"Ugh!" a feminine voice groaned tiredly as a smartly dressed woman opened the heavy door of a hotel room and lumbered inside. The door almost clattered against the wall as she wearily lugged in her bags, doing exceptionally well to maintain her balance even in her high heels, and a similarly well-dressed man followed in behind her.
"Are you sure you don't want me to carry that for you?" the man asked the woman, suggesting that he had already kindly offered to carry her bags for her before and that she had declined.
"No no, it's okay, thank you, we're here now," she replied, and the door closed behind the two. The man switched on the light and the hotel room lit up, and they discovered that it was fortunately quite a spacious hotel room. Scarlett, which was the name of the woman, lifted her bag and placed it on the large bed. Tom, which was the name of the man, took his own bag and placed it on a nearby chair instead. He loosened his tie which had been strangling him all day long and unbuttoned the top button of his immaculately ironed shirt, though having worn it all day it no longer looked as immaculately ironed as it did when he put it on this morning.
Scarlett sat down on the bed beside her bag and the two engaged in conversation. "Well..." Tom began, "What do we do?"
What do they do about
what
? What was going on? Had there been some sort of quarrel between lovers? Well, no, and that was the problem. The problem was that Scarlett and Tom were not lovers, they were colleagues. Colleagues? Why were they sharing a hotel room, and a hotel room with a double bed rather than two single beds? This wasn't something that colleagues typically did, unless they were pornstars.
They hadn't planned on staying overnight tonight as the multi-day conference they had attended was due to finish earlier on the final day than it had, so they hadn't booked a hotel for tonight in advance. They were planning on travelling home after the conference had finished, however, the final day overran considerably and by the time it had finished it was much too late and they were much too tired to make the long journey home. So, they resolved to find a hotel, staying over one more night and then heading home in the morning. It wasn't ideal but it wasn't the end of the world either.
***
When they arrived at the hotel a short while ago, they attended the reception and were greeted by the clerk. The two enquired about booking a couple of rooms, however as they had not pre-booked any rooms and given the large conference that had been held nearby, there were barely any rooms left as they had already been booked by other attendees and other members of the general public. "I'm sorry," the clerk had told them, "We only have one vacancy remaining." Their faces dropped.
"Are you sure?" Scarlett replied with a hint of trepidation, and the clerk's reply was sure enough.
"Is there nothing you can do?" Tom politely but firmly asked, but again the clerk was insistent. And the clerk was right, there was nothing they could do, and they were simply doing their job. Tom looked at Scarlett and tried to gauge the look on her face, and she suggested that they could manage sharing a room, it was only one night, and they'd go their merry, separate ways first thing in the morning. Besides, as they wouldn't be able to claim the hotel stay on expenses due to not booking it in advance, they'd be able to split the cost between them.
"It's fine by me," he replied, simply keen on getting into a hotel room and getting some rest.
"Okay," Scarlett addressed the clerk, "We'll take it."
Tom took out his wallet, his card, and proceeded to pay for the room, and as he put his card away Scarlett told him that she'd give him her half tomorrow, to which Tom thanked her. The clerk grabbed the last remaining key and, as they handed it over, they dropped a bombshell.
"Oh, by the way," the clerk said, "This room is a double."
"I'm sorry?" Scarlett responded to the revelation, startled.
"A double?" Tom asked for clarification. The clerk held their hand out to pass them the key, but neither Scarlett nor Tom took it.
"Is there a sofa in the room?" Tom asked, wondering whether one of them could sleep on that rather than them share a bed, but the clerk replied negatively. They looked at each other in brief, disbelieving silence, the situation rapidly getting worse and increasingly uncomfortable. "Unless you're about to drive several hours home, in the dark, during the middle of the night and when you're tired, then this is the only other option," Tom reasoned, both with Scarlett and with himself.
Scarlett looked at him, his words wholly logical and sensible and she knew he was right, yet she could sense his unease and knew all too well her own, but it wouldn't be safe for either of them to drive tonight. That, at least, helped allay their unease somewhat, they would be doing it because it would be the safe and sensible thing to do. "Alright," said Scarlett, and Tom took the keys from the clerk.
"Which floor is it on?" Tom asked as he took the keys, and the response from the clerk wouldn't be kind on their already weary bodies. It wasn't on the ground floor and wasn't on the first floor, put it that way.