Page 6 of Poseidon's Island Flower

How was that possible? How could I hear the ocean? It made all those cool swishy noises.

“Oh, I like this,”I moaned, rubbing my face into the pillow.

I could sleep,just like this.

“I’m done!” Candice wiped her hands down her dress uniform, not looking at me as she strode over to the thermostat. “They just had bottles everywhere, there wasn’t any puke or anything. Bed wasn’t that hard to make either. Just a bit of a slob. And the weirdest thing I saw, though, was a bunch of togas hanging in the closet. Do you think they’re a bunch of rich frat boys?”

I shuffled off the bed, fluffing the pillow, sad that I had to see it go.

Candice pulled off a note next to the thermostat, reading it aloud. “Please keep the temperature at 63 degrees. Please do not touch or make the bed.” Candice huffed but smiled when she pulled a fifty from the back of the note.

“Ah, see now, this is what I’m talking about.” She looked up to show me but frowned when she saw me holding the pillow.

Oh right.

I threw the pillow back on the bed and fluffed it until it matched the others. She shrugged and reached into her pocket to pull out twenty-five dollars so we could split it.

“These guys are here for a while,” she said. “The paperwork said they could be here as long as a month.”

My eyebrows rose. Maybe that was why they brought their own comforter. They wanted the comforts of home since they were staying here for so long.

“Did you clean everything?” Candace asked. “This was the easiest room yet. Looks like we might get out early.”

“Um, no, let me check on some things, and I’ll help in the living room.” I patted the pillow, staring at it longingly.

Would they notice if I stole the pillow?

I slapped myself on the forehead. What the hell was I thinking? I couldn’t possibly steal a customer’s pillow; that was insane.

But it feels and smells so nice.

Is it their cologne?I tapped my lips.

“You’ve gone crazy.” I whispered, shaking my head. “I’ve literally lost my mind.”

Candice waved me off. “Nah, you take your time. You’ve been up since four sending Koma off. You work too hard. I’m going to go spray some disinfectant and be right back.”

To hear Koma’s name again gave me more unsettling feelings of uneasiness.

I was going to go home to an empty house.

Pick up the pillow.

And as I did, I picked up the pillow again, ignoring the blatant order on the note hanging on the wall.

I sniffed it long and hard, rubbed my face over it one last time, and put it back down on the bed, fluffing it just right to match of the other pillows.

I went about my business, and as I did, I discovered this person had a very secure system in place. He wanted nothing touched unless it was necessary.

His bathroom was neatly organized with razors, toothbrushes, and oils. They laid on a terry cloth towel, folded in half and put into separate little pockets. The mirrors had sticky notes filled with scribbles in a language I didn’t understand hanging on them.

If I had to guess, it was Latin or an alien language. The only notes I could read were the ones addressed to “the cleaning attendant,” and they all said not to touch anything.

“Ready?” Candice poked her head in the door. “Woah, you got yourself a crazy one, huh?” She gaped, looking around the room.

I didn’t nod; I stared at the perfectly lined products in the bathroom. “He just has a system, and he likes to stay with it.”

Somehow, I felt uneasy when she said this person was crazy. I wanted to defend them for no reason whatsoever.

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