Friends First

But despite his best efforts, he and Mary Beth had been drawn together, if only by process of elimination. For all the small talk among all seven of them while on duty and the bonding over snowball fights outside and card games in the lounge while off duty, the lines were drawn. Geoff and Dawn were already a couple. Chad and Barry and Jed had bonded immediately over a convoluted web of sports rivalries. Robbie had expected Mary Beth to bond with Dawn as the only other woman in their gang, but that hadn't happened. So the two of them had found themselves spending more time together and getting along like the best of friends.

And only friends, Robbie had vowed again and again. But on their coffee break one day a few weeks in, she had finished her coffee first and stood up to go. All Mary Beth had said was, "Okay, I'll see you soon!" But combined with her ever-welcoming smile and the graceful swish of her long skirt and her touching his hand as she said it, Robbie knew then and there the battle was lost.

And after last night's long, comfortable conversation - just the two of them while the others were in town watching some movie neither of them had any desire to see - the war was lost. Robbie was resigned to having his heart slaughtered. Damned if he'd ever like Geoff or the manipulative crap he was always spouting...but this time Geoff was right.

Lunch wasn't always busy enough for Pam to need all seven of them on hand. But when Robbie arrived back in the kitchen from his walk, it was clear that today would be all hands on deck. "There's some sort of concert in town tonight," Pam explained as they gathered around the staff table. "So everyone wants to get everything they planned to do here out of the way before then. We've got reservations as late as two-thirty."

Geoff stood up beside her. "Yes, and I think Barry and Chad should get - "

"Geoff, sit down!" Pam said in her not-to-be-trifled-with voice. "How many times have I got to tell you you don't get a vote?"

"Just trying to help," Geoff said.

"You can help by taking section A. Dawn, you'll take section D." She gave Geoff a meaningful look, reminding him once again that she would never let him work adjacent to his girlfriend's section, and went on with instructing the others where to go.

She did not, however, have any reservations about setting Robbie and Mary Beth alongside one another. So for the first half-hour of the lunch rush, Robbie had to remember to smile whenever they made contact on their way to and from their tables. This at least kept his customers in a good mood; none of them would have guessed that Robbie was telling himself again and again not to get any ideas about the colleague three tables over who never seemed to get enough of teasing him.

Nor did he know the sinful joy Mary Beth was feeling with every step. If only the customers knew their modestly-dressed waitress wasn't wearing any panties! Not to mention what she imagined Robbie might think. But how could she let him know? Maybe it was time for a more intimate chat on their next encounter in the lounge?

Since both of them were stationed on the far side of the vast dining room from Jed, neither of them noticed when the French family were seated in Jed's section.

Robbie was just on his way to put in a dessert order when he felt the tap on his shoulder, and turned to see the older of the two women he'd chatted with that morning. "Je veux parler au directeur!" she seethed.

Robbie could barely contain his laughter as he nodded and flagged Pam down. Once she was there to take the French woman's complaint, Robbie was free to continue on his way with the dessert order. He looked up to see Mary Beth looking at him again, and it took her but a moment to put two and two together.

"Jed fell for it, did he?"

"I wouldn't be him for all the wine in France right now," Robbie said as they both heard Pam call out Jed's name furiously.

The family hadn't thrown their drinks in his face or anything, but Robbie and Mary Beth could both see from the look on his face that he knew he'd said something very, very wrong.

"Face it, man, you threw Robbie a soft pitch and he hit it out of the park!" Chad told him, hours later, as they waded in the shallow end of the hotel pool.

"And there's no real harm done, is there?" asked Barry.

"Nothing but a written warning and breakfast duty every day for the next two weeks!" Jed seethed. "And look, the little bastard's too chickenshit to even come here!"

"Can you blame him, Jed?" Dawn asked. "I wouldn't want to be here either with you so furious at him."

"He never joins us at the pool, haven't you guys ever noticed that?" asked Mary Beth, who herself had mixed feelings about letting the three amigos see her in a swimsuit, even the modest dark blue one she was wearing today.

"No, he often does," said Dawn.

"Yeah, usually he does," said Chad.

"That's funny, I don't think I've ever seen him here," said Mary Beth, who'd been hoping especially to see him that afternoon. "Anyway, Jed, we did warn you women don't like to be talked to like that." She forced a sympathetic look at him, and kicked back into a backstroke.

