4- Rich people stuff

4

Rich People Stuff

The penthouse room at the top of the beach side hotel was beautiful.  Upon entering there was a large kitchen, bigger than the one they had at home. They could follow the hall back to the huge living area that opened to the double sized patio overlooking the water from the fifth floor. To one side was the large Bedroom and to the other a dining room area with its own set of patio doors to overlook the water. Everything was clean and high end with an over powering feeling of luxury.

Just like that, the stress of the day had melted away and the couple was ready to begin the first vacation of the rest of their lives.  Joe went to the patio doors and slid one open.  The lake air rushed in to meet her and she took a deep breath.  The enhanced calm was ruined by the noise of the T.V. behind her.

“They have a flat screen in every room!” Leo said with excitement that quickly drained away when he saw the scowl on Joe’s face.

“Seriously?” Joe said with exasperation.

Leonard put his hands up.  “You’re right, we aren’t here for that.”  He said as he walked over to her.  “We are here for this.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her deeply.

They released and Josephine smiled.  “I’m going to go get some ice.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”  Leo teased and they broke their embrace.

It took Joe a couple of minutes to find the ice bucket.  While she looked, Leo called from the bedroom, “I’m going to take a quick shower, the drive made me stinky… They have a Jacuzzi!”

She smiled and shook her head.  He was like a kid in a candy store.  She found the bucket and headed out into the hall.  She let the door close beside her, then began to walk in the direction of what she thought would be the ice when she caught the eye of a strange fellow leaning on the wall.

He was at least six feet tall with broad shoulders and tussled black hair.  He was wearing a shiny blue business shirt and Dockers with a sport coat.  The man had been leaning against the door across the hall until he noticed Josephine when he seemed to perk up.

For an awkward moment that felt like an hour, the two just watched each other.  Finally, Joe decided to make the first move in the random, seemingly needless, chess match.

She smiled at him and raised the bucket.  “You wouldn’t by chance know where they keep the ice on this floor, would you?”

The man stared back as if he was taking time to process the information and decide what to respond.  “No ice on this floor.”

He was not American, she could immediately glean that from his hard time with English and his heavy eastern European accent.  “Excuse me?”

He gestured with his hands now.  “There is no ice on this floor, no need.”

She still wasn’t quite catching what he was getting at and decided to inspect for herself, walking down the small hall to the crossway in the middle.  He plodded along behind her and she started to get nervous.

At first glance she had thought he was a D.H.S agent put there to watch her and her husband giving their involvement in the shooting incident in the main lobby that morning.  Now she thought something completely different.

The shooter in the hobby had been Russian.  She had gotten that much from Eliza in her interview, and what were the odds of a man in that kind of business working alone.  She calculated that they would be pretty low.  Leo liked his movies and books about lone heroes like James Bond and John McClain, but in real life, spies travelled with backup.

She stopped halfway down the hallway completely.  He seemed to understand why then said.  “Ice not on this floor.  Ice in the room.”

She figured it out.  She had never stayed in such a high end room before but it didn’t make her feel any less stupid.  They had full freezer/refrigerator in the penthouses.  There was no need for an ice machine room.

She turned back to her shadow.  “Ah, I see.  No ice on this floor.”

He nodded.  “It in room.”

She eyed him for a moment.  “Are you following me?”

That sentence he understood, and Josephine did not like the reaction she got.  His expression became dark, his eyes lost the soul that most humans carried there.  Instead the dark pupils dilated and he suddenly reminded her of a predatory cat she had seen on the nature channel.

One that was stalking its prey.

His features hardened as his body tensed and Joe took a step back out of sheer instinct.  “Never mind. Stupid question, I was mistaken.  Let me take that one back.”

“No take back.” His sloppy English was no longer funny, it was foreboding.

A door slammed shut behind them and broke the mood.  They both turned and Joe saw the biggest man she had ever seen in person in her life.  Leonard had forced her to watch the Rocky movies early into their relationship and she had actually kind of liked them.  The man standing in the hall reminded her of the giant Russian in Rocky 4.  He had deep piercing blue eyes and short crew cut blond hair.

His eyes fixed on her would be attacker and he seemed to shrink in the man’s presence.  “Vy neakkuratno , vernut'sya vnutr'’

The Russian rolled off the goliath’s tongue and the dark haired man slowly and sullenly walked back into the room from which they had both come.  The blond monster’s eyes of disapproval never left his subordinate’s.  Once the door shut behind him, the man turned toward Josephine with a smile.  “I am sorry.  Boris can be over bearing.  I hope he did not offend?”

Joe seemed to recover her wits.  “No, I’m good.”

“We are here for a business meeting and we have a tendency to misread the American customs.  It’s what you call culture shock, I believe.”  The Russian continued to explain, his accent was heavy but his English was good.

Joe was determined not to make the same mistake twice.  She nodded.  “No it’s really okay, not a big deal.  If you’ll excuse me.”

“You know there’s no ice on this floor.” The Russian said as she passed, seeing her bucket.

She stopped.  “Yes, your friend explained that to me.”

He smiled.  “I’m glad he could at least be of some assistance.”

With that, the Russian turned and re-entered his room.  Finally alone, she took a couple of deep breaths to calm her nerves.  “Nothing happened, just a weird guy in the hall.”

She tried to reassure herself but couldn’t. There was something about those two, and the whole situation that sent up red flags.

She tried to shake it off and headed back to her room.  She opened the door and heard Leo call out to her from the living room.  “Did you get the ice?”

“No,” She answered back setting the bucket on the counter.  “The ice is in our room.  We have a freezer.”

She heard some strange grunting noises and then he called back.  “Nice, I didn’t even think about that. Getting used to rich people stuff is hard.”

She shook her head opening the stocked fridge and grabbed a water.  “Is that right? Did you take a shower already?”

More grunting.  “No I got caught up with something, so what took you so long?”

“Some weird guy, I’ll explain-” She heard the grunting again and had to say something.  “What the hell are you doing in there?”

As she asked the question, she walked into the room and saw something that made her feel like she had taken a blow to the head.  “What the hell are you doing?”

Leo was in his underwear, his legs locked.  His rather large ass was covered only by the sweat drenched boxer briefs and pointed strait up in the air.  While his torso was stretched diagonally down towards the floor his hands were narrowly holding his balance as his stomach hung below him and jiggled with exertion.

“Downward facing dog.”  He said through grunts of effort.

Joe now realized the T.V. was on and showed a beautiful, young, slender, fully clothed woman doing the same thing.  She made it look easy.  Leo made it look like a sloppy mess.

“Yoga?” She said confused.  “Why are you doing Yoga?”

“We are rich now.”  He answered as he brought his body down to the ground and straddled the floor in a series of clunky obtuse movements.

“I’m failing to connect a dot somewhere.”  She answered as her look of horror deepened.

“Rich people do Yoga.” He answered matter-of-factly, as if that was all the explanation he needed to give.

“Rich people do a lot of things, doesn’t mean we have to” Josephine answered her face now contorting with laughter.

He scowled at her.  “Laugh if you must but I am bettering myself.”

“Okay, Okay…” she tried to calm her giggles. “But why did you take your clothes off?”

“It just kinda happened.”  He grinned.  “I decided not to fight it.”

She shook her head in laughter again.  “I’m taking a shower.”

She headed for the bathroom and knew Leo wouldn’t be far behind.  The strange event in the hallway slipped from her mind as she once again got her vacation on track with some Jacuzzi fun with her soul mate.

She hoped it would stay that way.

It didn’t.

TO BE CONTINUED…