Hotel Vendome

“Yes, Papa,” she said demurely, and smiled at him, which for a fraction of an instant made him wonder what she was up to. If he hadn’t known her better, he would have thought she had a boy hidden somewhere up her sleeve, but Jennifer assured him she wasn’t ready for that yet. But he knew that day would come, and he would mourn her childhood and total adoration of him when it did. He loved being at the hub of her world, just as she was at his.

They finished dinner quickly because he had to get downstairs for a security meeting in anticipation of the foreign president’s arrival the next day. Heloise went to Mrs. Van Damme’s room then and offered to walk the dog for her. The elderly dowager was very pleased. She’d had a hip replaced recently and no longer walked Julius herself. And she liked it when Heloise took him out. She took him on long walks and came back with brilliant pink cheeks from the cold, and Julius had fun with her, more so than with the bellmen who walked him quickly around the block and brought him back.

Heloise left the hotel a few minutes later in a parka and jeans, with a wool cap on her head and a long knitted scarf and gloves. It was bitter cold, and she ran the old Pekingese quickly around the corner. She stopped in a doorway where a man was lying under a cardboard box in a sleeping bag. She tapped politely on the box as though it were a door, and a wizened old face peeked out and smiled when he saw her. He looked a little drunk, and he had a filthy blanket wrapped over the sleeping bag, which looked new. She had bought it for him with her allowance the week before. She had been checking on him for several weeks and brought him leftover food they gave her in the kitchen. No one ever questioned her requests or asked what they were for. They just assumed she had a healthy appetite or was taking it upstairs for a friend.

“Are you ready, Billy?” she asked the man lying on the sidewalk, and he nodded. She looked like an angel fallen from the sky to him. She had promised him a room for that night. He didn’t really think she’d do it, but he followed her anyway and was surprised she had shown up. He got slowly to his feet, and she helped him fold the blanket and the sleeping bag. He smelled awful, and she tried to hold her breath, as the Pekingese watched.

“Where are we going?” Billy asked her, and she pointed around the corner away from the main entrance of the hotel. There was a door that some of the employees used that led up a back staircase. It was kept locked, and she had taken a key from maintenance that day. And together they walked slowly toward the unmarked door that was on the back side of the hotel. She rapidly unlocked it and told him they had to walk up two flights of stairs.

The room she had blocked that afternoon herself on the computers was on the second floor. She knew the maids had already done their turn-down rounds, so the coast was clear, except for the security camera she hoped no one was watching too closely. She counted the half flights until they got to two, as Billy followed slowly and the dog panted on his way up. She had first met Billy two weeks before, when she stopped to talk to him one afternoon. He’d told her he’d been sick but hadn’t been able to get into a shelter, and Heloise wanted to get him out of the cold and off the street. This was the only way she could think of to do it, and she’d been planning it for two weeks. This was the perfect night. They weren’t fully booked, some of the security staff were out sick, and she was sure she could get Billy into a room, for the night at least. How to get him out again would be another problem, but she was sure she could figure out a way, so no one would ever know he’d been there. And she planned to put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door and clean the room herself after he left. But first she wanted to get him warm and fed and off the streets for the night. It was her gift to him.

“Are you okay?” She turned to smile at him, before she opened the door into the second-floor hall. Julius continued to watch them with interest, turning his head from side to side.

“I’m okay,” Billy reassured her. “I like your dog,” he said politely as Heloise smiled.

“He’s not my dog. I walk him for a friend.” And then she put a finger to her lips, opened the door, and led Billy to a door only a few steps away. She had the key in her hand and unlocked it rapidly and ushered him inside.

The homeless man looked around and began to cry. “What are you doing?” he asked with a look of panic. “I can’t stay here. They’ll put me in jail.”

“No, they won’t. I won’t let them. My father owns the hotel.”

“He’s going to kill you for this,” Billy said, looking worried for her as well.