Page 18 of Ms. V's Hot Girl Summer

“Oh yes. That will probably be a twenty-minute drive. The airport is on the outskirts of the town. But there are a lot of rides, sure drivers. My brother is one. Would you like him to pick you up?”

“Oh well, if you don’t mind, that’s really nice of you.”

“Of course. Of course. I would love to assist. I’m telling you. It is so exciting to host carnival every year. I get to see the most wonderful people. I love working these dates because I just sit here and like people’s gaze.”

“Oh yeah, I can only imagine. I’m guessing, you know, having the cheerleader tournament and carnival at the same time must be a lot.”

“Cheerleading tournament? I haven’t heard anything about a cheerleading competition happening but again, I don’t have all the details of everything happening in the town. But if anybody knows what’s happening in Ofele and its nearby towns, it is my brother.”

My stomach twisted, and I pressed my hand over it to calm it down.

Something must be off.

Something must be wrong.

Maybe the cheerleading competition happened on the outskirts of Ofele. Maybe they called it the Ofele Cheerleading Competition, but it wasn’t exactly there. The twins showed me a website when I asked them for more details about the event. It looked pretty straightforward.

I pulled out my phone and walked out of the airport with instructions on where to wait for the lady’s brother. While I waited, I searched for the cheerleading competition.

Nothing came up in the Google search. Not even the website the boys showed that night when they made all my bookings for the hotel and flight.

Jesus Alabao. There was no way. No way. This was not happening. My breath caught in my throat as my chest accelerated its heartrate. I needed a course of action. Yes. I needed to get to the hotel; once I was situated, I’d think of a plan. These boys don’t even know what they are thinking.

But no, no, no. This couldn’t be, it couldn’t be because Miranda was coming to Ofele, as well. Sweet air rushed through my lungs, accompanied by pure relaxation. It must be something like that. The competition had to be happening. It had to, there was no other explanation.

“Hey, are you Trinitty?”

“Ehh, No my name is Trinidad. Hello, John.”

“Yeah. My sister asked me if I could give you a ride. You’re going to the Ofele Resort and Spa, right?”

“Yes, that’s exactly where I’m going. Thank you so much, John. You’re amazing.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

John had the AC blasting, and thank God for the man because he understood the assignment. The amount of humidity that hit me the moment that I walked out of those sliding doors was unbearable. Already, my locs were losing inches, curling to the top of my crown and holding on to all the moisture in the air. Putting them up in a ponytail to keep them off my neck, I settled in the back of John’s car, my mind whirling with details and all the conversations I’ve had with Miranda and the boys in the past few days. Everything I remembered made sense, but they were the only three people I had talked to about the cheerleading competition and the whole world trip.

None of the other parents have mentioned anything in any of the pickups. The coach hadn’t said anything the last day they saw me when I picked the boys up from practice. I had been so focused on getting everything situated for this event for work that I missed the signs, but I really was hoping I was wrong.

I wasn’t wrong.

* * *

“Ma’am, we do not have a reservation for you. I’ve looked everywhere. I’ve looked at all the name combinations you’ve provided me, and none of them are in our system.” The front desk agent couldn’t be more exasperated if she tried.

“That doesn’t make sense. My son made the reservation. I gave you a confirmation number.”

“Yes, yes, you did. But as I explained, that doesn’t sound like our confirmation numbers. That is not a valid confirmation number; ours starts with eight, and yours starts with a three. Seems like your sons might have been missing a number. Why don’t you go ahead and call them?” the agent said. I’d put her through a wild goose chase for fifteen minutes. She had a line behind me waiting to check in. Everybody was sighing and irritated because I was holding up their fun, but I currently didn’t have a space or a place to stay.

“And you said you’re sold out?”

“Ma’am…the entire town is sold out. It is carnival. Have you not heard of Ofele Carnival? I know that we’re new. We’re just starting to grow. But yeah, the popularity kind of went from zero to ten overnight, so the town is full. I don’t know what to tell you. I really want to help, but there’s really nothing that I can do.” The agent finally thawed out, probably seeing the frustration seeping out of my sweaty pores.

“Please, please could check one more time. I’m gonna call my twins, and I’m gonna try to see if I can find that confirmation number, but in the meantime, can you just check one more time? They made it under Velasquez, please.”

“Sorry. Okay, sure, ma’am. I will check one more time, but it would really help if you had the correct confirmation.”

“Of course, I’m gonna pull over there, and why don’t you take care of these fine folks?” I gestured to the line, my chest tight at the potential reality that I didn’t have a place to stay. “I am so sorry. You know, my kids, they made the reservation,” I explained.

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