Page 56 of Last Night Was Fun

“The wedding will be saved one way or another, don’t worry,” he said with his Prince Charming smile back in place. “I won’t let anything upset Piper.”

Emmy gave him a genuinely warm smile. “I’m glad she’s marrying you, Ben.”

“Me too.” He flushed a sweet shade of pink. “I’m going to go talk to the manager some more. Can you help keep Piper calm through all this, please?”

She held up jazz hands and smiled. “I don’t have the narcotic touch like you, but yes, of course.”

“Thanks, Em.”

He left her alone to head to the front desk, and she realized that through all the mayhem, neither of them had asked her where her date was and why she’d arrived by herself.

She swallowed down the story she’d spun about him joining her tomorrow and took the easy—for now—pass.

At the front counter, a woman with thick dark hair and an impeccable white uniform beamed at her.

“Hi. Checking in for Emmy Jameson?” Emmy said.

The woman nodded and typed something into her computer. Emmy took a moment to take in the grand scale of the lobby. Burbling fountains anchored each side of the entrance, and a towering, thatched roof reached like a pyramid over the round center of the room. Out the back entrance—an open-air arch crowded with deeply green palms leaning in as a frame—she could see the aqua blue of a swimming pool and a bevy of lounge chairs and umbrellas.

The woman called her attention back by setting a pair of pinkelastic wristbands on the counter. She lifted one and pointed to the little plastic square with the resort’s logo on it attached to the band. “Here is your room key,” she said in a thick accent.

Emmy nodded and slipped both bands around her wrist for safekeeping.

The woman then produced a map of the property. Emmy had seen photos of it already, of course, but according to the map, it was way bigger than she’d realized. “We have four shuttle stops on the property,” the woman said, and circled the lobby and three more stops along what looked like a pathway winding through the sprawling grounds. “You are in room 2247. Oceanfront king,” she added, and circled the end of a building facing an illustrated strip of beige sand and then a blue swath of sea.

Emmy initially smiled with a nod, thankful her sister had booked her a room with a view, but quickly backtracked her thought when she registered the latter part of the description.

“King?” she asked the woman.

“Sí.” She nodded with a smile.

Emmy’s smile morphed into a tight line as her pulse leapt in her throat. “As in, one bed?”

“Sí,” the woman said with another smiling nod. “One big bed.”

A hot bloom of color raced up Emmy’s neck. “No. I need two beds.” She held up two fingers. “Dos camas, por favor.”

The woman’s smile faltered, and she tilted her head in question.

Emmy’s nerves twisted around inside her like eels. The mere idea of sharing a room with Gabe Olson had her spinning, let alone having to share one with only one bed. And now she was having to negotiate her way out of it in a language she hardly knew beyond high school instruction. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Ben could come help translate, but he and the manager had disappeared. Desperate, she leaned back over the counter and began babbling to the clerk.

“Listen, I’m here for a wedding, and my date is coming tomorrow.We are not a couple. In fact, we don’t even really like each other. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. Idolike one version of him, but that’s not the version who’s coming to the wedding. The guy who’s coming is my co-worker, and he’s doing me a favor. We can’t share a room with only one bed because that is crossing so many boundaries I might as well report myself to HR right now. Please. I need a room with two beds.” She held up two fingers again. “Better yet, I need two rooms. Can you help me with that, please?”

The woman blinked at her, clearly not having followed her ramble. Still smiling, she held up one finger. “One bed. One room. The hotel is full.”

Emmy grimaced and realized it was less of a language barrier and more the fact there were simply no other rooms.

“Well, can I switch with someone? Someone here by themselves who doesn’t need two beds?”

The woman shook her head with another polite smile. Emmy had to credit the hotel management for training their staff to maintain such composure in the face of whining tourists. “We don’t have any more rooms. The shuttle is ready for you now.”

Resigned to her fate, Emmy sighed. She looked over her shoulder to see a fancy golf cart with a luggage rack outside the front entryway. A young man in a white shirt and khaki shorts stood by waiting. “Gracias,” she told the woman and gathered her map.

She rolled her suitcase across the lobby with her heart beating uncomfortably hard. She had a few choice words for her sister for booking her a room with a single bed because Piper knew she wasn’t going to find a date until the last minute, and anyone she invited to come wouldnotbe someone she was comfortable sharing a bed with. And now that someone was her co-worker. Her archnemesis. Her... secret pen pal crush.

“Argh!” Emmy yanked her suitcase over the curb to the waiting golf cart.

The bellhop flinched and looked frightened.