All In A Day's Work

Time is flying around here, I barely have time to look at my computer, let alone write anything. Please cut me some slack and hang on while I try to play catch up to what's going on now.

What started out as a free weekend with endless possibilities turned into a crappy weekend when my brother and all his marital problems walked into my room. It got even worse when, after the night out with my brother, I didn't hear from Sara. Despite all of that though, the weekend wasn't too bad in the end because my brother went home and I was moving into another room - without Anna.

I can't tell you how excited I was to finally have the room situation cleared up. I needed my own space and some time for myself - Anna never shut up when she was in the room. It was like she needed to hear her own voice to be happy. Or maybe she just loved to talk, who knows. All I know is that I can't stand it when people go on and on about shit that I care nothing about. I don't really want to know everything her boyfriend's - son?...daughter?...whatever? - said or did. I don't care if it was cute or funny, it has nothing to do with me.

The morning of the move, Anna and I were to pack our stuff and bring it downstairs to the front desk before we went to work. When the rooms were cleaned, Scott told us that he would make sure our bags were put into our new rooms and we would have to stop by the front desk after our shifts to pick up our new keys.

"Are you sure you have everything?" Anna asked me as we were walking out the door Monday morning.

"Does it really matter?" I asked her. "If we forgot something housekeeping will find it and bring it down to the front desk for us. It's not like we are checking out and will have to make a trip back here to pick it up."

Instead of replying, Anna did what she always did whenever I pointed out an error in her way of thinking, she rolled her eyes at me.

"What?" I asked, just because I knew it bugged her. "It's true. If we leave something behind, we'll have it before we even check into our new rooms."

OK, maybe there was something about Anna I would miss when we got our own rooms. When I was bored, there was never anything better than to bug her. It was hilarious how easily frustrated she would get with me. Then again, I did take the opposite side of whatever she was saying, just to tick her off. It's a wonder she didn't kill me in my sleep some nights.

After work Monday night though, when I walked into my room and closed the door, I almost missed her non stop talking. It was too damn quite and I was too tired to go out anywhere.

Work wise, things were going along well. I wasn't having any problems with the restaurant manager part of my job description but the banquet manager part? Well that was a little harder to do when they weren't letting me do anything at all with it. I had asked Lonna when I would get a chance to make a booking or even take part in a banquet but she keeps telling me that I still have stuff to learn on the restaurant side of things.

Wednesday morning, I decided it was bullshit. I went to Anna to see if Scott was around but she told me that he was at one of his families other hotel's for a couple days. "What's going on Tanner?" She wanted to know. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

I debated telling her but in the end I just told her that I needed to speak with Scott.

With a smile, she told me that she would tell him when he called later to see how everything was going. "Did you want me to tell him that he needs to get back here immediately to take care of something?"

She set herself up for it, so I don't think it's wrong of me to take advantage of the opportunity. "I don't know Anna, do you need him to take care of something?"

She frowned. "No, I don't...." Her eyes widened and she gasped as I laughed. "That's not funny Tanner! There's nothing going on between Scott and me!"

It was so easy.

Friday morning, I was cashing out a customer when Scott came up to the counter with a huge black binder and an older couple. "I'll just leave you with Tanner here," he told the couple. "He'll let you know what's available for that day." Before walking away, he handed me the binder, he told me that the Lismens wanted to look into booking a banquet room for their daughter's wedding in the fall.

In a panic, I looked around for Lonna and remembered that she wasn't in until later because of the banquet that night. Calling out to Carrie, one of the waitresses, I told her to seat the Lismens in one of the boosts in the back and get them something to drink. "I just have to check on some things," I told them.

Once Carrie started to lead the Lismens off, I booted it across the lobby to the front desk where Scott had stopped to talk to Anna. "Finished already?" Scott looked shocked. "We didn't have anything for that day?"

"I don't know -"

"What do you mean you don't know?" He snapped. "What did you do with the Lismens?" Before I could even tell him the situation, he started saying how poorly this reflects on me and my abilities.

"Oh yeah?" I raised a brow. "How poorly does it reflect on you and this hotel to send clients to me when no one has taken the time to show me where the info for the banquets is? Lonna hasn't let me do anything but the restaurant side of things since I've been here and now you expect me to put this banquet stuff out of -"

"Whoa," Scott held up his hand, gave Anna a questioning look before turning towards me again. "What do you mean she hasn't had you do the banquets? I was talking with her on Monday and told her I needed you to start on the bookings. She told me she would handle it."

"Well," I shrugged. "I guess she decided that by handling it, it meant that she did them and left me in the dark."

Scott swore under his breath. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He wasn't looking at me when he asked that, he was looking at Anna.

"What?" Anna frowned. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Anna, you are my personnel manager, you are supposed to be checking up on the training process. You have to be on top of all employee issues before it comes to something like this!"

She started to protest but Scott was already heading towards the restaurant. "Tanner, you'll watch and listen while I go over the Lismen's requirements and check the dates. Anna, call my father and let him know that I have to deal with issues here so I won't make it back over until this afternoon."

As we made our way through the restaurant, Scott told me that I should've informed him before today that my training wasn't complete. "I hate looking like a fool Tanner."

It was around 2pm when Scott finally decided that I knew enough to handle taking the basic reservation by myself. "I'm going to tell the girls at the front desk to transfer any calls about the conference room to you so you get some practice."

I didn't have the energy to question him, I just nodded and pretended that I was excited about the possibility of getting a call.

"Why don't you grab something to eat?" He said as he opened the office door. "Can't have you passing out tonight when you are in the middle of serving the Homeowner's Society their meals."

I did question that, I was supposed to have the night off.

"Not anymore," he replied. "You'll be here at 5 like the rest of the serving crew. Have a good night Tanner."

Fuck, I wanted to deck the little bastard as he went waltzing out of the kitchen. Instead, I pulled out the manager's food order slips and wrote down what I wanted for lunch.

I had just returned to Lonna's office in the back of the kitchen when the phone rang. Fearing that it was a call about a reservation, I took a deep breath before answering in my best professional voice.

"Hey Tanner, I just saw Scott leave, do you have a minute?"

"No Anna," I sighed. "I'm in the middle of contemplating how to hang myself with an apron."