The House Of Robles Ch. 26

*** Disclaimer for whiners: You don't have to go into the story. Just give me your 1 star, have your little whiner rant, and go read something else. That's what the disclaimer is intended for, kind of like that sign at the rollercoaster - You must be this tall to go on this ride. As it happens, this story does fall into the LW category more than anything else. Trigger warning! ***

Busted!

Pablo Robles well knew that in a tightly regulated environment such as the hotel he worked for, bad rumors were bound to spread like wildfire. The gossip could be hateful and malicious. Several times in the past, the hard-working man had been called into the Human Resources office to give a statement regarding something he had seen or heard.

Usually, those all-too-frequent moments were over affairs that members of the staff were supposedly having. If one employee were seen talking to another, or sitting next to another in the lunchroom, somebody else would be chomping at the bit to say those two were fucking in the dark like rabbits. Pretty soon that same gossip would be making the rounds up and down the hotel halls. These sordid fabrications would without fail pick up additional embellishments along their flighty travels, becoming more lurid, more twisted.

On a few occasions, Pablo found the backstabbing and falsehoods to be worthy of a comedy club. Take the time he was sent to HR and asked what he'd heard of a particular girl's hair weave. One of the younger black girls that worked in the laundry room had spent a good amount of money to fix up her hair. For whatever reason, this had incensed the other black girls that worked with her to start spreading poisonous words behind her back. Two people had been fired over the incident, Pablo recalled. The hotel had a low tolerance for such indiscretions, for the sake of the general morale in the workplace.

Never before, however, had Pablo been considered the transgressor, as he was being considered now. It had only been about three days since his oldest daughter had paid him a visit while he was at work, and already the rumors were flying around like bats. They'd become bad enough that they had reached the highest level of management in the hotel. Pablo wasn't just going to HR, but he was headed to the GM's office. This was a level that only the very worst cases reached.

Just a few minutes earlier, he'd been outside and minding his own business. Way over on the eastern edge of the hotel property, Pablo had been busy working on a leaky sprinkler. That's when he'd gotten the dreaded call on his hand-radio.

"Engineer Pablo Robles, come to the GM's office right away."

He recognized the voice as belonging not to the GM, but to her assistant. Neither this woman nor her boss was considered to be a fun woman to meet with, and this under normal circumstances. Meeting with them both under bad terms usually meant some sort of dismissal was on its way.

Pablo sighed. His life just started becoming better, now that he'd turned his back on his vengeful wife. Since his time at home was no picnic, he found himself avoiding his house whenever he could. Instead, he'd taken to working longer hours at the hotel, and hanging out with his buddies from work when his shifts were done. Things were barely starting to look up. Now this unexpected meeting with the two most powerful women in the hotel was threatening to snatch his one glimmer of hope away from him.

Well, maybe it wasn't totally unexpected. His daughter Vicky had done a very wicked thing by broadcasting her sensuous wails over the hotel's hand-radios. It hadn't taken long for upper management to get to the bottom of things. Surveillance video of the hotel lobby had given an image to Vicky's sultry voice. Subsequent interviews with the front desk had given the hotel's amateur detectives a further description, and also a sexy motive.

Making sure he wasn't tracking any mud or wetness inside, Pablo stepped through the wide, sliding doors that made up the hotel's grand entrance. He came across a trio of valets, a bellman, and two front desk clerks. All of these were people he knew, and each of them was watching him as if he were headed over to a gallows. Damned near everyone in the hotel had a hand-radio, it seemed, and knew what was going on.

Pablo held his head up, however, and briskly stepped through the lobby as if he were on some mere and mundane errand. Like his son Junior would say, he was not going 'out like a biscuit.' Pablo was still smirking at this phrase, as he passed and waved at an old janitor who was setting up wet floor signs before the bathroom.

The stubborn man made his way into the general staff area, which wound through the first floor like an old snake. Its walls needing fresh paint, he noticed, and full boxes of beer were stacked four high to one side. Heaps of cardboard overfilled a large, wheeled plastic bin a little further past. Pablo noticed all of these things because it was his job to keep a close eye on the place. Walking further along the passage, he passed the employee lunchroom, which was empty that early in the morning, and the larger freight elevator. Pablo made a right turn when he came to the employee restrooms. This is when he reached to a set of elevators exclusively for employee use.