"I know why Robbie's never here when she's here," Geoff said. "He's got a crush on her."

"Aw, come on, man," Barry said. "If he did, he'd be dying to see her in a swimsuit, wouldn't he?"

"Not if he's smart," Geoff said. "I mean, she's way out of his league, right? So he doesn't want to torture himself by seeing what he'll never get to touch."

"Geoff!" Dawn looked as exasperated as the guys had ever seen her. "Don't you ever get tired of this?"

"Tired of what?" Geoff asked. "I do know about how to land a beautiful woman, don't I?" He helped himself to a squeeze and a kiss on the lips, which Dawn somewhat reluctantly returned. "Come on, we're here to swim, aren't we?"

"I'll join you in a bit," Dawn said. "Maybe."

With Geoff gone, Chad asked what they'd all been wondering for two months. "Why do you put up with that manipulative crap?"

"No accounting for taste," Dawn said. "Besides, we were friends for a long time and...I kind of feel I owe it to him to try to make this work. And he's got redeeming qualities."

"You think there's any chance he's right about Robbie?" Jed asked.

"It does make sense," she said. "It's true, he's joined us here every time Mary Beth hasn't, but every time she does say she's coming, he's got some excuse."

"Doesn't matter," Barry said. "He's not gonna make a move on her, anyone can see that. He's awfully shy."

"Or it's a coincidence and he doesn't have a crush on her," Dawn said.

"Either way, if he thought she was interested in him, I'm betting he'd act on it," Jed said. "How do you guys feel about an April Fool's joke to teach the little punk a lesson?"

"What've you got in mind?" Chad asked.

"Remember you're on thin ice with Pam," Barry added.

"Pam doesn't need to know anything, and neither do any of the guests. I just want to make the jerk think Mary Beth has the hots for him. How about you, Dawn, you in?"

"How do you plan to do it?" Dawn couldn't help being curious." There's no way Mary Beth is going to play along, you know."

"She's already playing along just fine," Jed said. "She's always so friendly and cheery with him. A shy little baby like that only ever thinks one thing about a chick who's that nice to him. You must know that, Dawn."

"I have been there," Dawn admitted. "But really, Jed, why do you want to do that to poor Robbie? Didn't he try to warn you about talking to women like that?"

"Not the point, and yeah, I do want to do it," Jed said. "Now are you in or out?"

Dawn said she'd think about it. She still was thinking about it after they'd left the pool and she was getting dressed for dinner with Geoff. "I almost think it'd be a good thing for Robbie," she said. "I mean, the poor guy's so shy, maybe he would learn something about coming out of his shell."

"Or that nice guys always lose with a girl like Mary Beth," Geoff said.

Dawn laughed. "You are so predictable, you know that?"

"I'm also right," Geoff said. "That's why I'm gonna tell Jed I'm in. It's for Robbie's own good to learn that lesson. Maybe then he'll start doing what he really needs to do to get a girl."

Dawn gave her true love an exasperated look, and shook her head.

"Hey, if you don't want to get involved, that's fine," Geoff said.

"You know what?" Dawn said. "I'm in. I'll even talk to Mary Beth and see how we can appeal to her."

Chad and Barry couldn't believe Jed's luck when Dawn gave him a thumbs-up in the staff lounge doorway on her way to dinner duty. As Pam had predicted, the dinner rush was light and the trio had the evening off. "You got her to get Mary Beth to play along?" Chad asked across the lounge table where they were lingering over their first beers of the evening. "How?"

Jed could believe it just fine. "Simple. Women hate drips like Robbie. I mean, maybe they make okay friends, but the sooner they learn to stick to their own kind of girls and not a beauty like Mary Beth, the better for everybody. I knew as long as we could get Dawn to give her a woman-to-woman talk, she'd be in."

"I'm more surprised you got Dawn to play along," Barry said. "I mean, hasn't Geoff got her eating out of his hand?"

"She's got his number just fine," Jed said. "I think she just wants to save another girl from making the same mistake."

Mary Beth had already made up her mind to go pantiless again, even before Dawn had come by her room. Their conversation had, of course, put even more ideas in her head, and her imagination was running wild as she and Robbie mingled among their tables all evening. Was it just those new ideas, or was Robbie really looking just a bit more confident and boyishly handsome tonight? Maybe it was the sense of intimacy that came with the smaller crowd. Whatever it was, It had Mary Beth's mind running wild, and she savored every shy grin he flashed her whenever their eyes met.

