The first part of Carla's usual routine when she arrived in a hotel room was to get comfortable and set out the things she would need to use that night or in the morning. With basically no possessions with her in the room aside from her phone, her routine went quickly this night; she slipped off her Crocs and set her phone down on the nightstand. She had nothing else on or with her.
"This has to be some kind of record for packing light," she chuckled, but then noticed a couple of things she needed were missing; she'd left her wallet and the cord to charge her phone in the truck, and had left her toiletry bag in the mess in the back of the truck. "I guess I have to make one last trip out of the room before I can settle in for the night," she thought, and headed to the bathroom to get a robe to wear. The bathroom turned out to be robe-free, so she checked the closet, which was similarly devoid of anything resembling clothing.
"I guess this isn't a fluffy robe kind of establishment," she said, eyeing the selection of towels in the bathroom, settling on the largest bath towel she could find. It wasn't big enough by much, but it was way more cover than she'd been making do with all night, so she just shrugged and wrapped herself in it. She picked up her phone and left the room, heading for her truck by way of the stair.
Now at least somewhat covered, she didn't bother checking to see if anyone else was around, going down to the ground floor and out the door to the parking lot as if she walked around outdoors wearing just a towel all the time. She found her wallet and charging cord, but having neglected to put on shoes she decided to leave her toiletry bag, and the sticky debris field it was resting in at the back of the truck, for some other time.
Hoping to rectify her lack of basics such as a toothbrush, on her way back to her room, Carla walked past the stair, going straight to the lobby. She walked up to the night clerk and asked him if the hotel had a small shop for essentials. He seemed surprisingly unsurprised by her outfit, "I guess they see all kinds of odd behavior at a place like this," she thought.
Right around the corner, he said, pointing to a small room with drinks and snacks in a refrigerated case as well as the usual assortment of chips and candy. She found an acceptable toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, and a hairbrush. She decided to give herself a little treat, picking up a small bottle of wine and a cheese, fruit, and cracker platter. She carried her small pile of goods back to the front desk and asked, "Do I pay now or can you charge this to my room?"
"Whichever way you prefer," the clerk replied.
"I guess adding it to my bill would be easier," she said, holding out her purchases.
"I'm sorry, we don't have any bags tonight," he apologized, "and which room is yours?"
"That's okay, as long as I have a free knuckle I should be able to operate the elevator. I'm in 517."
"Ah, that's why I didn't remember seeing you, you were our only contact-free guest to check in tonight. You're all set, I've logged in your purchases. Have a nice night!"
Carla said goodnight and walked to the elevator; the desk clerk watched her every step of the way, wishing the hotel bath towels were a few inches smaller. What he couldn't see from behind her was the fold of the towel holding it closed beginning to work loose. Carla didn't notice it at first either, as she focused on not losing control of her snack, drink, toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, phone, wallet, and phone cord.
When she reached forward to tap the elevator call button with both hands full, the two ends of the towel came apart! She pulled her elbows in to keep the towel from ending up on the floor; her right elbow caught the top edge of the towel, but her left elbow was a bit too slow, ending up pressed tight against her uncovered rib cage as that end of the towel fell away, leaving the entire left side of her body and most of her back uncovered.
Before she had a moment to react, the elevator cab arrived and the doors slid open. Wanting nothing more than to be somewhere else, she hopped into the cab and turned to hit the button for the fifth floor. As the doors closed, she saw the desk clerk staring, stunned and delighted to be seeing basically the entire front of Carla's body for a few wonderful seconds before the doors finally blocked her from his view.
Once the elevator began to move, Carla remembered it was possible someone might have called it from another floor; she held her breath each time it neared a floor. When the doors finally opened onto an empty corridor on the fifth floor she was relieved, but also felt, not disappointed exactly, but somehow deflated when after all her anticipation of being seen she didn't encounter anyone. Still trying to keep the towel from falling off completely, she took one small, cautious step out into the corridor, looking both ways.
She stayed close to the open elevator, scanning the corridor in both directions, keeping open her option to hop back in if she wasn't alone in the corridor. Seeing no one, she held her assortment of items tight against her bare belly with her right hand and forearm, freeing her left hand to reach around behind her, trying to grab the loose end of the towel and wrap herself back up before heading down the corridor. She spun back and forth a couple of times, trying to get it to swing far enough for her left hand to get hold of it, with no success.