Senior Week Kiss

The moment I mentioned the Virgin Mary was also the same moment I realized that my frustrating conversation with the British hottie behind the hotel's reception desk had gone completely off the rails.

The annoying clerk blinked at me slowly. His expression never altered from that supremely bored look he’d been giving me from the moment I’d first stumbled into the lobby, dripping wet from the rain. That was hours ago. Since then I’d been to eight other hotels and motels and every bed & breakfast in the area, and now I was back.

And this guy was just as unhelpful now as he was the first time around.

“Are you telling me you’re a virgin?” he asked.

I could feel a blush explode across my face. “No, of course not,” I stammered, even though I knew very well that was exactly the reaction he was trying to get out of me, the jerk. Whatever happened to hospitality and good manners?

Neither were to be found in Wildwood, New Jersey, apparently. 

I took a deep breath and tried again, clasping my hands neatly in front of me on the counter as though we were having a pleasant conversation and not the most irritating interaction of my life. “I said the Virgin Mary. As in, I’m stranded without a place to stay and—”

“Are you pregnant?” 

I frowned at this guy with his bland expression that I just knew was hiding amusement at my expense. He’d been purposefully obtuse and ridiculously unhelpful ever since he’d first informed me that the Sunrise Inn didn’t have a room for me, even though I’d reserved one.

“No, of course I’m not pregnant,” I said. “But—”

“I know for a fact that we’re not in Bethlehem,” he said in that condescending accent of his. “So really, this isn’t at all like a biblical tale.” I couldn’t be certain but I thought I saw a flash of amusement in those dark brown eyes. 

I hated him, I decided. I didn’t hate many people but I hated this guy with a fiery passion because he was so clearly enjoying this. I was having the worst day of my life and this wannabe Sid Vicious was getting a kick out of it. What was he even doing here anyway? The Sunrise Inn was a nice hotel. A respectable hotel. It was the best in the area…I should know as I’d been the one to do the research on rates and availability in this beach town before proposing this place as our Senior Week destination to the rest of the committee.

Out of all the available hotels, I’d chosen this one for me and my friends because it was the nicest. Why on earth had they hired a delinquent? With his wild black hair and the tattoos running up his arm and under the short sleeves of the white uniformed button down, he looked more like the lead singer of some punk band than the face of a five-star hotel.

I was so frustrated I was ready to scream. Why had I even brought up the Virgin Mary in the first place? I didn’t know. It had been a stretch, to say the least, and a clear indicator of how insane this guy was making me. “I was just trying to say that I need help and—” I cut myself off with a wave of my arms that nearly sent the candy dish filled with peppermints flying. “You know what, never mind.” I leaned forward to better read his nametag. “Jax, is it?”

He stared at me, unimpressed by my ingratiating tone.

“Jax, what I’ve been trying to tell you is that there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“I see.”

“I know for a fact that I have a reservation,” I said, for quite possibly the tenth time.

He consulted the computer screen. “Under the name Catherine Vaughn, yes?”

“Yes.” I let out a loud exhale. We’d been over this so many times, I didn’t know why I bothered to try again. 

That’s not true, I did know. I was desperate, plain and simple. It was late, it was raining, and I was alone in a strange town. All my own fault, of course, but knowing that didn’t make it any better. If anything, it made everything way worse. 

This idiocy was all my fault. This is what I got for acting on impulse for once. If I’d stuck to the plan, none of this would be happening. I would be safe and warm under my down comforter at home. 

I should have just followed the plan. I always had a plan, and for this exact reason. I was supposed to drive down for Senior Week with my two best friends two days from now. But then I’d gotten impatient. I’d finished my final exams before them and as the organizer for the week, there were so many loose ends to finalize. Why not get a head start while my friends took their last exams?

In a fit of crazy, I’d followed that thought all the way here. To my doom.

I stared at the profile of the hotel concierge from hell and groaned softly.

I was an idiot.

He tapped a key on the keyboard, which I was fairly certain did nothing except keep the screen saver from popping up and ruining his ruse that he was actually trying to help me. “Yes,” he said slowly. “I see your name here.”

I knew what was coming and it took everything in me not to scream when he turned to face me with that bored look and said, “For Wednesday.”

Wednesday. Which was two days from now. Which was when we were originally supposed to arrive.

“Yes, I know.” I took a deep breath and allowed myself a moment to marvel at the fact that I had not strangled him yet. “But what I’ve been trying to tell you is that I called earlier today and I spoke to someone—”

“Any idea who?”

I swallowed down an irritated curse. If I knew the helpful guy’s name I would have told him by