Misfits, Inc. (2 page)

T
he elegant resort lobby was a massive marvel of carved wood,
marble, and glass.  Countless leather sofas and overstuffed chairs welcomed
guests to hang out in the lobby with its open doorways to the outside, allowing
the sounds of the ocean to fill the area.  The cathedral ceiling was two
stories high with an inside balcony to the second floor rooms.  A massive,
carved staircase towered up to the second floor.  For those less adventurous,
the elevators were off to the side of the lobby near the gift shop.  The front
desk was a breathtaking work of art in itself.  It encompassed half the back
wall and consisted mainly of marble and stone.  A perky blonde woman dressed in
business attire stood behind the large front desk and handed the last of the
afternoon arrivals the electronic keycards to their guestrooms.  As the last
couple approached the elevators and marveled at the grand staircase, the perky
blonde desk clerk, Cass, frowned and looked impatiently at her watch.

A lanky man in his late twenties, Skyler DeMorris,
appeared from a connecting hallway toward the rear of the lobby.  He was
clearly out of sorts as he approached and hurried behind the desk to join her. 
Cass glared at him with disapproval.  He caught her glare, looked away, and
immediately fidgeted.  

“I know; I’m late,” he quickly announced and
fumbled around behind the desk.

“Again,” she snapped then shook her head with
annoyance.  “I don’t know why Talbert hasn’t fired your ass.”

Skyler seemed average in every way imaginable. 
Average looks, average height, and possibly average intelligence.  What set him
apart was his above average personality and explosive energy.  He resembled a
teenager jacked up on caffeine.  Skyler avoided looking at his moderately
attractive co-worker and hastily straightened his gold nametag on his official
resort jacket.

“I’m sorry, really,” he fumbled over his own
words.  Attempting to slow his speech was one of his many main issues.  When he
became overly excited, which was often, he tended to speak faster than most could
understand.  “I don’t sleep for days, and when I finally do, I can’t wake up.”

“You and your sleep disorders,” Cass huffed and
rolled her eyes at him for good measure.  “I can’t believe they don’t have a
pill for what’s wrong with you.”

“I wish they did,” he remarked while attempting to
straighten his tie, although his efforts seemed to make it worse.  His hands
seemed to move faster than his thoughts, making his movements uncoordinated and
jerky.  “Drugs don’t affect me.”

His attractive co-worker obviously had little use
for him and made it known by the way she cast scathing looks at him.  “Save it
for someone who cares, Skyler.  Ms. Keenan’s helicopter was heard approaching,”
Cass informed him in a tone firmer than necessary.  “I sent Merle to the roof
with the luggage cart.  If she kept her keycard to the penthouse, she won’t
have any reason to come down here before this evening.”  Even the staff
attempted to avoid the resort owner.  “I tried paging Talbert, but I didn’t get
a response.  I’d like to believe he’s helping security search for that girl who
wandered off last night, but I think he’s just avoiding the boss.”

“Ms. Keenan’s here?” Skyler questioned then ran his
fingers nervously through his hair.  His rising anxiety was evident.  “I’d
forgotten she was arriving today.”

The look on Cass’s face conveyed her annoyance. 
“What else is new?” she muttered.

Skyler frowned, obviously ashamed of his current
condition.  He cast a sheepish look at his coworker. 

“What’s this about a guest wandering off last
night?” he nervously asked.

“More of the usual,” Cass scoffed.  “Some girl
hooks up with some stud, slips off with him for a few days, and everyone
immediately assumes she’s missing.”

Skyler fidgeted and cast a strange look at the
woman alongside him.  “What did this girl look like?”

“It doesn’t matter, Skyler,” Cass snapped at him
with annoyance.  “She’ll show up soon enough.  You have enough of your own work
to do, and no one needs your toxic, runaway imagination added to the mix.”

As the elevator dinged, Skyler jumped and
immediately looked across the lobby.  The elevator doors opened as if on
command to reveal Lucinda in her full glory.  She walked straight and with
purpose in her formfitting dress and daringly high stiletto heels across the
lobby and toward the front desk.  Hailey and Mel followed behind in less of a
hurry and marveled at the lobby with amazement.  Skyler immediately went to
work in an attempt to appear busy and possibly go unnoticed.  Cass sprang to
attention and offered her best, professional smile while Skyler did his best to
remain invisible to the hotel owner.

