Page 38 of Fight

Ian sighed and looked over at Jake impatiently. “It’s not that big of a deal, Jake. No, she wasn’t prepared and she looks pretty miserable. But she's not complaining, is she? She's sucking it up and getting through it.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jake muttered reluctantly.

He watched as Lena dramatically tore off a hunk of jerky with her teeth before working her jaw to chew the hard piece of meat.“This is awful,” she said around a mouthful, and Jake chuckled appreciatively.She looked so pathetic with her dirt-swirled face glowering accusingly at a piece of dried meat.

Lena looked up at him when he laughed, her eyes narrowing in uncertainty, and her mouth working into a disapproving frown.Their eyes locked for a few seconds before Jake felt heat rise up his back.Lena quickly looked away toward the lake and tried to take another rough bite of her jerky.

Jake poked at his dinner with his spork before he decidedly set the bowl down on the log next to him. He rooted through his backpack for a few seconds until he found the cup that went with his mess kit.Using his spork, he scraped half of his dinner into the cup and walked the couple of feet over to Lena.

“Here,” he said, holding the cup out to her. “I don’t have another spork, so you’ll have to drink it, but it might be a little better than that jerky.”

She looked at him quizzically as he stood there holding the cup out to her; he thought for sure she would reject it. But, apparently her stomach overruled her pride because she reached out and took the cup from him, her fingers lightly grazing his hand in the process.

“Thanks,” she finally said in a quiet tone. “I really appreciate that.”

“No problem,” he responded before heading back to the log and sitting down next to Ian. He watched as she attempted to take a delicate gulp of the risotto—which was impossible, of course. She got a mouthful and chewed it with her cheeks wide like a chipmunk’s.

He chuckled at her again, but this time she smiled back at him.

Jake walked through the sliding glass doors of the resort with a grateful sigh. He’d taken a group of guests on a ten mile hike that had merged with the Fallen Leaf trail for a few miles. Usually, he became totally immersed in engaging with the guests during excursions like this. But today he’d been so deep in his memories of last summer—both the mistakes he’d made and the small glimmers of positivity—that he’d almost gotten the group lost.

Today was the day that Lena was hiking Dalak with Daniel, so it made sense that she was featuring heavily in his thoughts. After their argument last week, he’d decided that once she did this and proved it to herself, or to him, or whomever, he would try to work out where they’d go from there. He knew he liked her; definitely more than a friend. He wanted to be with her all the time, and talk to her…and touch.

So, how did he go about this? Should he ask her out on a date? Ugh, that felt so stupid. Had he ever asked anyone on adate? No, he hadn’t. He usually made his interest known, and the girl indicated if she reciprocated, and if so, they hung out until they didn’t want to hang out any more. Easy, simple, fast. Something told him if he wanted to hang out with this particular girl, it was going to take a little more effort. Would he take her out to dinner? Coffee? Jesus, he felt ridiculous.

“Thanks so much for today, Jake.” He started as one of the guests, a short middle-aged woman smiled up at him. There he went again, spacing out over Lena when he should be doing his job.

“No problem, Melanie. You did a great job. I hope you and Ben come back next summer.”

Melanie smiled and pressed a twenty into his hand as the other hikers came up and offered similar praise and thanks. Well, maybe he hadn’t been as distracted as he’d thought since the guests seemingly hadn’t noticed. Grateful that the day was coming to a close, Jake jogged up the main stairs of the lobby to his office.

Seeing Cindy’s door was cracked open, he stuck his head in her office as he passed. “Hey you, Cindy Lou,” he let out quickly as he knocked on her door frame before continuing to walk past her office door.

“Jake, wait.” He heard Cindy’s voice call out before he walked too far down the hallway.

Looping back, he leaned against her door frame and looked at her questioningly. She was sitting at her desk in her small office, typing something out on her computer. Her office was stark, but messy with papers, folders, and binders stacked everywhere.For as much as Cindy liked to lean into the whole mountain lodge motif everywhere else in her work, her office was pure business.

“I want to talk to you,” she finally said after Jake had stood and watched her finish what she was working on.“Come in and close the door.”

Closing the door behind him, Jake slipped into Cindy’s office and sat in one of the chairs, setting his hiking backpack on the floor next to him. “What’s up?” he asked.

She looked at him gravely from under her light brows. “I’d like to talk to you about an issue with one of the front desk agents. Specifically, there has been a guest complaint. It sounds like you were involved and helped smooth things over, which I very much appreciate.”

Damn, that asshole worked fast. Jake hadn’t had the chance to talk to Cindy about what happened with Lena and the angry guy from yesterday, but apparently he'd already managed to complain to her about it.

Jake leaned forward in his chair and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Yeah, I think I know what you’re talking about. That guy—”

“That man is Douglas McIntosh,” Cindy interrupted before he could get any more words out.

“He’s a regular here. He drives in every month from San Luis Obispo like clockwork. He loves Lake Conrad, and he very much enjoys the atmosphere we’ve created at the resort. He's averyvalued guest.” Cindy stressed the last words like she was describing the pope and Jake nodded understandingly.He knew more than anyone how much customer service played a role in their jobs at the resort.

“I get that, Cindy, but he treated the front desk crew like crap. He was calling them names and shouting at them. Is that the kind of guest you want at this resort?”

Cindy sighed heavily and looked down.“He admitted he behaved poorly. It sounded like he had a rough day yesterday with traffic, but it didn’t help that the front desk agent–Helena—was very rude and unwelcoming toward him.You know that’s not the type of atmosphere I like to cultivate here, Jake.”

Jake sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Look, Cindy. I know he's an important guest, but he was really treating Lena badly. I had to intervene I was so worried—”

“Oh, he had nothing but wonderful things to say about you, Jake. Really, I feel lucky you were nearby and got things under control so competently. And I know Helena is a personal friend of yours and Ian’s, but I’m not sure she's right for us. She really doesn’t have what it takes to be a face of the Lake Conrad resort. I knew it was her that he had trouble with before he even told me her name. I can only excuse so much bad behavior.”

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