When The Rich Son Falls

Ten

When a seemingly spritely Topher and a slightly guilty James entered the lobby, they found Mandy and Bruce chatting by the front desk. The two greeted them as soon as they noticed them come in. While Topher made a beeline towards Mandy and Bruce, James took the grocery bag from him and headed straight to the kitchen, but not before casting a discreet glance at Topher.

“You went with James to the store?” Mandy curiously asked Topher. Meanwhile, Bruce stepped closer to her side, still regarding Topher with suspicion.

“Yeah, I ran into him outside,” Topher casually replied. “By the way…” he took one of the bouquets and handed it to Mandy, who accepted it despite her confusion.

“What’s this? For me?” she asked with a smile that went from ear to ear.

“Why, yes, flowers for you and,” Topher gallantly offered the other bouquet to the cautious Bruce, “just in time, you!”

Bruce took what was handed to him by instinct, but it took him a few seconds of blinking down at the bouquet and up at Topher before he understood what was happening. His expression immediately softened. “Flowers?” he breathed out, as if he had just received a wonderous surprise. “No one’s ever given me flowers before.”

“Well, I’m happy to be the first to do so, Bruce,” Topher earnestly said as he leaned over the desk to give the burly man a friendly pat on the shoulder. “These are the first of my offerings in my attempt to apologize for how rudely I had acted yesterday.”

“You’re a pretty odd guy,” Bruce told him with harmless honesty, “and I like it. Mandy says she’s already forgiven you, so I guess I will, too.”

Topher felt like a weight had fallen off his shoulders at the sound of that affirmation. “That’s more like it!” he exclaimed with excitement. “I’ll be staying here for quite some time, so isn’t this better that we’re all getting along?”

“Eh,” Bruce muttered as he happily looked closer at the flowers in his hand one by one. “I heard that’s impossible.”

Topher shook his head indignantly. “As Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness said, “If you want something, go get it. Period”.”

“Boss man won’t budge,” Bruce stated, and Mandy nodded to agree with him.

“Even if he wants to, it’s not like he can do anything about it,” she added. “We really can’t cancel someone else’s reservation, unless they cancel it themselves—and that’s pretty impossible, too, because they’ve already paid for the rooms.”

Topher diabolically narrowed his eyes at the kitchen door and tapped his fingers on the desk. “We’ll see about that.”

Bruce looked up from the flowers and looked at Topher curiously. “You are a very stubborn person,” he stated, not meaning it as an insult but just as an observation.

Topher obviously didn’t take any offense from it either, as he smirked and replied, “I didn’t get Rihanna to give me a ride home that one time without being stubborn. Just got to put your mind to it.”

“And have a family that’s loaded,” Bruce added, which Topher chuckled at and agreed with.

“That helps, too. A lot, actually, but interpersonal skills and confidence are still key factors. I just need to get on James’s good side since he’ll be more inclined to help out a friend.”

“I think that ship has already sailed,” Mandy piped in reluctantly. “He’s kind of wary of you now, since he’s very protective of his staff and hotel.”

“Well, he took the bamboo thing I got him, I guess that’s a good start, no?” Topher looked at the two of them; Bruce replied with a shrug, while Mandy responded an unsure, “I guess?” which were enough to boost his confidence by a mere one percent. It wasn’t much, but it was still something.

“And what’s this thing about an open pool I hear?” Topher asked as he remembered James’s conversation with the plant lady. “Are they still looking for volunteers?”

Mandy’s eyes lit up at his question, and she nodded her head enthusiastically. “Always! Are you going to do it?”

“You think that’ll make your “boss man” happy?”

“For sure! He’s very passionate about community work. Right, Bruce?” Mandy asked, and Bruce confirmed it by nodding his head and saying, “Totally.”

That was all it took to convince Topher of his next step. With a newfound way to try and secure himself a long-term stay, he playfully drummed on the desk and exclaimed, “Then sign me up!”

Mandy did a little jump of excitement, then she carefully placed her flowers on the side and quickly took out the sign-up sheet for Topher to fill out. “This is so great! We can use your help keeping an eye on the kids, because those little cutie patooties tend to run fast. It starts at three.”

“Cool, cool, cool,” Topher said with a strained smile as he passed the form back to Mandy. “And where will it be held exactly?”

Mandy gave him a weird look. “The pool outside,” she slowly answered, wondering if it wasn’t obvious. Only then did she realize that he probably wasn’t aware that they had a pool. “Haven’t you checked out the hotel’s facilities yet?”

“Facilities, as in plural?” Topher asked, clearly surprised. For hours, he had imagined the hotel to just be one big house with rooms to sleep in, a kitchen, and a lobby. “I don’t think I read it in the pamphlet I found at the airport.”

“Oh, that’s because that pamphlet’s super outdated,” Bruce let him know.

“The pool is back there,” Mandy pointed at the exit near the staircase. “Then there’s a sauna room right beside it. Although you have to let the front desk know when you’ll use the sauna, because we have to teach you how to close the door properly so you don’t lock yourself in.”

“We already had one guest almost pass out,” Bruce said with a wince, and Mandy shared the same embarrassed expression as she confirmed it with a nod.

“Ah, we also have a mini gym just beside the sauna,” she continued. “It’s free for all guests to use, but it officially closes at 10 PM. Then we have a mini garden at the back as well that James tends to. Just behind the sauna and the gym. You should really go around the place sometime and explore.”

“Around the beach, too. Especially during sunset,” Bruce encouragingly added.

Topher’s ears were clapping at the sound of a gym and a sauna, but his nose crinkled at the suggestion of going around the beach. Just the thought of sand on his feet, in his shoes, the saltwater on his skin… no.

He was already sure that his expression about his dislike was transparent anyway, so he proceeded to say, “I’m kind of allergic to sand? Like, metaphorically speaking.”

Mandy and Bruce thought about what he said for a second until they both gave him confused looks.

“I just don’t like it,” he plainly explained.

“But you’re literally vacationing by the bay,” Bruce argued, only looking more perplexed.

“On the contrary, I am forced to go into hiding by the bay,” Topher corrected him. “This is the only place my parents can’t find me because they know I don’t like the humidity and heat.”

“But it gives a good tan, and the humid air makes your skin nice,” Mandy said, sounding rather defensively.

“It makes me sweat like a pig and it ruins my hair.”

“I bet you’ll change your mind by the end of the week,” Bruce said with undue confidence, “once you go out to the beach before sundown.”

Mandy dreamily smiled, as if she was picturing it in her head. “It is marvelous.”

Still unconvinced, Topher held out his hand towards the other man and said, “I like my chances, so I’ll take you up on that bet. Anyway, I will see the both of you later. I have to go take a bath for the second out of what would be a hundred times today, because it is just burning hot outside, and then I’ll go take a nap.”

“Do you want to order some food? I don’t think you’ve had any breakfast yet,” Mandy offered.

“I’m not really a breakfast kind of guy. I’ll probably just grab something quick to eat when I wake up.” Topher took a step back from the desk and did a small hand wave as he moved towards the stairs. “See you both at three!”

“Okay, thanks again for the flowers!” Mandy called out after him, which he replied to with a smile and an Okay sign with a hand before disappearing up to the second floor. Once he was gone, Bruce turned his attention back to the flowers and muttered to Mandy, “Who doesn’t eat breakfast? Celebrities are so weird.”