"Hello? Is this the Strangetown Hotel?"

That was the beginning of the phone call I got about two weeks later while I was walking through the town square. "Yes," I answered, "Who is this?"

"This is Frankie Fusilli. I'm going to be in town conducting a little, ah, business. So I'd like to reserve a room."

"I'm pretty sure the penthouse is available," I replied.

"Vacant penthouse, eh? Good, I like them big rooms. Make sure it's nice and clean. I should be there in about, say, two minutes. Don't keep me waiting."

He then hung up.

When I got to the hotel lobby, he was already waiting there for me. But he didn't realize I was the manager, so I was greeted with, "Hey, you, ragu face. I wanna speak to the manager, pronto."

"You already are," I said bluntly, not liking this guy's tone one bit.

"That's you, huh? I guess we spoke earlier. Boy, this hotel must be in a lot of trouble. But that suits me just fine. See, I'm looking for a luxurious room, only I don't want to pay any more than, say, nothing for it."

"Sorry, but all guests have to pay a fee, Mr. Fusilli," I told him. "That's just how it works."

"Oh, you think I should pay, do you?" Frankie suddenly began to be threatening. "That's a real shame, 'cause without me here to watch over things, this building might start falling apart. Scary, eh?"

"Where are you going with this? How would things start breaking?" I asked.

"How? Oh, you know...things might just start breaking, real mysterious like. Like windows...and pipes...and legs. Understand?"

I crossed my arms. This guy was going to be a problem. I sensed that I would have to go with it for now, see what exactly he was planning. "I think I do."

"Ah ha! I thought you would. So what do you say I sign on for, I dunno, a couple of weeks? We'll see how it goes. If my stay has been pleasant, I'll make sure you're amply rewarded.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"Hey, it's me, Frankie Fusilli," said Frankie, "I promise you, kid. So which room is mine?"

"Like I said, penthouse. Right underneath the sun deck, the elevator should take you there."

"Beautiful. I'll see you around." He walked away. "Ciao, kid."

I hated this guy already. Apparently I wasn't the only one, since there were a bunch of angry people roaming around the hotel lobby. I had to calm them down before things really did start breaking. After checking Pepper Pete into the small guest room, I did just that.

But then, my phone rang. It was Frankie, telling me 'my hospitality was lacking' and repeating his threat from earlier. Jesus, not even half an hour after he got here and I was already dealing with this?

Lovely.

I went up to the penthouse to see just what he wanted. I obviously couldn't be rude to him, so I tried to be as polite as I could. "What is it, Mr. Fusilli?" I asked.

"Hey, manager. C'mere, I got a proposition for you. It's my second cousin, Jimmy 'The' Neck. I need him for a little errand, see, but he's two thousand miles away. So what I need you to do is raise a little money so I can fly him from the old country to Strangetown. $1, 000 should cover it."

I inwardly sighed. I already had the money, so I handed it over to him. He also told me to keep quiet about Jimmy coming. It was a 'surprise'.

Frankie's demands didn't stop there, though. Over the next while, he asked things of me like sending Honest Jackson a cow head rigged with an explosive that set his freaking office on fire—which I helped put out. I had to calm him down afterwards because he was understandably ranting about Frankie.

After that, Frankie told me I had to raise the hotel's score to 20% (which wasn't a bad request, to be fair; it was only at 6% at the time.).

I knew it would take me awhile, and I knew I'd need Tristan's help. But after adding a couple lounges, a restaurant and a couple more guest rooms, we did it. We even got higher than 20%, believe it or not, reaching 31%. That satisfied Frankie as well as us.

Just to be clear, I had no problem doing things for my hotel guests. But Frankie Fusilli's requests were suspicious and he seemed like a threat.

The most suspicious request, though, was when Frankie asked me to build a vault so he could store a bunch of money in there. It ended up costing me $3, 000.

When I saw Tristan in the saloon after getting the permit, I decided to bring it up to him. "Hey, Tristan, can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked.

"Yeah, what's up?" He gestured to the chair across from where he was sitting, drinking a Sarsaparilla.

"You know that Frankie Fusilli guy?"

