Author’s notes:
Here’s a bit more for ya.
Or was that just me?
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Chapter 76:
“I need to make an appointment for my wife,” I told the obviously flaming gay guy at the front desk of the hotel’s salon.
“Of course, sir,” he responded. “I can work her in tomorrow afternoon…”
“Not tomorrow,” I said. “Today. Now, actually.”
He laughed a cute little effeminate laugh, which I wanted to punch right down his throat. With a two-by-four.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir,” he said. “But we are completely booked up for the day. Perhaps-”
“Look,” I said as I waved my hand in front of my face. “I honestly don’t give a shit what else you have going on here today. I want my wife totally and completely pampered by whoever your best is, and I want it arranged by the time I get to my room and back.”
“It’s just not possible…”
His voice trailed off as I pulled out my wallet and started laying bills in front of him. I stopped at five thousand Euros, figuring there was no way he was going to turn down that kind of load, and I didn’t want to leave any room for argument.
“That’s the first half,” I told him as his eyes tried to bug right out of his head and do a little ballroom dancing on the counter. “Once she’s done, you’ll get the other half.”
“This…this will be…fine… sir,” he stammered. “We’ll be ready for her in five minutes.”
“Good man,” I said with a smile.
One more part of this little plan was set in motion.
When I woke Bella up this morning, I had croissants and coffee ready for her on a little tray, along with a single red rose in a vase. I was about as fucking nervous as I could be, just knowing that something so small couldn’t possibly be special enough, but Bella’s eyes went wide, and she reached out for me. I was just about hugged to death before she actually let me go and tried out her breakfast. Part two was the pampering at the salon, followed by dinner. Kate had just said “spa day and take her out of the town,” so I figured that meant dinner and sightseeing.
I told Bella I was taking her out for dinner, and she got a big smile on her face. She went to the dresser drawer and pulled out the white box that had been delivered to our first hotel in Paris – the one she had been carrying with her all this time, but wouldn’t tell me what was in it. She opened it, and pulled out tow dresses – one black, one red. The both looked really, really tiny.
“Which color do you like?” she asked.
“Red.” Like there was really any guesswork there.
I love the fact that money can get me most any kind of service I want. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve fucked up my relationships, but I didn’t want to deal with that right now. I got Bella set up in the salon, got someone else at the front desk to get me a suit with a tie the same color a Bella’s dress, and had the hotel’s florist shred the petals off a couple of hundred red roses and deliver them to the room. Everything was done within view of the salon door, so I could keep track of her as well – until we got to the rose petals. It was the only time I was actually far enough away from the door to get a little nervous. I had a freaking huge basket of petals in my arms, and now that I was staring at the freshly cleaned room, I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with them.
I took a deep breath and carried the basket over to the bed. At first, I just kind of threw the around the bed, figuring I’d go with the BINGO cover-all approach. I made a trail from the door to the bed, and then looked over everything. It just looked like a big fucking truckload of flowers had exploded in the room, if you asked me. I shook my head, trying to figure out what I could do to make it look like less of a…well, less of a mess.
Or was that just me?
I finally went back to the bed and gathered all the petals I could into the center, cursing my general lack of artistic skills. I spread them out again, making a huge, red, rose-petal heart in the middle of the bed.
Girls liked that kind of shit, right?
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Chapter end notes:
He’s trying, right?
What do you think – BINGO coverall, or heart shape? I’m with Edward on this one – sounds like a big-ass mess to me.
Next update – maybe tonight. We’ll see.
