Gabriela hides behind a potted plant

“Hide!” Gabriela ducked behind one of the potted palm trees adorning the hall. Standing on the tip of her feet, she folded her knees and pressed her bum on the cold floor, hugging her legs and trying to turn herself into a little naked ball.

Hannah remained in the shadow of the stairs, back pressed against the wall. Ever dutiful, she still aimed her camera at the crouching woman in front of her. “Keep going,” Hanna whispered, her phone still rolling.

“Right…” Gabriela mumbled. “ If you think you are about to get spotted, try to hide behind anything you can, most people will be in a hurry, so they won’t notice you if you stay still. Make sure to tug your arms and legs like so and …”

“Is someone whispering?”

“Eeeeep!”

A bald man strutted from the other side of the hallway; his oval face resembled an upside-down mailbox. He wore the telltale red blazer of the hotel’s staff. Putting his hands on his hips, he stared at the ground. “Oh man, how did this get here?”

The potted palm tree was just a few meters away from the man. Gabriela tucked her feet while she sank her head as much as she could into her legs. Could he see her? No, there’s no way he could… but what if he took just a few more steps? Then she would be busted! Caught! Trapped!

Considering the circumstances, he would probably throw her out as if she was a pervert. Yeah, a naked woman in the hallway with a camerawoman recording her every move. That’s the only explanation, right? That she and Hannah were perverts filming some sort of fetish video! Who would believe that this was for her legit and family-friendly channel?

Gabriela held her breath to make as little noise as humanly possible. Too bad her heart missed the memo; she could hear her heartbeat trying to play a drum solo. She closed her eyes. Maybe if she didn’t see him, he could not see her?

“You there! What do you think you are doing?” Gabriela’s eyes darted open, her heart almost stopping. She looked up… and the man wasn’t there. “Are you filming a prank? Do you think it is funny to mess with the extinguishers? What if there’s a fire?!”

The man hadn’t spotted Gabriela, he was scolding Hannah. “I wasn’t playing with the fire extinguisher!”

“Then what are you doing?” Gabriela's face peeked out from the potted plant, she was shaking her head and giving puppy eyes to her friend.

“I was errr, looking to see if they are ready for use… It’s for my fire safety class, you see? I have to film myself inspecting a public fire extinguisher, but I accidentally dropped it, and well, it rolled down here.”

The man arched his eyebrows, it seemed like he didn’t believe Hannah. W-what if he wanted to see the footage? He would see a full-frontal video of, well, everything! Flashing one guy was already more than enough for Gabriela, thank you very much.

“Ok, fine. Pick that up and put it in its place,” the man demanded of Hannah.

“Seriously?” Hannah looked down at the heavy cylinder, then at the daunting flight of stairs and finally at her weak nerd arms. She stared at Gabriela one last time. Her eyes were still wide as plates, her fingers clasped as if she was praying to Hannah, her head bobbing back and forth. “Fine, you owe me one Gabriela…” she muttered.

As Hannah grabbed the extinguisher and the man turned around, Gabriela quickly shrunk under the potted plant. She could hear her poor friend struggling to carry the extinguisher up, having to drag the thing up the stairs and dropping it a few more times. Damn, Hannah needed a lot more exercise.

For a moment, there was silence, and Gabriela allowed herself to peek out. The hallway was deserted, but her senses remained on high alert. Someone could pop up at any time and catch her cowering behind a plant.

As time slowed down, Gabriela could feel her hands getting damp with sweat. Her friend was taking a long time to get back, and without her, she was stuck. Hannah had all her clothes, keys, everything! Her body shook with a strong feeling of vulnerability, she was at her mercy.