But those shy grins were all he was giving up. Mary Beth knew the score, and now she knew Robbie a bit better as well. She would just have to nudge him.

The first opportunity to do that came while they were printing the receipts after the last guest had paid. Always an awful chore for the end of the shift when they were tired and past ready to knock off, at least it was an experience to bond over. "How do the numbers look this time?" she asked as he tapped away at the calculator.

"I think we're one receipt short," Robbie said without looking up.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" Her mistake had been genuine, but now Mary Beth realized she couldn't have set it up any better if she had tried. "I got sidetracked on the way back to the kitchen, someone wanted an extra glass of water, and I forgot all about this one." She pulled the rogue receipt out of the folds of her dress and handed it to him - and made a point of brushing his hand with her free one as she did. "Sorry!"

Robbie looked at the total. "That's it," he said. "And we're balanced!" Now he grinned up at her. "Where did you keep that, anyway? Have you got pockets in that getup?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Sensing she had him hooked, Mary Beth stepped back and twirled around, and her skirt whipped enticingly at his legs as she did. "Whoops, I guess I need more space to do that in this dress!" Having forgotten for the moment that she wasn't wearing panties, she now promptly remembered and couldn't suppress a nervous giggle at what she could have revealed.

"No, that felt wonderful," Robbie said. "Go ahead and do it again if you want!" Now he laughed, and she joined in.

"Maybe tomorrow," she said. "But listen, I've got a bottle of wine in my room if you'd like a nightcap?"

"That'd be lovely, thanks!"

Mary Beth wasn't sure if it wasn't her imagination, but his face as he said it looked an awful lot like the way James, her ex fiance, had looked at her the first time she'd invited him to spend the night.

Dawn having sensibly kept Geoff's attention elsewhere, Mary Beth and Robbie had the deserted lobby to themselves but for the night attendant, who waved at them as they strolled out of the dining room. "This is so romantic, isn't it?" Robbie said as they made for the hallway to their quarters.

"You think hotels are romantic, too?" Mary Beth brazenly hooked her arm through his. "I'm so glad to hear you say that!"

"Really?" Robbie asked, giving her arm a pleasant squeeze but then letting go of it. "Why?"

"Because I've always loved hotels, and my friends never understand why. They say, hey, you're only there to sleep."

"Well, yes and no," Robbie said. "It's not just to sleep, usually it's because you're on some sort of adventure, aren't you?"

"Exactly!" Mary Beth wanted to hug him, but mindful of his having let go of her arm, she didn't make any further move to touch him. "Every new room is a memory!"

"I've always thought so too," Robbie said.

"This and your French," Mary Beth said as they reached her door and she tapped the keycard to open it. "Just what else don't I know about you?" She remembered that she still didn't know what he had taught Jed to say, only that it had landed Jed in a lot of trouble, but in the bliss of this moment she wasn't sure she even wanted to know that.

"Well," said Robbie warily, following her into the room, "It's a bit of both of those that landed me here."

"What do you mean?" Mary Beth gestured to her bed for him to have a seat, and darted a look in the corner to make sure she hadn't left her panties lying there - fortunately, she hadn't. With that settled, she got out the wine and poured generous servings into the two clean glasses on the desk.

"If you're wondering why I came out here, I mean." Robbie sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, as if he expected her to not let him get too comfortable. "I figure we all must have been running from something, you know? I was, anyway."

"Me too." Mary Beth gave him a sympathetic nod and handed him one of the glasses. They clinked and had a taste, and she went on. "Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine, I promise." She sat beside him as close as she dared.

"The reason my French is pretty good these days," he began, shifting to face her and drawing one leg up onto the bed, "Is because I had a French...well, not a girlfriend. We were really close friends, and I had to ask for more and throw that away."

"She didn't even want to be friends anymore, just because you asked her out?" Mary Beth asked.

"She didn't actually say that," Robbie said. "But once that door's been opened, it's never the same, you know?"

Mary Beth nodded. "I do. I've been there a few times. It does change things."

"So." Robbie took a long drink of his wine and forced a smile. "You can see why I want to punch Geoff in the mouth every time he goes off about nice guys, huh?"

"You and me both!" Mary Beth said. "I hope you weren't actually trying that with this French gal. Not that I'll judge you when I didn't even know you, but..."

