Free hotel stay? You betcha.

<Do you mind? I’m a little scared by myself>

Richard Arnett messaged back immediately.

<I’m sending an Uber to your address. Pack an overnight bag with whatever you need. See you soon Sugar Plum>

Mara let out a little eek of excitement. She was staying at the Hilton!

What she was wearing would be no good at all and come to think of it her makeup must surely be a mess as well. The Uber wouldn’t take long so she didn’t have very much time to get dressed. Heading straight to her wardrobe Mara picked out the first things that came to her. A bright reddish-orange figure-hugging dress with spaghetti straps and a small faux brown bear fur bolero. She picked out some silver platform heels to go with it but didn’t put them on yet. She hoped the whole ensemble would look classy.

Ugh her eyes were a trainwreck, Mara thought as she looked in the mirror. She didn’t have time to fix it, the Uber was now only 5 minutes away. Doing what she could in that time, Mara piled on the eyeshadow hoping for a dark smokey feme fatal look as well as extra mascara and lash extender. She was rushing to apply a bright red lips stick that kind of matched her dress when she heard the Uber driver beep his horn outside.

Snatching up her heels, Mara ran out of the house without even grabbing a change of clothes before the rideshare could take leave.

At the Hilton, Mara had never been more insulted in all her life. She’d gone to the reception and had asked to be let up to Mr Arnett's room. The snooty desk clerk had taken one look at her in her skin-tight dress and fur coat and decided she must be a hooker and refused to allow her in.

“I’m sorry Madame. Our establishment does not allow professional ladies to enter the hotel.”

Mara had tried to ring Richard Arnett straight afterwards but it had rung out. She reverted to texting to get ahold of him instead.

<Help me. The desk jerk won’t let me in>

<They won’t give me your hotel room key>

She was just about to ring Mr Arnett again when Mara spotted coming out from the elevators was Richard in a black turtleneck jumper and dress slacks. Mara started to clack over to him in her platform heels as the hotel employee left the rear of the dress to follow.

“Excuse me, Miss. Excuse me, Miss,” the clerk kept repeating until Richard Arnett met them both halfway and gave Mara a warm hug hello.

“What seems to be all the commotion here Sugar Plum?” Richard asked.

“This man is discriminating against me!” Mara snapped now that her protector had arrived.

“Mr Arnett. I’ve been trying to tell her that we can not just hand over keys to guest’s rooms willy-nilly,” the worker gave his side of the story.

“Thank you, Mateo. You’ve done an excellent job. Mara here is a very close friend of the family. I have known her from the very first day she was born. She is going to be staying at the hotel for the week if you could make a room available for her on my account.” Richard effortlessly charmed and soothed the situation.

“As you wish Sir. Would you like me to make that booking now and have keys prepared for your guest?” The clerk Mateo asked.

“Please do. I think we’ll head upstairs to unwind for a while now and we’ll come back later in the evening for the keys to Mara’s room. Somewhere on the third floor, I’m thinking, overlooking the pool.”

“Of course, Mr Arnett. I’ll see to it personally.”

Richard led Mara away from the lobby and over to the elevators, he’d just come out of. He pulled a room key card out of his pocket and pressed the button for the fifth floor, the highest level.

Safely in the lift just the two of them Mara said, “I don’t understand. I thought I dressed high class enough for this place.”

Richard laughed. “A different sort of high class perhaps.”

“What do you mean?”

“A high-class escort. This hotel can get a lot of them.”

Mara gasped. “But how do you know that?”

“Not from personal experience let me say,” Richard held his hands up innocence.

“Yeah, Mrs Arnett would kill you.”

“Mmm, not so much anymore,” Richard said cryptically enough that Mara missed it entirely as the doors to elevators opened up onto the fifth floor. “I have an extra key in my room you can have. Come now. I’ll show you the way.”