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Nothing You Can Do About It
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Stay the Night A Coma
BLAKE“How’s it going today, Dad?” I sat down beside the bed in the intensive care unit, checking the wall of monitors hanging behind my father. It had to be the world’s most depressing headboard. The machines beeped and blinked rhythmically, the only sound in the glass bubble that was my father’s bedroom for the time being.I touched my hand to his forehead.It was clammy, cool.My stomach rolled. I hated seeing him this way. The man was a titan of industry, a legend whose name was associated with success and spoken with the highest regard the world over.It was getting harder to remember that with each passing day. Lying in his metal framed hospital bed, he was wasting away right in front of my eyes. More worrying still was that he hadn’t yet opened his own.It was day three of my own personal hell, waking up to come spend the day with a man who wasn’t even conscious. The doctors still couldn’t say if he ever would be again.We were playing a waiting game, waiting on a man I’d never
Stay the Night Can You Hear Me?
Blake“Wake up, Dad,” I murmured, gently squeezing his cool hand. “You have to wake up soon, you hear me? You can’t leave us yet.”Again, there was no response. I kept on talking to him though. I wasn’t giving up on him. Not now, not ever.“The McAllen Group needs you, Dad. I need you. Danny needs you too, whether he knows it or not.”I took a deep breath. Jesus, this was hard. “Come on, Dad. I need you to wake up. If you wait too long before you wake up, there won’t be anything left to save. You built this company from the ground up, but Danny’s going to tear it down from the inside out if you don’t wake up soon.”Unfortunately, I wasn’t exaggerating. I knew the plans my brother had for the company. Some of them anyway. They weren’t good.The company Danny envisioned wasn’t the one we already had. He thought it was too old fashioned.Out with the old and in with the new, he told me once when we talked about the company. To him, hotel chains were fast becoming outdated. He was convinc
Stay the Night Lack of Judgment
ASTONSighing, I tossed my phone down onto the bed beside me and let my back fall to the mattress. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms. I was so damn tired, but I couldn’t sleep anymore.Sleep was getting harder to come by the longer I didn’t hear from Blake. At first, it was worry about my job that kept me up at night. Sleeping with the son of the owner of the hotel was the single most unprofessional thing I had ever done, and I hadn’t even known it at the time.I was terrified I was going to get fired for being the worst manager the hotel chain had. I told Blake the truth about being a virgin before we slept together, but jumping into bed with a guest wasn’t a great first impression.Another worry was that he didn’t believe me about being a virgin. At first, I wondered if he was avoiding my calls because he thought I slept with guests all the time and was processing the paperwork to have me removed from my job.There was nothing in our company policies that specifically proh
Stay the Night All The Credit
AstonTaking in a deep breath, I released it slowly. “Not yet. I called him again earlier, but he didn’t pick up.”“Kudos for calling.” Tiffany nodded approvingly, sipping her coffee. Her flaming curls were pulled up into a messy bun at the very top of her head. They bounced with her movement. “I’m proud of you for reaching out, I know you’ve been worried since I told you who he was.”“I am, but whatever is going on with him must be important. He told me to call him if I needed him, but he hasn’t answered. He’s not the kind of guy to just blow someone off. Something must be going on.”“Just keep trying to get a hold of him,” she told me, pointing her coffee cup at me. “This is exactly the kind of guy who you should be with.”I tilted my head. “Not that I disagree, but why?”Sighing, she gave me a look that told me I was obviously missing something. When I didn’t react or catch on immediately, she sighed again. “Because my dear, innocent, oblivious friend, he’s hot and rich. Plus, you
Stay the Night You Need to Leave
BLAKEThat was my second night in a row in the same clothes, I realized when I woke up.Awesome. I was becoming a hospital hermit. I was even starting to smell like the hospital. For two days, I kept promising myself I only needed another hour or so with Dad.After the hour or two passed, I decided to stay just another hour or two. And round and round I went. Two days later and I still hadn’t gone anywhere. I groaned and shifted on the chair next to Dad’s hospital bed. The same chair I spent the night only semi-sleeping on. A spring was sticking into my ass. I smelled like hospital and shit. My muscles were stiff.Tonight, I really had to go to the hotel and get some sleep in a real bed. Stretching my arms, I rolled my head to the side just in time to see Danny parting the curtains to walk into the room.“Rise and shine, Blake.” Danny had clearly slept better than I had. He was looking shiny, clean and new in a gray morning suit and a cup of actual coffee, not the flavored dishwasher
Stay the Night A Positive Sign
Blake“You hear that, Blake? He’s going to be fine.” Danny repeated what the doctor said proudly, almost like he was responsible for Dad’s progress.My brother was really getting on my nerves, but this wasn’t the time or place to get into it. Instead, I smiled at the doctor. “Thank you for letting us know, Doctor. That’s good to hear.”“You’re welcome. It’s always a pleasure to share good news.” He walked to one of the machines, pressing buttons until the screen changed to show him some kind of information. He made sounds under his breath before turning back to us. “Everything looks good. There’s really nothing more you boys can do here for now. Your Dad is going to survive, but once he wakes up he’s going to have a lot of recovering to do.”Elation swelled in my chest at the words. Dad was going to survive. It was the best news I could remember getting—ever. “Should we start making arrangements with a recovery clinic or something?”A part of me hoped he said yes. If he did, I could t
Stay the Night What's Coming Next?
AstonTiffany and I were both manning the front desk on Monday afternoon. With the influx of guests we were experiencing after implementing all the changes Blake had helped with and suggested, we were going to need extra front desk staff at peak times.One person working by herself wasn’t enough anymore. I helped when I could, but more guests meant more work for me, too. I also couldn’t work our systems as fast as she could.I was working as quickly as I could to get guests checked in, but it felt like my line was longer every time I lifted my head. It seemed like the ad I took out at the airport as well as the free shuttle service between the airport and the hotel was paying off big time.Both of those things were Blake's ideas and I still hadn’t thanked him for either. The hotel was busier than ever and still getting better and busier yet.At the rate we were going, I had no doubt that our mediocre numbers will have shot through the roof by the time they were reported again. I hande
Stay the Night Major Cutbacks
AstonThe reporter on the business news desk was a young guy, maybe my age, with short cropped blond hair and an ill-fitting suit. I wondered if the guy knew his dramatic pauses were going to give me a cardiac event if he didn't spit out whatever it was he had to say.“The company has been in the news recently for making announcements about some big expansion plans. We already know they are expanding their footprint both at home and internationally by adding a few more properties to their growing collection, as they announced awhile back. The company also surprised investors recently when it announced plans to expand into social media."“Get on with it,” Tiffany urged the reporter. She took a few steps closer to the television and glared at the guy the way men sometimes did while watching sports—like the reporter was a referee who made a bad call.It would have been funny if I wasn’t even more anxious to know what was coming than she was.“Danny McAllen, son of CEO Wayne McAllen, spok
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