"No, that's fair," Robbie said. "But no, I didn't. I really didn't have any feelings for her until we were already friends. Now I guess I've learned my lesson about ever falling in love with your friends."

"Oh, Robbie, no!" Suddenly Mary Beth just had to stand up. She set her wine glass on the bedside table and held out her hands for him. "Robbie, get up a minute." He did, and she felt just the jolt of joy she'd expected as his hands gripped both of hers. "I'm sorry this mademoiselle, whoever she was -"

"Her name was Martine," Robbie said.

"Right, Martine. I'm sorry this Martine gal couldn't see what a treasure she had, but there's nothing wrong with being friends first! Lots of people only fall in love once they know someone well, you know."

"Are you one of them?" Robbie's arms ached to hold Mary Beth, but he settled for clutching her hands in his for the moment.

"I wish." Mary Beth felt the same longing Robbie did, and likewise pushed it away as best she could. "I told you I'd tell you my story, too, didn't I? My Martine was named James, and he wasn't just a friend. I wish he had been at first, but it was love at first sight. At a party in college, about three years ago. We got engaged right before graduation, but he'd never set a date. He wanted to get settled in his career first, 'So I can provide for you, babe,'" she mimicked. "And then..."

"Oh, no!" Robbie could resist no longer, and he threw his arms around her, inadvertently letting out a sigh of pure pleasure despite the heavy subject matter.

Mary Beth eagerly returned the hug, which felt better than she had dared imagine. "Thank you, Robbie!"

"If it's too painful to talk about..."

"It's not," Mary Beth said. "Not anymore, anyway." She forced herself to let go of Robbie, and he followed suit and sat back down. She didn't. "I just haven't talked about it because I came out here to heal, and besides, God knows what Geoff would have to say about it."

"What Geoff would say? If your fiance died?"

"Oh!" Mary Beth couldn't help laughing a bit. She quickly tamped it down, but still looked more amused than anything else. "Oh, no, Robbie, James didn't die. He cheated."

"Oh, right." Robbie took another sip of wine. "Sorry."

"He cheated, and I found out when he sent me a text message he meant for her. It said he couldn't wait to...well, I shouldn't overshare."

"No, that's right," Robbie said, somewhat to her surprise. "I'm really sorry to hear that, and yeah, I can see why you didn't want to tell us about it. Especially Geoff."

"I know, right?" Mary Beth sat back down, this time much closer to Robbie. "Can't you just imagine? 'If he'd made friends with you first, you'd have known if he was husband material.'" She dissolved into laughter and Robbie followed suit.

Their eyes met in the heady moment of joy, and the possibility was utterly palpable and they both knew it. All it would take would be for one or the other of them to lean in. But Mary Beth didn't, because she thought she sensed that Robbie was going to make a move.

Instead, Robbie broke their gaze and turned to pick up his wine glass again. With the moment gone, Mary Beth followed suit. Once Robbie had downed the last of his, he set the glass down and stood up again. "Well, listen, I think you and I both can do a lot better. Here's to being luckier in love next time, huh?"

"Well said," Mary Beth agreed.

"Thanks for the wine," Robbie said. Mary Beth stood up as well, and he hugged her again. It felt just as delicious as the first one had, and she was tempted to invite him to stay. But she had a feeling the answer would be no. As if to confirm that, Robbie said, "I'd better be off to bed. But we should do this more often, huh?"

"Anytime you want," Mary Beth said, smiling through her disappointment. Remembering what she'd learned that afternoon at the pool, she added, "I'm thinking of going for a swim after lunch duty tomorrow, if you'd like to join me?"

"Um...sure!" Robbie was not at all sure how he felt about that, but there was no nice way to say no and he wasn't even sure if he really wanted to. "If Jed doesn't kill me before then," he added.

Mary Beth laughed. "Poor guy, but he did ask for it and he knows it."

"Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so!"

"You're not, and I'm not the only other one." As soon as the words were out, she wished she hadn't said them - she did not want to tell him anything about her conversation with Dawn! But he didn't, and she was able to steer back into calmer waters. "Good night, Robbie."

"Night." He looked like he wanted another hug, but he gave her only a gentle squeeze on her hand.

Mary Beth savored that for what it was worth as she shut the door behind him.

Then, as soon as the door was locked, she pulled her dress off and once again attacked her mattress with lusty abandon.