Xavier is coming! Grace thinks. Xavier is coming! She feels a surge in her energy levels. She wants to haunt the hotel—Mary Perkowski in room 205 came all the way from Broadview Heights, Ohio, in hopes of some spooky business—but Grace needs to reserve her energy so she can enjoy tomorrow’s fanfare.
Grace isn’t the only one who’s all dialed up for Xavier’s arrival. Zeke arrives at the hotel with a new haircut; Alessandra swaps out her clear eye crystals for ones that are sapphire blue. Edie’s attention to guest services becomes so intense, like sunlight through a magnifying glass, that Lizbet gently reminds her that some guests prefer to figure things out on their own.
Richie surprises Kimber while she’s on her laptop and sees that she’s ordering school supplies from Staples to be delivered to her apartment in New York City. “Do you have to think about back-to-school already?”
Kimber snaps her laptop shut. “It can’t be avoided. The teachers at PS Six like the children to be prepared on day one, pencils sharpened. And have you met my daughter, Wanda? She was bugging me to order this stuff weeks ago.”
Richie flops in the window seat and gazes out at Easton Street as a couple on a bicycle built for two pedal by. “I have to mentally prepare myself. All of this is coming to an end. I’ll stay at the hotel until Columbus Day, I promised Lizbet that much, but it won’t be the same without you and the children here. We only have a few days left.”
Kimber settles between Richie’s legs and leans her head back against his chest. Doug the dog lies on the floor at their feet. He lifts his head when Grace hovers over him and starts to whine. He’s still not used to her.
“Why don’t you come to New York after Columbus Day,” Kimber says. “Live with us.”
“I couldn’t do that.”
“Why not? There are plenty of jobs in the city. My divorce will be final, or nearly.”
“You wanted a summer romance,” Richie says.
“Well, maybe now I want a romance-romance,” Kimber says. She wraps Richie’s arms around her. “I don’t want this to end.”
Grace sighs. So sweet! She would like to think of Kimber and Richie ending up together when they leave here. She wants to believe that the hotel is more than just cedar and salt. It’s a place that can create at least one happily-ever-after.
On the morning of the twenty-fourth, Chad gets to work early at Ms. English’s request. He figures this is because of Mr. Darling’s arrival. The hotel has to be even more immaculate than its usual immaculate self.
When he gets to the housekeeping office, he sees an unfamiliar older woman in uniform—khakis and hydrangea-blue polo shirt—running through the hundred-point checklist with Ms. English. This woman has bright red hair that looks spun over her scalp like cotton candy. Her face is plump and wrinkled and kind-seeming. She must be a reinforcement for Mr. Darling’s visit.
“Chadwick,” Ms. English says. “Please meet Doris Mulvaney, your new cleaning partner.”
“My…”
“You’ll be showing Doris the ropes today. I told her you were one of our best cleaners!”
One of the best on a staff of four isn’t much of an accomplishment but Chad feels a swell of pride nonetheless. He offers Doris a hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Mulvaney.”
She giggles and her blue eyes twinkle. “Call me Doris, please, lad.” She has an Irish accent, which is cool, Chad thinks.
Chad looks at Ms. English. “Where’s Bibi?”
“You and Doris will start with third-floor checkouts. We need to get the entire third floor cleaned before Mr. Darling arrives.”
“No problem, but—”
“Thank you, Chadwick. If you stop by here at the end of the day, we can chat then. But not now—we have too much work in front of us.”
Chad and Doris take the service elevator to the third floor.
“How old are you, lad?” Doris asks.
“Twenty-two,” he says flatly. Bibi was fired, he thinks. Ms. English gave her the ax. But she didn’t steal the Gucci belt! That was a ruse cooked up by the fake Shelly Carpenter! Bibi probably didn’t take Mrs. Daley’s Fendi scarf either. Mrs. Daley must have left it at Ventuno.
“In university?” Doris asks.
“I graduated in May,” he says. “From Bucknell University in central Pennsylvania.”
“And now you’re working here?”
“Uh-huh,” Chad says. He wants to be polite, but he also doesn’t want to encourage chatting. “My parents have a home here and this is my summer job.” He wonders if maybe something else is going on. Maybe Bibi’s daughter, Smoky, was diagnosed with some kind of awful cancer or maybe there was a domestic issue with the baby-daddy, Johnny Quarter. Maybe Bibi and Smoky got in the car and went looking for Johnny Quarter or maybe Octavia and Neves were mean to Bibi on the ferry and that made her quit.