Niki's Challenge (3 page)

“
I’m Mr. Greene, the hotel
General Manager. I understand we had a mix-up in the rooms, and I
want to apologize.” He extended his hand in her
direction.

“
My name is Ms. Bryant. I
don’t understand what happened.” She ignored his hand.

“
There was a
glitch
in the system and
both of you were given the same room.” He waved her away her next
question. “It’s a combination of handling things manually and
electronically. It’s administrative and will be dealt with later.
Let’s see how we can settle this situation.” He glanced at the
bed.

She looked at the bed. The bedspread
covered the mattress. She arched her brow. “What do you
mean?”

“
Mr. Brunson has some
concerns over what happened last night. He seems to think some
irreparable damage has been done.”

She walked to her luggage, and began
packing. “Does he now? What exactly does he think happened?” She
glanced at the man in question, noticing he sat quietly, watching
everything.

“
Let me show you this,” the
manager said. He walked to the bed, and pulled the bedspread
back.

At first, she couldn’t make out the
wet spots. She looked at the manager and then the silent man
watching from the chair. “What’s that?”

“
Body fluids.”

“
Fluids? What do you mean?”
Her face morphed into shock. “What the hell happened?”
Unfortunately, she was sure she knew. But, how? Her brow furrowed
as she gazed at the bed.

Mr. Greene looked at her. “Do you
remember what happened last night?

“
I took some pills last
night for a medical problem and then a sleeping pill. I was fine
when I went to bed and felt pretty good when I woke up. Until I
discovered him.” She pointed towards the corner.

The manager looked over at the end
table next to the bed. “Are these your pills?” He picked up a small
bottle from the end table.

“
Yes,” she said, walking
over and retrieving the bottle. “I had a bad headache when I
checked in and took some pain pills and a sleeping
pill.”

Nodding, the manager turned in the
other direction, affording her privacy with her belongings. “The
night clerk said you were drunk when you got here
earlier.”

“
Yeah, that’s about right.”
The bass in his voice pulled at her. There was something familiar,
but she couldn’t place it.

“
You were on medication
last night? And a sleeping pill?”

“
I already said that.” Niki
wished she could clearly see the man lurking in the shadows of the
room. She felt the heat of his stare on her back.

“
Ms. Bryant, please, if I
may.” The manager wiped his face. “We have a problem that usually
is repaired with an apology, some free gifts and complimentary
nights at any of our properties.” The poor man’s face had reddened
to the color of an apple. She wished he’d get to the
point.

“
This has never happened
before, at least not on my watch.” He waved down her interruptions.
“Not the room mix up, that’s human error and has happened before.
Normally, problems like this are corrected quickly because whoever
is in the room first stops the second person from entering. In this
situation, you checked in around four o’clock yesterday and later
took heavy medication that knocked you out.

She nodded, not liking the direction
the conversation headed.

“
So you didn’t hear him
enter later.” The manager pointed toward the silent
chair.

“
No, I didn’t hear
anything. The pills are pretty strong.” Her doctor had warned her
against mixing her meds. She knew better, but noooooo, she had been
so tired, didn’t want to wait and let it happen naturally.
Fuck!

“
And from the way things
are thrown around in here, I’d say he was noisy.” The manager
turned his attention.

“
Obviously, you didn’t see
her in the bed or her luggage when you arrived, either?”

“
No, I came in, dropped
everything and went to the bathroom. Stripped and got into bed. I
was pretty out of it.”

“
What happened when the two
of you were in bed is anybody’s guess,” the manager said. “But it
seems as though something happened.”

“
What the hell does that
mean, Mr. Greene?” She turned and the force of her anger whipped
out at him.

“
I believe at some point
during the night,” the deep voice sounded into the charged silence,
“or around four
am
,
we had sex in that bed.” His comments held no inflection. The words
took a moment to penetrate.

Her mouth opened and closed. She’d
been so focused on the possibilities of being mugged, murdered, or
brutally raped, she hadn’t given much thought to them sleeping in
the same bed. She disliked his matter of fact façade. Vaguely, she
recalled feelings of floating, an intense release that flowed
through her body. Different from anything she had done for herself.
She thought that had been a dream.

She halted mid-stride. “You mean that
wasn’t a dream,” she whispered. The silence in the room was
deafening. “Oh, hell, no.” Eyes wide, mouth open in shock, a look
of horror on her face. “How the hell did that happen?”

No one spoke.

Tears filled her eyes.

“
Ms. Bryant,” the manager
interrupted the staring match between them. “I don’t know what to
say—”

“
Then don’t say anything,”
she snapped. “Neither of you.” She added pointing wildly around the
room. “I don’t want to hear it.” She snatched her carry on suitcase
and zipped it closed.

“
You will be hearing from
my attorney within twenty-four hours. Please call me a cab, I’ll be
leaving immediately.” She gave him her back and finished packing.
After a moment, the manager left to go into the front
room.

“
You didn’t have to snap at
him.” He paused. “Look, what probably happened is they assigned you
a room and changed it in the system. Somebody forgot to change it
on the room key packet. In the computer, this room was live and
they assigned it to me. I bet you’re a Stellar member and just
showed ID when you checked in. Then someone handed you your key
packet without checking the computer again.” He shrugged. “It’s
happened to me before.”

“
Whatever.” She waved away
his comment knowing it happened exactly the way he said. It didn’t
matter or change her opinion of him. The man was still a drunk.
There were few things lower in her book. Dung maybe. “I’ll have a
physical when I get home.” She pulled her suitcase toward the door.
“I still can’t believe after a long hiatus, I finally have sex, and
it’s with some drunk I don’t even know,” she muttered.

