Patricia’s face hardened. “The general manager is occupied. I am not going to disturb him just because you can’t find your booking.”
Right then, a woman in her mid-50s stepped out from a side service door, carrying a stack of fresh white towels. Her dark hair was streaked with gray and pulled back into a simple braid, and she wore the maroon vest of the housekeeping staff. Her nametag read: Lupita.
Lupita took one look at the sleeping child, the bent stems of the roses, the exhaustion weighing down Ethan’s shoulders, and the expressions on the receptionists’ faces. She set the towels down on a nearby luggage cart.
“Excuse me, sir,” Lupita said softly, stepping closer. “Is everything alright?”
“It seems my reservation isn’t showing up in their main system.”
Lupita looked over at Patricia. “Did you check the corporate holding block?”
Patricia clenched her jaw. “I already checked.”
“The secondary corporate tab,” Lupita insisted gently. “Executive bookings sometimes don’t propagate to the main front-desk screen on the first search.”
Karla rolled her eyes. “Lupita, go back to your floor. This isn’t your department.”
Lupita didn’t raise her voice. “No, it isn’t. But a tired father with a sleeping little girl is my business if he’s being left to stand out here in the lobby.”
Annoyed, Patricia aggressively hit a few more keys. Four seconds passed. Then, the color drained from her face.
“Here it is,” she murmured, her voice suddenly hollow. “Suite 904. Corporate reservation. Confirmed two weeks ago.”
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the front desk. Ethan didn’t smile.
Lupita stepped forward, looking warmly at the bouquet. “Those are beautiful flowers, sir, even if the stems got a little bent in transit. Are they for someone special?”
Ethan lowered his eyes. “For my wife. Tomorrow is the anniversary of her passing.”
Lupita caught her breath, her eyes softening completely. “Oh, sir… I am so deeply sorry for your loss.” She looked at Lily with a genuine tenderness that no customer-service manual could ever teach. “Let me find you a proper crystal vase before you head upstairs. Those flowers shouldn’t be left to wither in a dark room.”
Patricia opened her mouth to say something, but Lupita was already walking toward the auxiliary supply room.
And Ethan, holding his sleeping daughter tightly, realized that in his own luxury hotel, a housekeeping employee had shown more basic humanity than the staff explicitly hired to welcome the world.
But the worst was yet to come.
