Page 58 of Nightcaps at The Beach House Hotel

“Have you already had a workout?” I asked Darryl as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel.

“Yeah, this beast doesn’t let up,” he teased, grinning at Abbie.

Observing the way, they were smiling at one another, I felt I was watching two people falling in love.

“C’mon. We need to jog around the neighborhood,” said Abbie rising.

Groaning, Darryl got to his feet and followed Abbie out the door.

I sat and reached for my iPad to check for news stories. It was convenient that our local newspaper had online access. I usually started there.

The front page showed Lily Dorio’s photograph directing readers to the social events section. I went directly to that page and stared in dismay at a photo of Lily Dorio, an old fake photo of Lily and Vaughn, and a photo of yesterday’s wedding, showing the bride and groom.

I could feel my face grow hot as I studied them. By the time I got through the article, most of which was a great exaggeration on Lily’s part as to her fame and connections, I was boiling mad.

As I picked up the phone to call Rhonda, my cell pinged.

“Did you see the paper?” Rhonda said. “Lily Dorio and her fake news is all over the social section. We’re going to have to apologize to Robert Anderson and the bridal party. Not only did Lily break our hotel NDA rules, she also broke her pledge to them.”

“What was Terri Thomas thinking? She understands the agreement we made with her about publicity of our guests without their permission.” Terri was the reporter in charge of the social section of the newspaper and usually cooperated with us.

“You’d better call her, Annie,” said Rhonda. “If I even tried to be nice, I’d end up telling her to fuck off.” There was only so much diplomacy Rhonda could manage when she was upset.

“Okay, I’ll do it. You call Bernie and explain the situation to him, and later, before Robert and Brianna leave, we’ll apologize to both of them for the way Lily broke her pledge to all of us.”

“Oh, boy. I knew we’d have trouble with Lily. I wish there was some way we could’ve refused her a room. “

“Me, too, but that wasn’t going to happen. Be sure to ask Bernie to notify us when Lily is ready to check out. I intend to speak to her.”

“Do you want me to join you?” asked Rhonda.

“You bet,” I said, upset at both Lily and Terri. Lily was Lily and Terri knew darn well she should’ve cleared parts of that article with us.

I called Terri, who covered social news for the Sabal Daily News. Soon after we opened the hotel, we’d made an agreement with her. We’d share what news we could without jeopardizing our guests’ confidentiality in return for her respecting our policy.

“Hello. Nice article, huh?” said Terri cheerfully when she answered the call. “I assigned a new young reporter to the interview. I’m hoping he’ll eventually replace me.”

“Didn’t you proof the article?” I asked. “It was full of private information. I certainly didn’t approve the picture of Lily with Vaughn, which you may remember caused an uproar a few years ago. And all wedding guests were asked not to take photographs of the ceremony. Someone must have rushed that through. You’ve broken your arrangement with The Beach House Hotel. How could you? Lily even mentions arriving at the hotel with Tina. That’s confidential information.”

“Hold on, hold on,” said Terri. “My reporter told me that everything was cleared. Lily told him how she was friends with you, Rhonda, and Tina, and everything was okay.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “Why didn’t you check with us directly? We’ve built our business on assuring our guests of privacy. That article will prove otherwise.”

“Oh, Ann, I’m sorry. The article was really about the life of a well-known Hollywood agent. At least that’s how it was supposed to be presented. She just added in a few names and offered us photographs telling of those friendships.”

“It was, in truth, a whole bunch of lies, something you would’ve caught yourself. Now, Rhonda and I are left with a mess because you didn’t check the article before it went to press.”

I drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm myself. “I’m angry and very disappointed. Hold on. Rhonda just walked into my house.”

“Is that Terri?” asked Rhonda loudly. “If so, tell her I’m fucking furious.”

Terri sighed into the phone. “I heard that. If I try to retract anything, it’ll just bring more attention to the issues. I promise that it won’t happen again. I’m trying to get out of the business, but I should’ve checked his work.”

“You’re right. Let’s agree that no more comments about that article will be printed in the paper.”

“Okay,” said Terri and ended the call.

“How’d you do with Bernie?” I asked Rhonda.

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