Chapter 10
Nell responded to the latest email cancellation with a sigh and all her recent positivity went with it. What a crappy way to start a Monday morning. Normally, Nell didn’t mind Mondays. She didn’t mind any day she woke up in her little flat, ready to start the day in her hotel. She had a lot of sympathy for people who woke up feeling terrible because they were off, probably in the rain, to a job they hated. Nell had been there herself so every day she got to be her own boss in her own gorgeous hotel, was a gift. A gift that was rapidly being taken away from her.
Another bad review had popped up on HotelRater and as a result, a last-minute booking had cancelled. Yet again though, Nell couldn’t place the guests or recall any of the conversations mentioned. She was sure they’d never stayed with her and wondered if they’d tagged the wrong hotel. There must be Holly Lodges up and the down the country, it wasn’t an unusual name. Feeling a bit of her enthusiasm come back, she carried on.
A sip of tea helped to restore her a little more, but it was all very confusing. She’d never had two bad reviews in a whole year before and now there were two in the space of a week. She’d have to email HotelRater again but was pretty sure there wasn’t much they could do. That was the point of sites like that. They were open for people to post honest reviews and the admins had already refused to remove the video of the spider-soup incident. She’d have to think of something else, maybe another local event she could host to make up for the lost income. And there was the restaurant idea she’d been costing out. She closed the spreadsheet and shut the lid of her laptop.
From her spot in the dining room, she looked out of the large conservatory windows at the back of the house. It was far too cold to work from her little reception desk in the hall and as Harry had been the only guest in there for the last half an hour, she’d moved there clad in her favourite massive oversized jumper and second favourite pair of jeans. The jumper was pink and fluffy and had little sequin stars on it. It was her favourite tasteful Christmas jumper. She’d held back slightly feeling that if she put on one of her crazy full-on musical Christmas jumpers in mid-November, everyone – and by everyone she meant Harry – might think she’d gone mad but nothing would stop her edging stealthily into Christmas. The lounge had already been decorated and she’d replaced the centrepieces on the dining-room tables with mason jars full of tiny silver baubles with a long, tapered silver candle. What she needed was some more of Tom’s displays to go along the windowsills. They would really make everything feel festive.
She was a bit worried about him at the moment. He hadn’t been right on Saturday night and it wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned a headache. Maybe he was working too hard? Or maybe she was relying on him too much for moral support and it was stressing him out. They’d always been so honest with each other. A friendship that had grown from solid roots. She’d even fancied him a little when they first met. The thought amused her now she came to think of it. But then he’d got a girlfriend fairly quickly after starting uni and it hadn’t been long till she’d begun dating a boy from one of her lectures. It hadn’t lasted more than two weeks but by then, because they hung out together so much, they’d fallen into the friend zone. She just wanted to know that he was all right though. Maybe she could ask Kieran.
Casting a glance at Harry, who was sipping his Earl Grey and reading the paper, she pulled the sleeves down over her fingers and got back to the task at hand. There were a couple more things to work through before Tom arrived. Her mum and dad would be calling soon for their regular catch-up and Nell wanted to be able to tell them everything was fine. She’d have to mention the spider-soup video and, eyeing her tea, decided something stronger might be in order before that conversation took place.
Mrs Meggett, breakfast chef extraordinaire, bustled out into the dining room and began to clear away the last few remaining breakfast things. ‘Why on earth do people eat this horrible muesli stuff?’ She always called it ‘moozli’ and said it like it was rat poison and not the darling of the health conscious. Nell loved the odd way she pronounced certain things. She also said ‘croyzonts’ instead of croissants and it was guaranteed to brighten up any miserable morning. ‘Give me a full cooked breakfast any day of the week. I’ve had one every day since I was old enough to stand at a stove and it’s never done my arteries any harm.’ Packing away the unopened mini boxes of cereal into a large wicker basket, she gripped the handles and carted it back off into the kitchen. Harry glanced at her over the edge of his paper.
Nell hoped against hope they’d get some more bookings soon because if she didn’t, she’d have to cut Mrs Meggett’s hours and the thought of doing that right before Christmas made her sick to her stomach.
The scrape of a chair drew her attention from the computer screen and a second later Harry was sitting at her table. He wore a beige turtle-neck sweater and whereas it made most men look like they had double chins, man boobs and middle-aged spreads, all this one did was gently underline his firm jaw bereft of even a hint of shaving rash. ‘She’s really somethin’, huh?’
‘She really is,’ Nell replied. ‘But I don’t
