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Suite

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Chapter 21: Suite (Vanessa's POV)

As we walked out of the airplane and our feet hit solid Hawaii-ground, I stretched my arms above my head, going on my toes, a tiny squeal coming out of my throat.

Aaron stretched beside me a lot more gracefully and pulled me to walk with him as we entered the airport and headed to pick up our luggage.

I stood beside Aaron and looked at the belt as it moved around slowly, hoping to spot my suitcase. Aaron's bag came first and I was expecting him to take it and then step back, but he just stood there and kept looking at the belt. I paused, eyeing him. "Are you going to grab that for me?"

"Obviously," he mumbled, bending to retrieve it. He stood upright, placing my suitcase on the floor slowly, and then faced me.

"Obviously?" I lifted a brow.

He shot me a pointed look. "People. All around us," he faked a whisper. I hummed, reaching to take my suitcase only for him to push my hand away. "Let's go wait by the exit."

The jet lag tonight is about to be a lot to handle. New York is five hours ahead of Hawaii. We landed here at six-fifteen pm, New York time. Now put that to Hawaiian time and it's only one-fifteen in the afternoon. So, we're behind by quite a few hours.

Outside, both of us sat on a bench and took in a deep breath at the same time. Hawaiian air. I turned to look at him as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and ran his hands down his face. "Aaron."

"Hmm?" He looked at me over his shoulder, his black Henley stretching over his shoulders and fitting perfectly.

"Are you only a gentleman under false pretenses? Only for your so-called girlfriends?" I asked, genuinely curious.

It's not like Aaron and I don't argue at all anymore, of course, we do. We still go straight for the other person's ego, but lately, we've been able to put all that aside and work for the Wicked Ruins project and this other project as well. I know he puts on a show, but I'd be lying if I said I was never curious if he really was this type of guy.

"What do you think?" he questioned.

"I wouldn't ask you if I knew."

"Really? I think you would. Make it some sort of test."

I rolled my eyes. Actually, he wasn't wrong, I would if this wasn't the situation we were in. "Well, this is not a test. I'm just curious. You've always been a dick to me and now because of what we're doing, you're being such a gentleman. For the most part, I guess. It's weird."

I mean... he's actually pretty nice to the other girls at work. It's just our thing to argue.

"It would be even weirder if I wasn't and we told people we were together. Come on." He stood up as the others joined us, stepping out.

As the hosts, Davidson and Judith had all the attention. "All right," he announced, "I say from here we all get a cab. Two people per cab maybe? I've emailed everybody the hotel details, that way you know where to go. And we can meet there. All of you have reservations under your own names, so once you're there, you can check into your rooms."

"We should take it easy today," Judith added, "I say we all relax in our rooms, have some late lunch we all didn't eat on the flight, and then perhaps we can all go for dinner together?"

Everybody seemed to agree to that plan and then split up, getting cabs in pairs. Which of course, means it's Aaron and me. Like always.

"Welcome to Maui. Where can I take you?" He smiled at us through the rearview mirror.

"Oceanside Radiance Resort," I answered, checking the hotel on my phone. I went through some pictures of it too, taking in a little gasp whenever a picture with the beach in view came up.

After a few more gasps, I managed to annoy Aaron. Again. "Have you never been to a beach, why do you keep gasping?"

"Of course I've been to a beach, my parents live in Florida, Aaron. I've just never been to Hawaii."

The drive from the airport was almost half an hour. After paying the taxi driver and taking our luggage out of the trunk, we headed inside. There were a few people here already but not a lot, so either everyone's already checked in and we took too long or we're here early.

He grabbed my arm, stopping me before I headed to the counter. "We should wait till the counters clear up a bit. Someone might hear us getting different rooms."

I paused, stared at him, and then shrugged. "Sure. If you think so."

How is the thought not even crossing his mind? How does he not realize we might be forced to share a room?

He watched me in confusion and we both took a seat on the couches, waiting.

Within a few minutes, the counters were less busy, so we both headed over. We went to separate counters at first but I could hear him. "There should be a reservation under the name Aaron Sinclair," he said, "could I please check-in?"

"Hi, I'm Vanessa Juliette Griffin, I'm hoping there's a reservation for me?"

She typed on the computer for a moment and then told me, "I'm sorry, ma'am, there's no room under that name."

I sighed. Exactly what I thought and dreaded.

The woman at Aaron's desk said, "Just a moment, sir. All your details were already filled out by Mr. Davidson, you have room number 101, the couple's suite." She grabbed a set of keys and held them out for him.

He blinked, clearing his throat. "The what?"

"The couple's suite," I said, moving to stand beside him, facing him. "There's no room booked under my name," I whispered.

Damn you, Davidson.

He took the keys from the receptionist, mumbling, "Thank you."

