Page 94 of Tasty Cherry

I glance over there as often as I dare. Jessie is clearly annoyed by the situation. Suze looks to be there for the gossip. Emily wants to protect the women.

They don’t seem to know about Maverick and Brooklyn.

That boy gets around.

But I circle back to the first thing Jessie said. It can’t cause a disruption in work tasks.

Would a quickie in an empty room count? I’m pretty sure I took too long for lunch, even though nobody said anything when I came in.

And while I know there are no cameras in the secure hall or that secret staircase, I’m clearly in the elevator and security might ping that a lowly intern suddenly has access to an area where I’m not supposed to go.

At the same time, Maverick is drawing all the attention. A few glances between me and Sebastian, or an occasional disappearing act, aren’t going to get noticed with all this other drama.

Jessie seems to realize I’m back, because she breaks up the conversation. “I’ll call him in. And the women. This is going to be a thing.”

Suze heads to her desk. Emily lingers for a moment at the back of the room as if she has more to say, then sits in her chair.

I keep my head down for the better part of an hour, sorting time cards.

Suze eventually wanders over. “You’re moving fast. I’m sorry there is such a backlog. We rarely find time to do it.”

“No, it’s great. I learned a lot at the front desk about handling guests, and here, I’m learning a lot about the shifts people work, and how many employees there are.”

“These are just the hourly workers, of course. There are no time cards for the salaried ones like you and me. Have you worked in the kitchen or laundry yet?”

“No, but it’s coming. My friend Brooklyn has the kitchen today. And there were others in the dish room last week.” I decide not to use Maverick’s name.

“Raya won’t leave you long on those shifts, but it’s good to get a feel for the different parts of the hotel. The laundry crew is tight, normally. They do happy hours and see each other after hours. Housekeeping doesn’t get to interact much, as they are in teams of two. The kitchen is full of cliques, and the deli is a party all the time. They like to do conga lines, and it’s become a tradition for them to pause at the top of every odd-numbered hour to do one with the guests.”

“That’s fun.”

“They gelled from the beginning. Duke is the primary manager, although the original manager Calypso still takes shifts.”

“I haven’t met any of those crews.”

“It’s a big place.”

“How many employees?”

“Around four hundred.”

“Whoa.”

Suze gestures to the time cards. “You’re looking at them. The vast majority are hourly.”

“Why are these physical cards? Isn’t it all electronic now?”

“We were all electronic in the beginning, but then a data crash caused a huge disaster. Havannah switched us to the punch/electronic combo, and everyone liked it because you could walk by the punch card wall and spot who is on shift.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“There are two. One is on the back wall of laundry, where the housekeeping and janitorial staffs punch in. The other is on the back wall of the kitchen, where all food service and prep people check in.”

Suze checks her watch. “Jessie and I will be leading a new employee orientation at two. We have six new hourly staff plus a new security guard coming on board this week. You’re welcome to sit in if you want to see how those go.”

“That sounds fun.”

Suze smiles. “And a break from the filing cabinets.”

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