Throughout the next day, I made sure to avoid Lucien. I was his tour guide, but seeing as he had dismissed me, I made myself scarce and tried to take care of the other guests. Most of them didn't take it well, and it soon became known to me that they preferred Lucien over me.
"Of course, they would," Catherine offered, when I complained to her the previous night. "He's rich, and handsome." She still remembered seeing him from that night, plus a google search showed us how wealthy he was.
Still, it irked me whenever the guests sided him. I sighed and shook my head, finally getting up to get some water when I bumped into a hard figure. "Sorry, I…"
I trailed off when I glanced into Lucien's face and saw him frowning. My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly made to excuse myself but he held my hand back and muttered, "You need to watch where you're going. Life won't treat you nicely twice."
I shuddered at his words, anxious about what he meant. Still, I bent my head and turned away. "Sorry. I didn't see you there."
"I know you aren't blind, but try to use your senses. If you can't be a good guide, then at least be a good human."
"But you're not being one right now!" I protested, slightly raising my voice as I shifted away from him. Instantly, my eyes hovered around for signs of the other hoteliers. Thankfully they all seemed to be at the shopping complex. Why wasn't Lucien with them?
To my surprise, he moved closer to me and bent his head. "What did you say?"
I nervously swallowed and turned my face away, but not before I caught him staring at my lips. Was he…? I looked again, but this time he was looking into my eyes with a mixture of anger and disdain. Maybe, it was just wishful thinking. He officially hated me now.
"No...nothing." I mumbled and shifted even further away from him. "Can I go? I have work to do."
"Better." He moved away without sparing me another glance, and the hairs standing on my hands calmed. It was still the fourth day of them staying in the hotel, and I didn't know if this was something I could handle. The fact that this guy changed in the blink of an eye scared me to bits, and I turned to my boss's office.
Should I go and tell him? Even as I thought about it, the inner part of me laughed in despair. He was a Lucien fan, and after practically selling me to him, there was no way he would take my words seriously. Instead, I shook my head and continued on my way to get water, dreaming of how much better my life would have been if I went on the vacation with Catherine.
It hurt that after everything we planned to do, they so easily cut it off and now, I was being insulted and undermined. With a deep breath, I finished up and went back to work while waiting for Ateg to come back. Throughout the remaining hours, Lucien came downstairs more than twice and each time, he found a way to make me feel useless at work.
"I'm starting to think being at that desk all day is doing you more harm than good."
"The hot water in my room isn't working, Lily." For some seconds, I wondered whether he was telling me this in a manner of conversation or if he expected me to do something about it. "Well?"
"You can meet the hotel attendants. I don't know anything about that."
In response, he cocked a brow and shook his head. "After three years of working here? What have you been doing, then? Stuffing your face full and getting paid for doing nothing?"
Before I could respond, he walked away while the bag of chips I usually ate for lunch stared back at me. Tears pooled in my eyes and I pursed my lips together, repeatedly adjusting the wristwatch on my hand. It was almost time for the end of my shift, and I couldn't wait to go home and cry in my bed.
After a few minutes, the other guests came back laughing amongst themselves. It seemed like they had a lot of fun, and a part of me wished I could be there. However, being Lucien's guide meant my co-worker had to attend to the rest which left me unoccupied. Also, since Lucien didn't want me around anymore, I had little to do except sit in my desk.
The thought of him leaving me this way made me annoyed, but it wasn't like I could do anything until he left. From the way it seemed, I didn't think he had any plans of letting me free from that obligation especially if it meant he could bully me at anytime. My eyes stung again with fresh tears, but I blinked repeatedly and forced a smile of my face as one of the women came to me.
"Hello. I forgot to say earlier, but one of the lights in my room is broken."
"You need to meet the hotel staff for that, ma'am."
She looked at me with a frown. "Aren't you one of the hotel staff?"
"No, I'm a tourist guide. We're just affiliated with the hotel."
"Oh." She seemed to be in thought for a while, and I bent my head thinking we were done when she tapped my desk again. This time, not kindly. "So why exactly are you being paid if you're just sitting there all day?"
"I don't understand." My brows furrowed at this, and I stared at her in surprise. Where was all this coming from? However, she just flipped her hair and looked down at me. In every sense of the phrase.
"I'm beginning to see that Lucien wasted his money on you, and even though he has quite a lot, it's still sad." There was a dreamy look in her eyes when she said the last part, and I was torn between warning her about his attitude or being confused by her need to support him. "You better sit up and do what you've been paid for."
She sauntered away before I could process her words, and I fought the urge to fly out of my desk and pull her hair. It was one thing for Lucien to be picking fights with me, but for these girls who only wanted his money to join in, I felt disgusted.
"This is all your fault," I muttered to myself, and began to pack my stuff. It was still five minutes to the end of my shift, but the quicker I made myself scarce, the better for me. Once again, I took off to the bathroom and I was about to enter when I heard a voice.
"Mmm, I love it when you do that." It was a female voice and it sounded like one of the guests. As I listened, she continued to make cooing vocies and I was about to turn away when someone else spoke.
"You do? Tell me again. Call my name, baby!" The cringe level in his words made me squirm, but I was more concerned with the fact that this was the man Lucien had been complaining to that first day. He was married, and this was certainly not this wife.
"Adams! Oh god, I can't...oh goodness!" She continued to scream, and in my shocked state, I looked around to see if anyone was listening. My eyes moved to where his wife stood, talking to the other women unaware of wha
t her husband was doing.
It was going to be a long two weeks.