The four of us made our way over to a long counter where three attendants stood. They were all women wearing stunning uniforms, which looked designer to me. I had the urge to ask Simone. She’d know.
The women’s cherry red skirt suits with the swanky hotel identification badge made me feel like I was entirely out of place. I was wearing a white tee shirt, jeans, and a hooded, zippered, navy sweatshirt. Simone, if she were with us, would have had a fit.
Each of the women paused to give us a smile. They didn’t just concentrate on Timothy either. I felt equally welcomed with their quiet-voiced greetings.
On the counter was a huge bowl of shiny red apples. I wanted one, but I thought they might just be decorative. Two four-foot bouquets of flowers had been plopped on the counter at each side of the apples. The flowers were pretty, I supposed, and artfully assembled, but the bouquet was made up of the raunchy kind of flowers, those that made you sick if you stood too close. I pitied the hospitality staff, which is what the ladies’ name tags said.
Timothy signed in for all of us, then handed rectangular cards to Terry and Bob.
“Are the apples for us?” I asked, blurting it out as I had the tendency to do. But I could smell the apples, and they were my favorite kind — red delicious.
“Help yourself,” the woman with Tina on her name tag said, smiling at me. “Take a couple if you like. I do all the time.”
“How do you put up with those stinky flowers?” I asked her. The woman next to her, Donna, shrugged. “We get used to it. It only bothers us the first ten minutes we’re standing here.”
Timothy was barely keeping his laughter back. When his eyes twinkled as they were doing at that moment, the hints of gold shone through. I wondered if he knew that.
Bob reached out and grabbed two apples, and I did the same. Timothy and Terry acted like they didn’t care for apples. How could anyone not like Red Delicious?
Just as I’d palmed my apples, the males all stiffened. I turned to see what was bothering them. The golf guy had just entered the hotel. His eyes fixated on us.