“
So if you knew me and I
was drunk, it’d be okay?” His sarcasm cut through the
silence.

She glared at him.

“
I’m clean, but it won’t
hurt to get checked.” He sat forward in the chair; she could barely
make out his features. “How are you feeling, by the
way?”

“
What do you mean? I’m
fine.” She wasn’t, but she’d never say otherwise to him. She ached
deep in places she didn’t know she had. After placing her computer
bag on the table, she secured it.

“
Good, I’m glad the pills
kept the pain away for you.”

“
Huh?”

“
You were tight. That can
be painful.” He stood and stretched.

Her eyes widened at his
height. She couldn’t help it. He was impressive with a nice body.
From the little she could see, his hair was thick, a brownish-blond
color, impressive six-pack abs and long legs. Pity she couldn’t see
his face clearly. She hated how his voice distracted her. It tugged
and evoked fleeting memories that made her breath catch.
Time to leave
.

“
Why are you so calm? Do
you get drunk and have sex with women you don’t know often?” She
snapped, knowing her comment wasn’t warranted. Whenever she was
nervous and in unfamiliar situations, she went on the
defense.

“
No, and don’t get bitchy
with me. I didn’t plan this either. I just don’t know what to do
about it, do you?” When she didn’t respond, he pulled a card from
his wallet. “Here take my card. If you’re pregnant, you’ll need to
get in touch with me. I’ll help in any way I can.”

She flinched. “Um, no thanks.” She
waved him off. “I’m going to put this night behind me. I want no
reminders. Besides, you were drunk.”

“
A new type of birth
control, huh? You can’t get pregnant if the other person is
drunk.”

She moved closer to the outer door,
ignoring his sharp wit. In other circumstances, she might be
inclined to talk to him. Something told her she wouldn’t be bored
and he could hold his own. He’d held her during the night. A shiver
of dread lanced through her at the alternate possibilities. Things
could’ve been worse. Securing her game face firmly, head tilted
higher, she didn’t have time to break down. That’d come
later.

Sighing in his direction, she
answered. “No, I don’t deal with drunks—period.”

“
Hmm… I hope you don’t get
nosebleeds from way up there, looking down on us mortals.” The
manager returned, she gathered her things and walked
out.

Chapter 4

“
Ma’am…Ma’am.” the security
guard tapped the window to gain her attention.

“
Yes…I’m sorry, you said
something?” Niki asked, noticing the heavyset guard for the first
time.

“
Yes’m. I’ve gotten a call
about this car being parked here for a few hours. Folks are getting
nervous; this is a secure community…” he stammered, squinting down
at her.

“
Hmmmmm… sure, but uh…did
you know that in Michigan last month, there were over twenty
thousand cases of STD’s?” she countered. Her eyes were blurry,
probably bloodshot after her restless night. Her hair was all over
the place, the bulk of the heavy mass was tied up in a messy
ponytail. She wore a pair of flip flops, a Duke t-shirt and
shorts.

Taken aback, the security guard stared
closely at her as if she was drunk or on drugs. He tried again.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to move along. This is private
property in a private community—” he started. She waved him
down.

“
Although,” she continued
as if he hadn’t spoken, “forty-eight percent of all HIV cases are
transmitted by male on males. Shit, with men screwing around all
the time, who the hell knows? Men and that down low crap, you know
what I mean?” She nodded, leaning her head against the headrest of
the car seat closing her eyes; missing the look of horror on the
security guard’s face. Fumbling sounds from the security guard and
a radio sound reached her ears. His grunt of approval signaled he’d
accomplished whatever he’d been trying to do. Oh well. She sighed
and started spouting stats again.

“
I tell you what, um…” She
slowly opened her eyes to look at the guard. “What’s your name?”
She frowned in an attempt to read his badge.

“
Um…uh... you can’t just
park on this lot. It’s… it’s private property,” he scowled, backing
up without answering.

“
Yeah, yeah, I know.” She
waved away his concern. “I own that lot. That’s my house being
built,” she responded, pointing in front of her. “Now, what’s your
name?”

“
Uh…Jenkins, and do you
have proof this is your lot?” he prompted.

Her eyes itched from crying and were
most likely red. The guard reached for his phone as she reached
up.

“
I have a gate controller,
of course.” She rolled her eyes. “Now, answer my
question.”

“
Question? What question?”
His hand released the phone as he squinted at her.

“
Men and down low; pay
attention please. I’m having a moment here.” She sighed. “For
instance,” she continued, not allowing him to speak. “The highest
percentages of STD’s reported last month were for black men. Now,
he’s not black but still, stats can be wrong, right?”

“
Uh…yeah…sure... well, you
have a good day, ma’am. It’s getting dark so be… uh… be careful out
here,” he called, walking backwards to his golf cart, rubbing his
neck.

“
Wait!”

Stopping just short of his patrol car,
he waited. The Mercedes door opened slowly. One foot hit the
ground, then the other. Her head spun. She couldn’t stop the
forward pitch and almost hit the gravel. Two strong hands caught
her before her face met the hard ground.

“
Ugh.” Dots flew beneath
her lids as she tried to right herself.

“
Miss…ma’am… are you all
right? Should I call an ambulance?” He tried to move her into the
car while she pushed backward to get out.

“
No….need…fresh air,” she
murmured, taking a deep breath while holding her head. “Give me a
minute…please.”

“
Uh…Okay...” His posture
screamed his uncertainty. He placed his hands in his pockets,
obviously ready for action in case she needed assistance. If she
had better command of her facial muscles, she’d smile her
gratitude. She didn’t.