Beside him stood a tall and slim woman wearing a black business suit, with her coat concealing most of the deep pink blouse she had on underneath. The woman was from the hotel's sales department, Pablo knew. She gave him a quick and wary sideways glance. To Pablo it looked as if she knew what was going on, and wanted to avoid becoming tainted by him.

The employee elevators didn't even have a bell. They simply opened up their dull, metal mouths, and both Pablo and the woman from sales stepped inside. It was an ugly elevator, Pablo considered, with very little in the way of aesthetics. No fancy faux marble paneling, and no gold-toned handrail such as what the guest elevators had. It was simply a functional metal box that moved from one floor to the next, with an occasional stubborn jerk.

As if eager to get the short ride over with, the woman from sales quickly punched at the button to the second floor. She was so impatient she did this twice. The woman went out and disappeared around a corner the moment the elevator stopped moving. Pablo, on the other hand, took a more casual pace. He figured this might be the last time he'd ever set foot on the second floor, so he wasn't about to rush toward his own termination like an asshole.

The older man walked by storage rooms that held all manner of extra tables and chairs and passed back doors to the second floor ballrooms. Finally, he reached the southwest wing where the hotel's executive offices were located. The door he was looking for simply read 'General Manager.' The letters were engraved onto a narrow wooden placard that slid in place between two little gold-toned rails.

Pablo reached out and knocked.

Within a short span, the door slid open and revealed the attractive form of Kathleen Summers. This woman served as the hotel's assistant GM whenever the big boss was out. Kathleen, also known as Kathy, forced out an unwanted grin, before she opened the door further and ushered the brooding building engineer inside. There had to be two witnesses, Pablo knew, to discourage any potential accusations of sexual harassment that might arise later, were he to become disgruntled enough to make one up.

Kathy shut the door behind him and quickly strolled over to take a seat to one side of the GM's desk. This position would make it difficult for Pablo to keep his eyes on both the GM and her assistant at the same time. Their careful placement gave the situation an atmosphere more akin to an interrogation than anything else.

Still, he had to admire Kathy a little bit, even though she was a Class A Bitch. She was a brunette, the same height as he. The woman had a wide shouldered yet still lean figure. Her hips blossomed out handsomely and gave men the notion to walk behind her every time she was seen roaming the hallways. On this day, she wore attire more fitting a formal social event; a dress in a strong shade of blue, gold earrings clearly exposed by the way she'd pulled her hair back, and black heels.

Sitting behind the desk, and eying him closely, was Abigail, or Abby, Kaplan. This woman was a recent transplant from a similar position in St. Louis somewhere. The rumor was that Abby did not like her new post here in San Diego, even though she'd been at it for a good eight months by then. She was one of those career women who didn't have time for love or children, and who enjoyed playing the role of the predator as she was about to bring the axe down on top of somebody's head.

Appearance was very important to a woman in Abby's position. Thus, she had kept her body fit and shapely well into her forties. Her hair was colored in a fading blonde that was lightening into gray, soft and wavy and cut down to her shoulders. Through her off-white and ruffled blouse, Pablo saw the pleasing contours of Abby's breasts, estimating them to be in the C-cup range as compared to Kathy's mere Bs. Undoubtedly, the GM wore slacks. The woman had never been seen in clothing as feminine as a long skirt or dress. The circulating rumor about Abby was that she'd set a bear trap in her pussy in case any man got too close to her.

Needless to say, two strong-willed people such as Pablo Robles and Abby Kaplan were bound to butt heads, and in fact, they had done so several times during Kaplan's short tenure. Pablo expected both Abby and Kathy to be relishing this moment, as one of the biggest thorns in their sides was about to become excised from their staff.

"Have a seat, Pablo." Abby motioned him toward the only vacant chair.