"We should find him before he heads up to his room and ask what the hell he was thinking," I huffed under my breath. "Oh, he's sitting there." I nodded towards where we previously sat.

Most of our co-workers were here by now, taking a minute to sit down before they checked in.

"Mr. Davidson," Aaron said, still standing.

"Yes, Aaron?"

"Can I speak to you for a moment?"

He stood up and stood in front of us.

"Why don't I have a room?" I questioned immediately. "There's no room booked for me."

"And there's a couple's suite booked for me," Aaron added.

"What are you doing?" I ground my teeth.

"Sticking to the plan. How will you both convince people you're together if you're staying in different rooms?"

"We're on a trip with our co-workers. How is it appropriate to share a room?" I scoffed in disbelief.

"How is it inappropriate to share a room with your partner?"

"Oh, my god," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Suddenly, he faced the others but still directed his words at us. "You both don't have to keep it such a secret from your co-workers and friends anymore. I appreciate you telling me first, and I'm glad you two made the request. But you should tell the others, it's not good to lie to your friends."

Aaron and I both stared at him incredulously.

Is this man serious?

There is no way I was going to dig my own grave in front of everybody. "Tell the others what, Mr. Davidson?" I cleared my throat, plastering a smile on my face.

He watched me in amusement and then looked at the others. "Aaron and Vanessa requested to share a room. Because they're together."

It became so quiet, you could practically hear crickets chirping.

"I knew it," Jade scoffed. Some people didn't care and shrugged it off while others were stunned, and some claimed to know it already. "Haven't you guys seen how close they've been? Come on," Jade laughed, then she faced us, ignoring the pleading looks I sent her. "I actually think you both look cute together."

"Mr. Davidson—" Aaron tried again.

"It's okay," he cut Aaron off, "you both don't have to keep this a secret anymore." And then he has the audacity to give us a smile.

Aaron and I glanced at each other and in that one glance, I could tell that he was livid. In general, Aaron hates being told what to do, he hates not getting credit, and he hates it when someone blames him or puts the entire situation on his shoulders. Davidson is doing all three. He's telling us what to do and practically threatening us into it, he's not giving us credit, and making us out to be liars in front of everyone.

It was when I glanced at Judith who was looking between all three of us that I realized she had no idea what her husband was doing.

Well, she didn't, until now.

Realization flickered across her face but she covered it up as she stood up, taking Davidson's arm. She turned to us. "Why don't you both head to your room, hmm? I'm sure the questions everybody's dying to ask you can wait until dinner."

"Let's go," I said to Aaron, giving him a slight push. When he wouldn't budge, I grabbed his hand. That got his attention pretty quickly. "Let's go," I smiled.

He let out a soft sigh and started walking, pulling me with him. Once we were far enough from the others and out of earshot. "I will quit this job when we're back in New York," he scoffed.

"You can't let the others know what we're doing, Aaron. Try not to lose your shit. I know Davidson is being annoying, but we already signed up. Let's just focus on getting through it." I flashed a smile to a hotel staff member who pointed us in the right direction.

The hotel was a resort, which meant it was more open and outdoorsy than a traditional hotel. Once we made it out of the lobby, I realized we were on a higher level and there was only one floor above us.

Looking from where we were, there was a giant pool in the middle that the entire place was built around. There was a staircase on either side of where we stood right now, one leading to the lower level and one to the higher level. We were on the higher level, so we took the staircase to our right and reached the long, endless hallway.

The rooms were pretty far apart from each other.

While walking to the end of the hall where our rooms were, I noticed the two waterslides, the pool chairs, the kids playing in the water. When we reached the end of the hall, I realized there was a left and a right and that was another long hallway. It was the same for the level below ours but on the very last floor, on the left was the dining hall for all three meals, and on the right was the exit that led you straight to the beach located behind the resort.

Luckily, our room was to the right, which meant we had a clear beach view. Our room was the last one, at the very end of the hall and right next to our room was a huge glass panel with a view of the beach. I stared out while Aaron unlocked the door.

"Hello." He snapped his fingers in front of my face. "I'm not a bellboy, Vanessa."

I shrugged, looking away from the beach and at him. "You could be."

He rolled his eyes, holding the door open for me.

I walked in first with him behind me and almost screamed, first in delight, then in horror. The room was fucking beautiful. With one little problem. There was only one bed.

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Chapter 21

I hope the layout of the hotel made sense but I feel like it definitely didn't so here's a sample picture (this is NOT a real resort in Hawaii but I'm using a picture of Ramgarh Palace in Jaipur as an example because this is how I imagine the layout, just more Hawaii-esk and less traditional Indian)

And those hallways in the back continue on left and right

JUST FIGURE IT OUT IF YOU DON'T GET IT

I can't explain architecture it's not my forte

next chapter: questions