“Bianca, honey, get you some rest and you can get me next time.”
Another thing Caesar had always taught Bianca was to never be indebted to someone. He said it didn’t matter if the little old lady in line gave her sixteen cents because she was short on her grocery bill. She should go out to her car and dig and scrape until she found sixteen cents. Otherwise, take down the old lady’s name and address and mail it to her.
Bianca had laughed about it, but Caesar had kept a straight face.
“When your goal is to become a boss,” Caesar had said, “on your way up, never make it so that someone can say, ‘Remember that one time I did this or did that for you?’ Before you know it, depending on how successful you are, that lousy sixteen cents can turn into sixteen hundred dollars or more.”
Even though Caesar’s words echoed through Bianca’s head, this would be the first time she didn’t take heed. She was too tired, too hurt, too dazed, and too confused about where her life was. Maybe she’d gotten herself into something much bigger than she thought it would be. Perhaps she was in over her head. Considering all she’d been through in just her first night in Miami, jail might be like a picnic compared to this jungle.
“Okay,” she told Sammy then walked off slowly. “Next time,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll take care of you next time.”
“Yeah, next time,” Sammy said with a trumped-up smile and a chipper voice. He waved cheerfully. He knew Bianca wasn’t going to turn around and eagerly wave back at him. Miami had already gotten the best of her in a matter of hours. “You got my number. Call me.” He gave out one last shout as Bianca walked through those doors, knowing that if she did call him, it would more than likely be to take her back to that same Greyhound bus station where he’d picked her up.
Bianca didn’t receive the same type of attention going back through the hotel lobby that she’d received when she’d first come through it. It was the wee hours of the morning, and not many guests were milling about the hotel lobby. She walked over to the elevator, hit the button, and the doors opened right up. She climbed in the elevator and took it to her floor. When she got out and walked to her room, she reached into her purse for her room key.
“Nooooooo, please no,” she said softly then began to vigorously rummage through her purse that still held the same items it had held just five minutes ago down at the cab. “No, no, no.” She pulled the lining up out of her purse as much as it would go. She checked to see if it had a hole in it or something that her room card might have slipped through. She came up with nothing. She thought for a moment, figuring she must have dropped it in the cab or something. Maybe it had fallen out of her purse in the club or gotten mixed in with the all her money that someone had stolen from her. She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting a random key to the Marriott.
All Bianca could do was shake her head. This was just too much. She was exhausted physically and mentally. She did not have the energy to go back down that elevator, into that lobby, and get another key. She didn’t have an ID anyway to even present. She leaned her back against the door and just slid down to the floor. She stared at the room across from her for a moment before her shoulders began heaving up and down and tears began to fall.
“You okay, ma’am?” a woman said, exiting the room next to Bianca’s with a cart in front of her.
Bianca briskly rubbed her eyes. Any tears that even thought about falling had now been stopped in their tracks. Bianca looked up at the thick, older Caucasian woman wearing a housekeeping uniform and pushing a cart. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she was one of the housekeepers she had tipped the other day. “I’m fine,” Bianca said, pulling herself off the ground. “It’s just been a long night, and I lost my room key. I’m just tired.” Bianca’s voice broke as she tried to keep it together.
The woman stared at her for a moment then pulled a key ring out of her pocket that had several key cards on it. Without saying a word, asking Bianca her name or for her ID or anything, she walked over to Bianca’s door and opened it with her master key. She held it open and then looked at Bianca.
Bianca stared back at her for a couple seconds. “Thank you,” she finally said. She then held the door open with her own hand as the woman walked back over to her cart and kept it moving.
Closing the door behind her, Bianca just stood against her door for a moment in her dark hotel room. She hadn’t closed her drapes, but the lighting outside and the teasing sunrays that hadn’t fully sprouted for the day didn’t create much lighting. She allowed her dress to drop to the floor, as well as her purse. It had all become the weight of a cannon, too much to hold onto. She stepped out of her shoes and walked butt naked to the bathroom. Like her hotel room key, her panties had gotten lost somewhere during tonight’s journey as well.
Bianca walked over to the shower and turned on the water. She didn’t even play around with the temperature.