Pablo considered the chair. It was upholstered in a soft green hue, with flowery orange blossoms all over. He wondered if it were some remnant from a previous hotel makeover. "No thanks, Abby. I'm sure this meeting won't take too long. I'd rather stand if it's all the same to you."

"Pablo, we are here to discuss some very important matters concerning your future at this hotel, and I would prefer to have you sitting down." Abby already sounded ruffled, partly because he hadn't referred to her as Mrs. Kaplan, and partly because he was being uncooperative with her.

Pablo would be damned if he was going to be one of those subservient wimps that cowered at authority. He crossed his thick arms. "Where I come from we have a saying; I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees."

"You are not about to die, Pablo." Abby returned. "Now sit down!"

"My job here might be finished, so no, I won't. Say your piece and let's be done with it. If I'm not welcome here anymore, then just say it straight out and let me go on my way. I've got more important things to take care of."

Abby's face reddened, as she was not a woman accustomed to being refused.

Observing the stalemate, Kathy left her seat and came over to stand next to Pablo. She set her hands on her wide hips, and said, "So this is a Mexican stand-off."

Pablo turned to face her. "Let me tell you something. I just happen to know how the term 'Mexican stand-off' first came to be. A Mexican stand-off is when two or three sides face off against each other, and the first side to give their back and run is considered to be the Mexican. As I am a Mexican-American, I find the term to be offensive and derogatory and I do not use it myself."

"Well, thank you for the history lesson, Pablo." Abby snapped. "Now please sit down!"

The sturdy man was about to give her another retort, when Kathy set her hands around his arm and gently prodded him toward the vacant chair.

"It'd probably be a good idea if you didn't put your hands on me." Pablo said.

"Why, are you going to sue me?" Kathy asked. "I don't think you're that kind of man. We're not going to fire you, Pablo, but you know as well as we do that we have to do something. We can't just let you get away with what you did because it wouldn't look good to everyone in the hotel if we let this situation go unpunished."

Pablo stared into the woman's soft, brown eyes for a long moment, until he found his temper subsiding. "Okay." He said, right before he sank down into the seat.

"Thank you." Kathy said.

He watched the swivel of her hips as she returned to her seat across from him, and noticed that Abby was watching him the entire time. She did not look happy about it.

"Finally, we can get started." Abby huffed, as she glanced down at the paperwork sitting on her desk. "Now, I have before me a report from a few weeks back. This report states that a housekeeper doing her morning rounds found an open door. After assuming that the room was vacant, she pushed the door fully open. The woman was about to enter the room with her cleaning cart. She did not enter, however, because the room was still occupied. According to her account, she saw a young black girl who was nude. This housekeeper also saw a man who was nude. The woman wrote that she believed this nude man was you. Would you care to explain that, Pablo?"

"Sure, Abby. I was at the end of my shift that night, and I got called up to a room to check on a leaky showerhead. You can check that on the log if you want to. The guests in the room were three young black women. In the process of taking care of the problem, they asked me to spend some personal time with them. I clocked out, went back to the room, and proceeded to cavort with all three women until the break of dawn."

Abby's face glowered. "Pablo, I am not in the mood to be trifled with!"

"I'll have you know that I am not trifling with you. I did in fact have sexual relations with all three women that night. Actually, I had sex with the first two, but not with the last one. That girl was only nineteen. I'm afraid to say that I was just too big for her. We did not have sex, but we did sleep together in the nude and do some other things that men and women normally do with one another in the nude. That is, until some very rude housekeeper decided to poke her gnarly head into the room and scared the living crap out of us both."

The General Manager stared at him for a very long moment, trying to separate the fact from the fiction and apparently failing.

Smugly, Pablo leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. "I was off the clock while I was doing this. I was not wearing my uniform, well, because I was nude the entire time. So I don't see how any of this violates any of the hotel's policies."

Abby's face flushed. She lowered her head and pretended to be sorting through her little stack of papers.

Kathy, on the other hand, seemed intrigued. "How old were these women, Pablo?"

"Uh, mid-twenties to nineteen. They were all sisters, unless they made that part up."

"Really?"

Pablo grinned. "That's what they said."

