. "I am Leonora." I said as I shook his hand. He smiled nervously and then we looked at the paper that was handed out to us.
He was probably really nervous, because I am the owner's daughter. I could always smell the desperation around me while being here, because everyone wanted to be nice to me. I get why, but everything here is always so perfect. School is also perfect, because ever since I remember, my dad told me to do my best and get the best grades, so I never really struggled. Everything is just really perfect all the time, which I guess is better than everything being bad, so I'll deal with being treated different.
The paper said to find different rooms in the hotel and then at the room, there would be questions about the hotel.
Easy.
"So we have to find room 406. So I think its on level 6 and then room 40." He said and looked at me to hear what I thought. Wrong. It was obviously level 4 and then room 6. I thought that was pretty normal for any hotels, but he didn't really look like one who was used to staying at hotels.
Then it hit me. He does not know who I am.
I decided to play dumb, as if I didn't know where anything was. I would follow his logic and follow him around the hotel. It was so funny how he took over and tried to solve the task. If he knew who I was, he would probably ask my opinion all the time, and make sure I was being heard. But he did not.
The more I looked at him, the more handsome he got. He was an African American guy with milky chocolate skin and very short black curls. He had these cute brown eyes, that would make me dream of a simpler life every time he would suggest something I knew was wrong. Something about him made me want to play around with him and make him feel bad. Even though it sounds awful, it feels right.
The hours went by, and I would completely let him do his thing. He got the hang of it quickly though, and he did not make many mistakes as the hours went by. I could feel how he got a bit irritated with me, because I let him do all the work while just following him and pretending not to have an opinion about anything. It felt kind of good to be treated like I was a bad person, and something about him made me feel different. It was fun.
After we were done with the task, we met at the conference room where Anna would give us a new assignment. She pointed to me and Trey and another pair to go up in front of everybody. I was a little nervous.
She told us that we needed to do some team building, to losing up the tension of being a new employee. We needed to use our bodies to spell out "Albright" standing up.
We looked at each other with a confused look. The pair who did it fastest would win.
She counted down from 3 and then the other pair started to form an A.
"How in the world are we going to that?" I yelled with in a high pitch voice. It made him laugh. "So I am pretty strong and you are pretty tiny" he said, and that made me feel warm inside for a second. He said it like we were the perfect fit. Then he ripped me out of my thought, and lifted me into his arms to form an A. I was so shocked when he lifted me up in a bridal position and my breath stopped. An irritation came over me, because it felt very wrong for a stranger to be touching me without my permission. Then he almost threw me at the ground again. "You have to lean your head against mine and then put your arm against mine, so we form an A," he said in a rush. I didn't know what he meant, but he showed me the way. He was so focused on the task, that I forgot I was angry with him.
He was so quick, that we were faster than the other team.
"Tighten all the muscles in your body, I am going to lift you up."
I quickly just tightened everything and he lifted me up on top of his head to form a T. All the others went crazy, because it was such a tight run. He lowered me into his arms, and I tried to get eye contact with him, but he just sat me down. I felt a rush of emotions going through my body, and I thought to myself, that I needed to get to know him better. He was so focused on the task and he seemed serious about this, but something about his attitude also told me, that he was not an entirely good boy.
I felt the adrenaline rushing through me and I could not help but laugh, as we were announced winners of the competition. After that, we sat down, and someone else was chosen to do a new competition.
"You were really good up there." I said to catch his attention. He looked at me with a smile on his face. "Thanks," he said and focused on the competition. Rude.
He had been a bit closed all day and I wanted to get to know him. Not to brag, but I had pretty shiny blonde hair and many people have commented on my big green eyes, so why would he not be interested in talking to me?
"So why did you chose to work here?" I asked, in another attempt to catch his attention.
"It pays better than my old job"
"Oh where have you worked before?"
"A bakery."
"Oh, that's exciting. Where is the bakery, I might have been there?"
"In the Bronx, where I live."
"Oh haha, I do not come there too often. I mean, not that there are anything wrong with being from there, obviously. I just..."
"It is okay Leonora. You do not look like someone from the Bronx."
"Thanks. I mean, not that it is a compliment. There is nothing wrong with being from the Bronx. I just meant that..."
"You already said that. It is okay. Let's focus on the competition." He said with a bit of anger in his voice.
Damn it. Why did I have to act like this? This is not how I normally act. I usually keep my cool. But he is from the Bronx. Dad would kill me if I ever started seeing someone like that, and that made it all a bit more interesting. Not that I ever would have a relationship with him, but he might be fun for the summer. He did not seem like he wanted to be with me, but he will eventually. I always get what I want.
After a few hours of activities, Anne told us that we could go home, and that she looked forward to seeing everyone on work during this summer.
Trey got up and I followed him out to reception and grabbed him by his shoulder. I froze for a second thinking about how muscular his shoulder was.
"I just want to apologize for today. I know I have not contributed much and I really did not mean to offend you before."
"It is okay. No worries," he said as he turned around to walk out the door.
"I just really want us to be friends, you know," I said, as I stopped him yet again.
He turned around.
"Look, I think you are fine, but I do not see us becoming friends. The whole day you acted like you did not even care about this job, and this job really means a lot to me. I am not here for fun, I need the money," he said and looked at me, waiting for a reaction.
I just stood there in shock. I felt so on top of the world this morning, and now he makes me feel like I am bad human being.
"Miss Albright!" Someone yelled.
One of my father's staff members, that I had never really seen, came up to me.
"I just wanted to say, that Mr Albright wants to take you to a restaurant to congratulate you on the first day as his employee. Your mother is waiting in the car and he will be there in about 20 minutes. Have a good day" He said and walked off.
Trey looked at me in disbelief.
"Miss Albright?" He asked.
"Yes." I said with a guilty look in my eyes.
"So you have been lying to me all day?"
"I have not been lying, I just haven't told the truth. I was going to tell you, but then I thought it would be fun if you did not know. Sorry."
"So you just enjoy watching less fortunate people screw up, and then laugh in your head about how dumb they are?"
"It is not like that. I did not think you would care. And why would you care, you don't want me to be my friend, right?"
"Right." He said and walked off.
We went outside the hotel, and the driver standing before a small limousine waved at me and called me. Trey looked at the car and then at me. He sighed and then he walked off. I felt really bad. But he was also so rude, so I decided to put him out of my mind.
I walked down to the limo, greeted my mom, and then we drove off.