“Ms. Keenan, welcome back,” Cass announced
cheerfully.  “Your penthouse suite has been freshened for your arrival.  I’m
sorry Talbert wasn’t on the roof to greet you personally.  He was momentarily
detained.”

Lucinda allowed a throaty laugh to escape.  “Tell
Talbert he could have smoked his nasty cigars on the roof while he waited,” she
announced while grinning knowingly.  “Cass, this is my new assistant, Miss
Aramis.  I trust you’ve given her a suite on the nineteenth floor with an ocean
view.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Cass replied.

“Lucinda--” came a male voice from across the
lobby.

All three turned and looked in the direction of the
voice.  Talbert Jenkin, the hotel manager, approached them with possibly the
worst false smile Hailey had ever seen.  Despite Lucinda’s beauty and perfect
body, most men went out of their way to avoid her.  Men and women within her
circle fondly referred to her as ‘the barracuda’.  Talbert cupped Lucinda’s
hand in his and suavely kissed it.  Talbert was a charming man in his fifties
and most women forty and over would consider him handsome in a vintage sort of
way.

“I wasn’t expecting you for another three hours,”
he announced cheerfully.  His lack of response to his page indicated he was
possibly avoiding the rooftop greeting with the barracuda, prolonging their
meeting to the last possible moment.

“Talbert, darling,” she announced in a tone that
was meant to convey insincerity.  “I’d like you to meet my new assistant,
Hailey Aramis.”

Talbert was quick to cast his eyes upon Hailey and
took in her body with a sweeping glance that immediately made her feel
uncomfortable.

“It’s a pleasure, Miss Aramis.”

“Treat her well,” Lucinda announced firmly.  “I simply
can’t live without her.”

He again eyed Hailey and grinned with an attempt at
charm that came off instead as moderately creepy.  “I can see why.”  His
attention immediately returned to Lucinda and the insincerities continued. 
“I’ll escort you lovely ladies to your rooms.”

Talbert extended his arm to Lucinda, who
immediately linked onto him like an old flame.  Hailey found the exchange
entertaining; especially considering Mel’s gossiping indicated Lucinda couldn’t
stand Talbert.  Hailey got the distinct impression the feeling was mutual.  He
guided her toward the elevator with Mel obediently following behind them. 
Hailey was about to follow then remembered her earlier assignment and turned to
Cass behind the desk.  She caught the perky desk clerk gazing after Lucinda
with a hard to read expression on her face.  It would seem Lucinda wasn’t
popular in any circle, something that was becoming apparent to Hailey the
longer she worked for the barracuda.  Cass focused her attention back on Hailey
and her pleasant smile appeared on command.

“I’m expecting an important document,” Hailey said
politely to the desk clerk not much older than herself.  “Could you notify me
when it arrives?”

“My shift is nearly over, but Skyler will be at the
desk all evening,” Cass announced cheerfully in response and casually indicated
Skyler, who busily worked.

Skyler didn’t even seem to realize his name had
been mentioned.  Cass waited a second then cleared her throat.  Skyler still
didn’t react.

“Skyler--”

Skyler snapped out of his trance and looked at Cass
dumbfounded.  She indicated Hailey across the desk from him.  Skyler turned and
met Hailey’s gaze.  His expression suddenly dropped as his lips parted, unable
to speak.  His look was baffling and almost distant as he stared at her.

“Miss Aramis would like to be notified when her
documents arrive,” Cass recapped the conversation.

Skyler continued to stare at Hailey, frozen in the
same position.  The fact that he hadn’t even blinked was almost disturbing. 
Cass saw his look and appeared embarrassed.

“Skyler?”

Skyler still didn’t react or take his eyes off
Hailey.  Hailey was feeling uncomfortable by his strange, distant stare
obviously directed at her, but it was almost as if he was staring through her.

“Skyler!”

Skyler snapped out of his trance, twitched with
surprise, and knocked a pile of blank keycards from the counter.  The pile
scattered onto the floor by his feet.  Both women watched as he fumbled in high
speed to pick them up.  He straightened with a handful of keycards and hit his
head on the marble counter.  He clutched his head and dropped the keycards. 
While attempting to catch the falling plastic cards, he knocked over a
container of pens.  The pens flew across the desk.

Cass’s expression never changed.  She casually looked
at Hailey and offered a reassuring smile.  “Clumsiness is a side effect of the
gifted--or so he says.  I assure you, he’s on top of it.”