"What's he want now?" asked Tristan.

"He wants me to build a vault in the hotel, which means you're stuck building it," I said. "And once again, I can't tell him 'no' without repercussions."

"That seems a bit suspicious to me," said Tristan, "Why would he need a vault if he's only going to be here for a little while? I mean, I get the risk of it being stolen, but he's already been here for a week or so. Doesn't seem like he'd be around long enough to need it."

"Yeah, I agree with you on all of that," I told him, "But we'd better just go along with it. Mayor Jackson's suspicious, too, after the cow head incident, so something's bound to get done."

"I'll get on it as soon as possible then," said Tristan. "And I have a feeling you're probably right." He paused to take a sip of his drink before asking, "So, how'd you like that alien invasion yesterday?"

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the alien invasion from yesterday. It wasn't only Xizzle this time, though. Other aliens were with him. They were different than Xizzle, though. Whereas Xizzle's skin burned when he touched water, the other aliens just melted, probably dying in the process. I managed to get rid of them pretty easily, to be honest, but I saved Xizzle for last so I got to see the look on his face when he realized he'd failed again. And it was priceless.

"Sorry about your luck, buddy," I'd said, aiming the water gun at him and preparing to shoot. "But I have a feeling you're going to keep coming back, so I'll probably see you again pretty soon."

"You will, human manager Alessa! I vow this!" He'd told me in reply.

That's when I shot him with the water gun and he flew away on his jetpack to rid himself of the burns the water caused him.

But anyway, I replied to Tristan's question with a sarcastic, "Oh, loved it. " I went and got a drink of my own quickly before returning and adding, "If I'm honest, Xizzle cracks me up. I find it really hard to take him seriously, and he doesn't intimidate me at all."

"You're probably the only one besides me, then," Tristan laughed. "I mean, I'm cautious around him since he's usually armed with a ray gun or something, but he doesn't scare me either, really. The other aliens do, but it's like you said about Xizzle. He's too silly for me to take seriously."

"It's funny, I feel like he should be the one people are most intimidated by," I remarked.

"Oh, most people are, like I said," Tristan reminded me.

"Oh, wow, I'm a good listener," I joked, "Sorry about that."

"You're doing good," Tristan added to the joke.

I finished off my drink and got up from the table. "I should probably get going. I have a feeling Auda Sherif is waiting to check out. See you around, Tristan."

"You sure you don't want to hang out for a bit?" asked Tristan hopefully.

I hesitated. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Auda would probably check out on his own eventually, and I liked being around Tristan. He was a really nice guy. I smiled at him and said, "I guess it wouldn't hurt."

Once he finished his own drink, we went up to the dance floor, where people were already dancing. Kayleigh Wintercrest, Kent Hackett and Luthor L. Bigbucks, to name a few. Tristan and I joined them, and I learned that Tristan was particularly fond of rock music. I was, too, but then again, I liked pretty much any music. Slow songs were beautiful, and there were a couple that played while Tristan and I were dancing.

I know it was a bit cliché, but it was really nice to be dancing with him. I saw why Mrs. Hogg liked him so much; he was a really good guy. Plus, he knew how to dance. During the song I found myself getting lost in his blue eyes. I could tell by the expression I found in them that he felt the same way as I did.

When we finally left, he walked me back to the hotel—even though it was right across the street. Still, it was sweet of him to do it. And as we said goodbye, he hugged me.

I made my way inside the hotel and Auda was sitting in one of the comfortable green chairs in the lobby waiting for me. I honestly thought he might've left by now, but apparently not. He also tipped me, which was nice. Once he checked out, I turned to Cory, only to find him passed out. I decided to leave him be, the poor guy didn't usually get much sleep to begin with. He'd probably wake up in a little while.

I went into the manager's suite and quickly called Frankie to let him know the vault was being built. He accepted this and I hung up before he could ask anything more of me tonight. I was exhausted, but I was also in a good mood after the evening I spent with Tristan. I didn't know if I considered it a date exactly, but it was still really nice.

I decided to focus my thoughts on that, rather than the Frankie Fusilli issues, as I fell asleep.