Page 65 of Doctor Daddy

“I’m hoping I’ll be able to pick event planning as my specialty for my last semester.”

I knew I had a semester’s worth of classroom work, as well as another two semesters going through rotations before we were allowed to pick our final capstone specialty. But if I expressed my interest and intention now, maybe Professor Patrick would keep that in mind when it came to schedules in the future.

“I am glad to hear that. Most people after spending a couple of weeks arranging chairs and setting up tables find events one of the least interesting aspects of this program.”

“Seriously? I think it’s great. Putting up chairs isn’t that fun, but I’d rather arrange the chairs for a presentation or coordinate with the audio-video specialist than running room service,” I admitted.

“You do seem to have a knack for the coordination and implementation that housekeeping requires. At least that’s what your manager is telling me.”

“Really?” I was glad to know I was good at my job. I didn’t have to like it to be good at it. I shrugged. “That’s good to know. I guess I could always fall back into household management if events fall through.” I definitely knew I didn’t want to be front and center with customer service. And I definitely did not want to be in catering and food service. That one felt entirely too much like unappreciated work.

The babies squirmed and kicked, and I put a hand on my belly with a grunt. That one hadn’t been comfortable.

Professor Patrick nodded at my belly. “How’s that doing?”

“I’m growing my own soccer team and they’re practicing against my ribs at the moment,” I groaned. “Thank you for taking me off food service. I don’t think waiting tables or running room service deliveries would be very good right now. When I’m done with my events rotation what’s the plan? I don’t think food service is gonna want me after that point.”

“We’ll rotate you to grounds that’s mostly office work and that’ll get you off your feet for the remainder of the semester. I know you said you’re okay being on your feet. But the rest of us aren’t.”

I laughed at everyone’s well-intended concern. I was the size somewhere between a small yacht and a large barge. These babies were taking up all the room they could. I didn’t believe that they were curled up tight in the fetal position. To me, it looked, and felt, like they were stretched out as long as they could make themselves.

“What is grounds idea of office work? You know, will I actually have a desk to sit at, or does it mean that I get to have a walkie-talkie clipped to my belt and drive around in a golf cart?”

“We don’t have golf carts at this location.”

I knew that I had just been saying it hypothetically. “Wait a minute. Do we have golf carts at another location? Could I actually do grounds at a different location?”

“You won't be on-site next semester, will you?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’ll be doing the classroom work next semester. But I’ll be back during the summer.”

She nodded. “Okay, that’s good to know. We do have several different locations. And you could change hotels from semester to semester. I’ll be sure to find you a hotel with a golf cart. If you promise to come back next summer.”

I smiled. “Yes, please. That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then. This has been a good conversation.”

Tickled by the thought of driving around on a golf cart, I returned to my inventory. I had at least two more shelving units to get through before I had to check on the laundry supplies. A hotel of this size went through a lot of industrial-grade laundry detergent and fabric softener.

I finished taking inventory of the supplies and headed to the laundry. Walking into laundry felt like getting hit in the face with a warm wet washcloth. If I had thought the storage room was uncomfortably humid, this room was even worse.

I nodded to the few workers who pulled the linens from the wash units, who were folding and sorting towels into one pile and putting sheets and duvet covers into another pile. I proceeded to check on the laundry soap levels as well as the fabric softeners that we used.

I made notes of everything on my clipboard before returning to the manager’s office to turn in my notes.

“Sit down before you fall down,” Antoine, the manager of housekeeping told me.

I handed over my clipboard and flopped into the seat on the opposite side of his desk.

He looked through all of my notes. nodded, shook his head. “This looks good. Now tomorrow we’ll go over how to enter all of this into the system, and you can place your supply order. Okay.”

I nodded. I was out of breath simply from walking through the laundry room.

“You’re still going to be pregnant and in here tomorrow. You’re not going to have this baby overnight. Are you?”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, no babies overnight. We’re in good shape. I’m just wiped out. It is hot down here.”

He nodded. “It is. Reminds me of home.”

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