Page 56 of Take Me Back
“Pretty much.”
She leans an elbow on the bar as Andreas hurries over to her. “Hey, Andre. Could I order some dinner to go?” She rattles off her order.
“Of course. Of course. Let me get this to the kitchen, and I’ll be back to get you a drink while you wait. Eduardo is on his break, so I’m a one-man show for now.”
He disappears into the kitchen.
“It seems crazy they don’t do room service. I couldn’t believe it when Vander told me that.”
“I assume they want to make sure we leave our rooms.” I take a swig of my beer.
“I hope he didn’t make you uncomfortable with his offer. I think we both assumed, given your question, that you might be into it.”
“No harm, no foul. I was just guessing when I asked.”
Anya slides onto the stool next to me as Andreas returns.
“What can I get you to drink, miss?”
“I’ll take a vodka tonic with lime. Top shelf.”
“Happy to oblige.”
Andreas goes to work making her drink, and Anya points to the window. “Oh my God, do you see that? Is that fire?”
The sun has almost completely set, and sure enough, I see orange flames.
Andreas swings around to look. “Shit!” He drops the glass in his hand and rushes to the exit.
I stand to follow, but she puts a hand on my arm. “Could it spread to here? Should we evacuate?”
“It’s just a couple flames, so they’ll probably get it put out.”
I head for the door, but Eduardo meets me at the threshold.
“Please stay inside, sir. We’ve got it under control.”
There’s no chance to ask for an explanation before he hurries away.
“Should we help? I feel terrible just standing here and watching.”
The same instinct pushes me, but from our position inside, we see four men bring buckets to douse the small fire with water. The larger of the flames are already gone.
“Apparently they really do have it under control.” I grab my beer and down a large gulp.
“Thank the Lord. That seems so crazy.”
Part of me agrees, and then the other part of me realizes that fires happen all the time in places like these, so it’s probably not that unusual.
Two more rounds of buckets later, and the fire and any potential coals are completely out. Andreas and Eduardo both return to the restaurant, out of breath and looking quite relieved.
“What happened?” Anya asks.
Eduardo shakes his head. “Don’t know. Maybe the electrical line sparked?”
“You sure you weren’t smoking over there?” Andreas asks.
With a sharp look, Eduardo responds, “No way. You know I quit. And I’d lose my job if I accidentally started a fire.”