Hailey offered a tiny smile, although she wasn’t
convinced, and headed for the elevator.  Skyler straightened with a fistful of
pens and stared after Hailey, his mouth hanging open and the same fixated look
on his face.  Cass turned to face him and smacked his arm, startling him.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded.

Skyler replaced the pens with trembling hands.  None
wanted to go back into the holder.  “Nothing,” he chirped in a pitch higher
than normal while avoiding looking at her.  “It was
nothing
.”

Her eyes suddenly turned demanding.  “Don’t start
with that psychic crap again,” Cass threatened.  “It freaks out the guests and
gives me the creeps.”

T
he beautiful, tropical beach was alive with hotel guests
tanning and relaxing in the sun under large umbrellas.  Other, more adventurous
guests surfed with boogie boards on moderately tame waves.  Further out in the
water, guests rode the waves on jet skis.  Since it was the beginning of
off-season, the beach wasn’t nearly as crowded as it was at its busiest and
made for a relaxing atmosphere.  Maximum capacity for the hotel was one
thousand guests, but there were no more than two hundred guests during the slow
season.  Mel and Hailey walked along the beach carrying their large, fruity
drinks with the standard, colorful umbrella straws.  Mel had changed into
proper beach attire, which included a conservative bikini and sarong.  Despite
their visit being work related, Hailey was certain Mel intended to make the
most of her free time, which would undoubtedly include finding her own bronzed
cabana boy.  Hailey remained dressed in her business skirt suit, looking out of
place among the beach dwellers.  Mel was obviously disappointed with her
friend’s choice in beachside attire. 

“I wish you’d reconsider lying on the beach with
me,” Mel pouted.  “I need to work on my tan, and I hate not having someone to talk
to.”

“I’m far too tense for something so relaxing,”
Hailey replied.  Unlike her friend, Hailey had business matters with which to
attend and couldn’t take the rest of the afternoon off.  “We’ll worship the sun
all afternoon tomorrow, I promise.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

Hailey suddenly stopped and stared at the woods’
edge across the beach.  There was a trail leading into the forest, which oddly
reminded her of the path in her dream on their journey to the island.  Mel was
talking to her, but she no longer heard her friend.  She listened to the sound
of her own heart beating as the nightmare returned to her in full horror.  She
could almost hear the woman’s scream.  The sound of a woman’s scream startled
Hailey from her daze.  A young woman wearing a flashy, tropical bikini
bodysurfed out of control on a boogie board and nearly collided with them. 
Hailey and Mel jumped out of her path just in time to avoid being run down. 
The young, bikini clad woman, Desi, flipped the board near them, taking more wet
sand than ocean into her ample cleavage.  She laughed as she dizzily stood and
eyed the pair with which she nearly collided.

“Sorry,” Desi announced cheerfully.  “I didn’t mean
to nearly wipe out on you.  These things have a mind of their own.”

Mel eyed the short board Desi picked up from the
sand.  “That looks like fun,” she remarked.

“Complimentary from the surf shack,” an out of
breath Desi announced.

Two more women also in their early twenties, Amy
and Penny, approached them.  Amy, a short blonde-haired girl, wore a more
conservative tankini swimsuit with a swim skirt, while Penny, a tall
auburn-haired beauty, wore a slightly more revealing bikini in hot pink. 
Hailey wasn’t positive from the front, but she was almost certain Penny was
wearing a thong bottom.

Desi looked at her approaching friends then back to
Hailey and Mel.  “I’m Desi and these are my friends, Amy and Penny.”

“Mel and Hailey,” Mel announced, her eyes
automatically drawn to Amy’s black rose tattoo creeping out of her bikini top
on her left breast.  “We just arrived.”  She indicated the tattoo.  “That’s an
interesting tattoo.”

Amy looked at her tattoo peeking out from her
bathing suit then met Mel’s gaze and grinned.  “My boyfriend wanted me to get a
yellow rose,” she announced then casually indicated the black rose.  “After I
dumped his sorry ass, I had the artist change it to a black rose.”

“Acht,” Desi loudly announced and pointed a warning
finger, “we’re not discussing ex-boyfriends on this trip.  We’re here to have
fun and do our own prowling.”

Amy looked at Hailey and Mel with enthusiasm on her
face.  “Oh, you have to join us tonight in the lounge,” she chimed in.  “After
the piano man retires, the old fogies go to bed, and they crank the dance
music.  It’s a total stud-fest.”

“Yeah, come out with us tonight,” Desi announced in
response.  “It’ll be so much fun.  Last night, we didn’t get to bed until
nearly sunrise.”

