Hotel Vendome

WHILE HUGUES AND Natalie relaxed in the lap of luxury at the fabulous Palmilla Hotel in Baja, Heloise worked seven days a week at the hotel and kept an eye on everything for her father. Two assistant managers were in charge in his absence, but Heloise was an excellent additional pair of eyes to see that all was going smoothly and people were behaving. She was working double shifts at the front desk in his absence, but she managed to take time off to have dinner with Brad Peterson the week after the wedding. He was taking summer classes so he could finish law school sooner. At the moment he was torn between becoming a tax attorney or an entertainment lawyer. Both fields interested him. But Heloise intrigued him even more when he had dinner with her. They went to a Chinese restaurant near Columbia that was full of students, and they talked about her experiences at hotel school and the George V again. And he was fascinated hearing her stories about their hotel. It sounded like an exciting place to grow up.

“Do you think you’ll take over for your father one day?” he asked with interest. He got the feeling that she was capable of it, or would be in time.

“I don’t know. I want him to run it forever. I’d rather be number two under him. I can’t imagine the Vendome without him. He put it all together himself, and it’s just a perfect little hotel. We offer all the same services the big hotels do, just to better clients and with fewer rooms.” He could see how proud she was of her father’s hotel, and how loyal she was to him. She talked about her mother a little bit, but only superficially. She said her parents had divorced when she was four, and her mother was married to Greg Bones, the rock star, which sounded interesting to Brad. Everything about her interested him, and he was powerfully attracted to her. She was American, but she looked very European, and he liked the way she dressed. She managed to look young, sexy, and chic all at the same time. She was much more exciting than any of the girls he’d met.

He invited her out again the following weekend. He took her downtown to the Cafe Cluny, and she invited him to watch movies and have room service in her new apartment on Sunday night. They saw each other again twice the following week, and by then he kissed her, and they were falling all over each other like two puppies.

By the time Hugues and Natalie came home from their two-week honeymoon at Palmilla, Brad and Heloise were definitely an item, and he was becoming a familiar sight at the hotel. Everyone thought they looked cute together, and they liked Brad a lot. And so did Heloise.

She was thrilled to see her father and Natalie when they got home, suntanned, happy, and rested, and she mentioned Brad casually when she had dinner with them on their first night back. Her father noticed that she had moved most of her things downstairs.

“It would have been too lonely up here without you,” she said simply. “Besides, you guys need some privacy, and so do I.” He thought it was a powerful statement and wondered what she’d been up to while they were gone, other than working. And then she mentioned Brad in an offhanded way, and her stepmother smiled.

“So is this a big deal?” Natalie asked her, and Heloise shrugged with a mysterious smile. Her father was startled to see it. They had been gone for two weeks, and suddenly she had a new romance. But she was twenty-one after all, and Natalie had told him before that her nephew was a great guy and she wanted him to meet her. Heloise hadn’t dated anyone seriously since Francois, in nearly a year.

“I don’t know. It’s too soon to tell. It might be,” she said cryptically. She hadn’t slept with him yet and wasn’t ready to. But Natalie had the feeling it wasn’t far off.

“Well, that sounds interesting.” Natalie smiled at her and was happy for her. She needed more than just work in her life, and she was so dedicated to the hotel. Everyone had told Hugues that she’d done a great job while he was away, and did much more than just her internship duties at the front desk. She had been all over the hotel checking on things a dozen times a day. And he was pleased by how responsible and diligent she was.

And the honeymooners looked happy and rested and more in love than ever. They were planning to spend August settling into married life. Natalie was giving up her apartment, and moving in the rest of her things, and putting some of it in the hotel storerooms. And in September she was planning to tackle new projects, and a few more rooms to renovate in the hotel. And he still wanted to give her the presidential suite to do when there was room for it in their budget.