"I suppose we can dismiss that incident, as long as we all agree that no hotel policies were infringed upon." Abby slid one paper aside. "This brings us to the next matter at hand. Three days ago, a woman claiming to be your daughter entered this hotel. Against the front desk clerk's warning, she went up to room seven-seventeen to pay you a visit. We know that you clocked in and out appropriately, because we checked. We also know that you were in the room with this young lady during your lunch break. As if that wasn't bad enough, apparently you thought it would be amusing if you announced to the entire hotel that you were having sex with her. Your interaction with this woman was broadcast over our radio channel and heard by a number of witnesses. Would you care to explain this one, Pablo?"

"All I'm going to say was that it did happen. I didn't figure out this woman had used the radio until later, when somebody told me what they'd heard."

Abby frowned. "How could you not know this woman was on the radio, while you were having sex with her?"

"You really want to know? Well, she was facing away from me while we were, uh, involved. She had her head in the pillows during that time. I guess she'd hidden my radio underneath the pillows or cushions or something. Like I said, I did not know she was broadcasting while we were having sexual relations, otherwise I would have taken the radio away from her."

Kathy leaned forward, on the edge of her seat. "Who was she?"

"She wasn't my daughter, if that's what you mean." Pablo lied. "She's just a woman I met, who decided on her own to pay me a random visit while I was at work. I did not set any of that up. She just showed up, something happened between us, and that's it. Abby, I can confirm that a lot of sexual relations took place that day. Maybe you should write that down in your notes."

"We saw her on the video recording, when she was in the lobby." Kathy admitted. "We know she was a blonde, and she looked very pretty."

"I'll tell her you said that, I guess." Pablo shrugged.

"She also looked very young." Kathy concluded.

Pablo looked over at the assistant GM. She was a Grade A Bitch with all caps. Kathy put as much of a scare into the hotel employees as Abby did, but at the moment, she didn't look all that bitchy. Instead, she was staring at him oddly, as if she was seeing him for the first time as a man and not as a worker on the payroll.

"Well, regardless of whoever this woman was, we are not in the business of running a brothel here." Abby sharply cut in. "Hotel staff, upper management, and even hotel guests heard her caterwauling all over the radio. I intend to make sure this does not happen again. Your only saving grace is that many people here in the hotel consider you an exemplary employee, although I personally don't see why..."

"My only saving grace?" Pablo hotly interrupted her. "I've worked here for over ten years! You've got my file on your desk, and I'm sure the two of you have already gone through it. How many times have I ever shown up late? How many times have I ever called off and missed a day? How many times have I been called in on my days off, to cover somebody's shift because that person didn't show? How many times have I been commended by the guests here, because I took care of something they needed done right away? How many times have I made employee of the month?"

"We are not here to debate all that." Abby snapped. "We're here to decide on a fitting punishment for having your little playmate's moaning heard all over the hotel."

"Fine. What's the punishment?"

"You will be taking one full week off, without pay." Abby seemed to be gloating, now that she felt she had the upper hand. "Starting today."

"Good. I have plenty of personal days to cover that."

Abby felt some of her vengeance crumble away. She sought to reclaim it. "Further, you will bring your keys and your uniform and set them here on my desk, immediately, before you are free to go."

This time, it was Pablo's turn to glower. "Oh, it's not enough that you're suspending me for an entire week, but you have to humiliate me on top of that?"

Abby tapped on an empty spot on her desk. "This is where you'll be leaving your uniform. I expect to see it here within the hour."

"Is that how you want it to be? I'm giving you one last chance to take that last part back."

"Within the hour." Abby repeated.

"Okay, fine." Pablo stood up and yanked off his hand-radio and set of keys, before setting them both on the desk. "It just so happens that I did not bring in a set of extra clothing and change in the employee locker room. I was in my uniform when I left the house, and this means I don't have anything else to change into." He started pulling open the buttons to his work shirt. "But if you want your uniform so badly, you're going to get it."

"What do you mean by that?" Abby asked.

Pablo finished unbuttoning the shirt. Once he'd taken it off, he balled it up and set it on top of his other items. Then, he started undoing his belt.