“Well, that’s the thing,” Kimber says. She glances at the children, who are as still as sentinels beside her. “Kids, go play chess, please. But only one game.”
“I don’t want to play chess,” Wanda says. “I want to read.” She holds up a book that Edie recognizes—a vintage Nancy Drew mystery with the canary-yellow back cover. The Secret of Shadow Ranch. Edie read the same edition when she was Wanda’s age.
“Please, Wanda?” Louie says. “I’ll let you win.”
Edie laughs and Kimber rolls her eyes. “He’s obsessed. He brought a travel chess set with him, of course, but he accidentally left it at the Connecticut welcome center and it was a river of tears all the way up I-95. I hope you like children, because we’ll never get him out of here. He’ll sit at that chessboard all summer.”
Edie laughs again, though a little less enthusiastically. Louie is able to drag Wanda over to the chessboard while Edie waits to hear what “thing” Kimber is talking about.
When the children are out of earshot, Kimber says, “I was hoping I could pay cash.”
“Cash?” Edie says. The woman is booking a room for four hundred dollars a night for eighty-one nights and she wants to pay cash?
Kimber drops her voice to a whisper. “I’m in the midst of a divorce, so both of my cards have been frozen because they draw on joint accounts, yada-yada. I have cash, but I won’t be able to give you a card, I’m afraid.”
Edie blinks. Who in the year 2022 is crazy enough to think she could check into a luxury hotel without a credit card?
“The charge won’t go through,” Edie says. “We just put a minimum hold on it, fifty dollars per night.”
Kimber Marsh says, “What I’m telling you is that it’s not going to work, the card will be declined.” She clears her throat. “We tried this already at the Faraway.”
“Ah,” Edie says. The Faraway is a fairly new boutique hotel in the center of town. If the Faraway didn’t let Kimber Marsh check in without a credit card, then Edie obviously shouldn’t either. But…she knows it’s the hotel’s mission to distinguish itself from the other luxury hotels on the island. Why shouldn’t they accept cash? Cash is money. But then Edie recalls the unspoken-but-understood reality of the hotel business: Guests lie. Their relationship with you—meaning the hotel staff—is temporary, so they feel they can say whatever they want. How many case studies did Edie read at Cornell about handling sticky situations with guests? Dozens—and yet none exactly like this. Her ex-boyfriend Graydon would probably say that Kimber Marsh was trying to pull a con, using her children as a smoke screen. She says she has cash, but what if she doesn’t? And even if she does, is she just going to hand over a stack of bills?
Edie needs to speak to Lizbet.
“I’ll just be one second,” Edie says. She pops into the back office and calls Lizbet’s cell, but it goes straight to voice mail. Ugh. She remembers that Lizbet is giving a tour of the property to the couple from Syracuse checking into room 303 and shouldn’t be interrupted. Every guest is a potential influencer.
Alessandra comes back into the office. “You’re letting those guests wither.”
Wither, really? Edie thinks. She’s been gone less than sixty seconds. “I need to speak to Lizbet.”
“Why don’t you let me take over their checkin since you’re not comfortable doing it.”
“I’m comfortable,” Edie says. She brushes past Alessandra, goes back out to the desk where Kimber Marsh waits. Edie hears Louie say, “Checkmate.” He starts setting the board up again while Wanda sinks back into the armchair and opens her book. “I really need to speak to my GM before I okay this,” Edie says.
Kimber Marsh leans in. “My soon-to-be-ex-husband left me for my nanny.” She emits a short, bitter laugh. “It’s such a cliché, but the reality is, I lost my spouse and my help. Craig and Jenny are spending the summer together in the Hamptons—Jenny just found out she’s pregnant—so I wanted to take my kids away rather than let them stew in the cauldron that is New York City. But not having a functioning credit card is an issue, I realize this.” She pauses. “What if I give you the first week in cash with an extra five hundred dollars thrown on top for incidentals?” She sighs. “Can you work with me? Please?”
Left her for the nanny? Edie thinks. Who’s pregnant? Of course Edie can work with her. This poor woman needs her help. Kimber Marsh wants her kids to have a fun summer, and Edie is going to make that happen （and maybe win the thousand-dollar bonus for her superlative service!）。