will take a while, but the least we can do right now is to give them a nice clean place to sleep.
The conversation is over and yet I don't leave. I stand in the doorway and I wait.
“Can I help you with something else?” Tim finally asks.
“I was just wondering what part of now you didn't understand?” I ask. “Guests are checking in at three p.m. You only have forty-five minutes to make sure that all of those rooms are ready to go. Is there something else that's more pressing that you need to do at this moment?”
He shakes his head and rises to his feet.
Grabbing his jacket, he walks out of his office and mutters something under his breath. I can't quite make it out, but I can tell that it's something derogatory addressed at me.
After having that unpleasant exchange with Tim, I decide to take a break for half an hour and escape to my happy place: my sailboat, which I have named Isabelle.
I walk down the dock under a slight drizzle and see my sailboat bobbing on top of the water in the distance. The old name has been replaced by a brand-new painted decal.
The dark blue is in stark contrast to the white body of the boat and I can't help but stare at her name.
Rachel hasn't seen it yet and I have yet to think of a good explanation as to why the boat is called Isabelle, but between me and the ocean, we both know the truth.
Isabelle is my one true love. It doesn't matter what she has done or how much she has betrayed me. Perhaps, I'm a sucker for thinking that.
Maybe I'm an idiot. I'm probably all of those things.
Still, I can’t help how I feel and how happy it makes me feel to see her name up there on the place I call home.
16
Tyler
I decide to give up my apartment. It was just a month-to-month lease and I donated most of the furniture that I bought to the same thrift store where I got it from.
I didn't have much. A few makeshift bookcases. A futon in the living room. I was living like a college student. Living off pizza and Ramen noodles and using an empty crate for a nightstand.
It's not that I couldn’t afford more. When I first got here, I was saving my money, but after a little while, I had more than enough.
Still, it was nice living like that. Low pressure.
I decided to give up the apartment and move onto Isabelle full-time. Like all boats, she came pre-furnished. Since it's also quite new, the sailboat’s interior is elegant and quite beautiful.
The colors inside are shades of white: ivory, snow, old lace, seashell, and linen. There are different textures that complement the colors and they relax me and put me at ease.
I've never paid much attention to interior design, just going along with whatever was available. Now as a hotelier, I'm the one who has to make the final decisions and approve all of the plans.
Lying on the bed and watching the rain pound against the skylight above, I realize that I want to redesign the rooms in such a way that they actually make guests feel as comfortable and relaxed as I do right now.
The furniture in most of the hotel is tired and weary with thick rounded edges and overstuffed couches. The color tone focuses too much on shades of red (maroon and deep brown) rather than something more akin to a marine feeling like blue-and-white. I don't have a specific way to go about this, but I have received quotes from a few interior designers along with proposals that I will be going through tonight.
A few moments later, I try to put all of the work aside and just relax. I wonder if this has been a mistake. Anyone else in my position would just take the money and do nothing. Maybe go to some Caribbean island, drink too much, and go out with too many women.
I was tempted to do that, too, and I might in the future, but the problem is that I'm not ready for that.
I'm not ready to retire.
I have never been much of a drinker, but my family has a long history of alcoholism. I know that if I were to allow myself to wallow in my pain and everything that I have been through, then I would never come back from the islands.
No, I'm still young and I want to