I try not to get all deflated. I know it’s not that she’s complaining about our company, it’s just that we’re a distraction while she’s insanely busy. It would be the same if we tried to follow Ezra around for the afternoon. We’d drive him mad just by being present.
“Sorry, but I have kind of a lot to deal with,” she says with a weary sigh.
“Well, lunch is non-negotiable.” I straighten up, hear another light creak and I move away from the filing cabinet. I dust off my pants and fold my arms in front of my chest. “I have orders from an Alpha to make sure you guys eat, so that’s happening nomatter what. After that, we’ll make sure we’re not in your way. Cross my heart and hope to die.”
She chews on her bottom lip before she submits. “Fine. I’ll put an order in with the kitchen staff. Just let me know what you want.”
“So, this is like room service?” I ask, liking the idea of it. “Is there a menu?”
That makes her smile. “No. No menu. They can make anything you like, or they can go out and get anything you’d like from a restaurant outside. They’re probably prepping a list of orders around about now, so I’d make it fast if you want something from a restaurant.”
My thoughts race at all the choices I have.
Between the food situation and the luxury accommodation, this place is an Omega’s dreamhouse.
I’m starting to get why they come here, for real.
“A double Texas cheeseburger from that rodeo restaurant, and a vanilla shake from the Shaky Shake Shack.”
My perfect combo, and two favorites I’ve never had together.
This is going to be fun.
“What about Pete?” she asks, writing down my order on a notepad.
“Oh, he’ll have the same, with added fries and pickles from the rodeo place.”
“That keeps it easy,” she says as she picks up her phone.
I listen as she places the order, adding a chicken salad sandwich and a bottle of water for herself before she thanks the kitchen and hangs up the phone.
“It could take an hour, but it shouldn’t be any longer than that.”
“That’s a pretty awesome service.”
“Yeah, I guess. We’ll be taking away the outside restaurant services and producing a fixed menu soon to cut costs, but I hadto give the Omegas some notice since that’s a big change, so we’ve got the old system until the end of the month.”
“I bet the fixed menu will still be awesome.”
“It’ll be a lot less fancy, but the perks of this place were driven by rich donors. The designer wardrobes they were given each season is another cost I’ve cut. That one was immediate, but they still have the clothes they were given in the past so it’s not like they literally have nothing to wear.”
“Wow. I can see why Omegas would find this place intoxicating.”
“Some of them don’t seem pleased about the changes, but I’m giving them time to consider what they want to do. Most of them have parents who wanted them to marry the richest Alpha they could find, which is why they were placed here. Now, they need to decide what they want to do with their lives.”
“That must really suck. I mean, if they’ve been told one thing their whole lives then they’re going to feel like failures that they haven’t achieved what was expected of them. I know I felt like a failure when I found out my parents were mad that I wasn’t an Alpha like my brothers.”
“That’s awful, I’m so sorry,” she murmurs.
“It’s in the past. I have a pack now, and I know my parents are assholes.”
“Some of the Omegas here don’t,” she says, as if she’s just realizing it.
“For sure they don’t. They think they’re doing what Omegas are supposed to do.”
“God, why didn’t I think of that?” she whispers.
“I don’t know, but you seem pretty busy.”