“We’d love to,” Mel quickly replied and clutched
Hailey’s arm before she could open her mouth.

“Great,” Desi announced cheerfully.  “We’ll meet
you in the lounge around ten.”

The three women waved and left.  Hailey couldn’t
resist taking a peek at the back of Penny’s bikini.  She’d been correct; she
was wearing a thong bottom.  Once her curiosity was satisfied, Hailey glanced
back at Mel. 

“You know I have that meeting tonight,” Hailey
reminded her friend.

Mel waved her off.  “Boss lady always turns in
before the witching hour,” she boldly teased.  Her look turned serious. 
“You’re going to have fun this week even if it kills me.”

†

I
t was early evening and not long until Hailey and Lucinda’s
scheduled meeting with the all-important Nevin Brody.  Hailey stepped out of
her suite on the nineteenth floor and entered the brightly lit, elegant
corridor.  Her floor contained several of the hotel’s finest suites for its
most important guests.  She was certain Nevin Brody’s suite was somewhere on her
floor.  She’d never met the man, so she had no idea if she’d even seen him
around the hotel.  Lucinda’s meeting with the wealthy businessman was extremely
important to her and the future of her company.  If Lucinda wanted to expand,
she needed a wealthy investor, and Nevin Brody was her best bet.  Hailey
preferred that version to the rumor going around back at the office.  Some
speculated Lucinda had overextended her credit and was falling into financial
ruin.  If that were the case, she certainly didn’t let a little thing like
going broke curb her spending.  The elevator dinged as the doors opened.

Lucinda stepped out wearing an expensive,
moderately revealing evening dress with a plunging neckline and a slit up her
thigh that would have revealed her panties, had she actually been wearing any. 
She was a beautiful woman even younger women would envy.  Her god-awful stone
pendant necklace was the only thing keeping her from looking perfect.  Hailey
didn’t know why she insisted on wearing the thing as if it were the Crown
Jewels.  Lucinda approached while smiling brightly beyond plump, red lips.  Her
excessively full lips, particularly in that shade of red lipstick, were always
the first thing anyone saw of the barracuda.  The second thing they saw was that
hideous necklace drawing attention to her awe-inspiring cleavage, which was
usually attempting to break free from her plunging neckline.  Lucinda gave her
a quick once over.

“My God, you’re not even dressed yet!” Lucinda
proclaimed.  “Have you considered what you’re going to wear tonight?”

Hailey hesitated and uncertainly looked over her
conservative business skirt suit.  She met Lucinda’s gaze with a dumbfounded
look but feared to admit she was already dressed for dinner.  Lucinda’s smile
immediately faded.

“Oh, really, Hailey!”  Lucinda shook her head with
disapproval.  “You’re not going to the most important business meeting of my
life looking like, well, a businesswoman.”  She nodded her toward the elevator.

Hailey was already confused.

“Come on,” Lucinda commanded.  “We’ll find you
something suitable to wear in my closet.  Lucky for you, I have an entire
wardrobe of sexy dresses I keep here.”

She had to be kidding!  Hailey couldn’t even
imagine wearing one of Lucinda’s most conservative dresses let alone whatever
her boss was thinking of stuffing her within.

“I really don’t--” Hailey attempted to protest.

“Have you ever heard of fun, Hailey?” Lucinda asked
and raised her perfectly sculpted brow.  “It’s what attractive, young women
like us enjoy having in our lives.  You really need to try it.  Show off a
little boob.”  Lucinda gestured, jiggling invisible boobs with her hands. 
“Kick your granny panties to the curb.”  She grinned deviously.  “Try it; you
might like it.”  Lucinda commanded her to the elevator with a carefully
manicured finger.  “Upstairs, young lady!”

Hailey attempted to hold back her groan and
obediently headed for the elevator.  Lucinda followed after her and grinned
mischievously.

“This is going to be fun,” Lucinda announced as she
giggled.  “Wait until I introduce you to your cleavage and the joy of going
commando.  Very liberating--”  Her devious smile returned.  “--and just a tiny
bit breezy.”

“My underwear are fine just where they are,” Hailey
announced firmly as they entered the elevator.

“Uh, huh,” Lucinda teased then winked at her. 
“We’ll see about that.”

As the elevator doors closed, Hailey feared it was
going to be a long night.  It never dawned on her that she’d have to worry
about a female boss trying to get her out of her underwear.