On the Other Side(71)

“It’s a short drive and there is enough traffic between here and there that you’ll feel relatively safe in my car.”

“What do you mean by relatively safe?”

“Yes, relatively safe. You and I both know that in life there are no guarantees.”

“You got that right,” Damita agreed.

When they got to the hotel, Damita once again began to worry about checking in.

“Do you want to check in or wait until I come back?” Lester asked.

“I’m really tired. I would like to check in, but I can wait here.”

“Are you afraid you won’t be able to check in without identification?”

“That is, assuming I don’t have identification.”

“Okay, Halle, you can wait here until I come back.”

“Why did you ask?” Damita asked.

“I could use my identification to check you in.”

“Then it would technically be your hotel room. It’s okay. I’ll wait until you come back.”

Damita sat down in the lobby of the hotel. She endured looks from hotel personnel and one even asked her if she needed assistance.

“I’m waiting for my other party. I lost my identification on the way here and I’m assuming I won’t be able to check in without identification,” she lied.

“Oh, well, feel free to wait. If your other party doesn’t show up, you can leave a larger deposit and check in without waiting for them to get here.”

“Do you accept cash?” Damita asked.

“Yes, we do, with a deposit.”

“Great. I lost my credit cards along with my identification.”

“Come over to the desk whenever you’re ready and we’ll get you checked in.”

Even though she was told said she would be fine checking in, she couldn’t truly relax until she had a key in hand and was safely in her room.

By the time she walked away from the desk, she had extracted over $1,000 to pay for the room. Most of it was in security deposits, because she didn’t have identification or credit cards, but she didn’t care. She at least had someplace to lay her head for the night, until she could figure out what her next move would be.

Damita quickly scrawled a note on a piece of paper and left it at the hotel desk.

“This is for a man named Lester Jones. If he stops by, please give him the note.”

“We’ll be sure to give Mr. Jones the note. Goodnight, Ms. Berry.”

Once in her room, Damita chuckled at her use of the name Halle Berry. She had always admired the beauty and talent of the actress.

She thought she would be exhausted and ready for sleep by the time she got to her hotel room. She wasn’t sure if it was so much sleeping in strange places or worrying about how she would take care of herself, but she was wired beyond belief. She turned on the television. Damita flipped channels and thought about the fact that she felt like she had watched more television in the last week than she had in an entire year. Before everything happened, she seldom watched television. She was always too busy with work and when she wasn’t working she was using her available time to spend it with family and friends. By the time Neal came along, she barely had enough time to breathe. There was always a new client, or a promotion. Downtime was something that Damita Whitmore did not have much of. She hoped that now that she was in Seattle she wouldn’t have more downtime than she could handle. She would have to find work and a place to live. She couldn’t afford to live in a hotel forever. The money she had was dwindling with each day and she was uncomfortable knowing that besides the money in her pocket, she had no other source of income.

The phone in the hotel room rang and Damita practically jumped out of her skin. Her first thought was who could possibly know that she was here. Then, she wondered if the hotel had changed their mind about allowing her to use the room without identification or a credit card. She picked up the phone and Lester was on the phone.

“I see you were able to get yourself a room without my help.”

“Barely,” Damita said.

“Come on downstairs. The person I told you about is down here. We’ll meet you at the hotel restaurant. It’s open twenty-four hours.”

“I’ll be right down.”

Once downstairs, Damita was happy to see that Lester was not alone and that he might actually be telling her the truth. The woman he was with looked a lot like him. She was very tall for a woman and was very close to Lester’s height. He looked to be about six feet two inches tall and the woman with him appeared to be at least five feet eleven inches. They both had an athletic build and deep mahogany skin and though they both appeared to be no older than their mid-thirties, they both already had scattered gray hairs. Damita figured they were probably related. Somehow, she assumed when he said someone close to him that he was talking about a woman he dated or was married to.