The Royal Wilder Hotel Pt. 02

Nathan finished on Thursday morning at 6am. He transferred the overnight cash float, transactions and discrepancies to Blair, the Morning FD who had arrived an hour earlier. Blair's warm, energetic and peaceful demeanor was MUCH more preferable than his counterpart Dimo. He was able to handle his nonsense with ease. Most of the staff felt that Dimo couldn't crack Blair because of his homosexual orientation, and if he tried Blair could easily manipulate this to place Dimo in the frame of a homophobe. It might have sounded unprofessional, but not many people enjoyed Dimo's constant volatility. In fact, most of the staff would gossip that should Blair do anything to influence Dimo's employment, Dimo would find himself on his own.

Nathan rose from his Clapham apartment at 22 minutes to 2 in the morning. He was early to his alarm on the hour, so he took a little extra time in the shower that morning before his flight. He didn't need to be at Gatwick at least until 7 anyway. Grabbing breakfast along the way, he decided on taking the train which arrived just before 5, still in enough time to catch his flight to Madeira. He checked in, dropped off his hold luggage and proceeded through security with no issues. He would arrive at Madeira at 11:43am. So far, Nathan's journey had been uneventful. He was arriving into a Security lane at the airport when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Out of habit, he pulled his phone out and checked to see he had got a Facebook notification.

"Natalias Vilkas has requested you as a Friend."

Nathan looked as another notification came in.

"Natalias Vilkas has sent you a Message."

Nathan smiled, but he was curious. How did she find his Facebook? It wasn't no secret, but his profile was set to private. He wasn't so big on social media, and his only contacts were his mother, immediate family and some co-workers. Nathan opened the message first.

"Hello Nathan! Hoping you are having a good time? :D"

Nathan chuckled as he read.

"Hi Natalia! I just landed, Madeira looks amazing!"

"Okay! :D I am hoping it is not a problem that I am to add you as contact?"

Nathan was just about to respond when he heard shouting.

"SENHOR! SEM TELEFONE!" Came the order from a Portuguese Border Officer. He pointed angrily to a sign printed in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese that read "MOBILE PHONE USE IS FORBIDDEN IN THIS ZONE."

Nathan apologized profusely, darting the phone into his rear pocket and forgetting about his reply to Natalia. It was just his luck that the same Border Guard was to inspect his passport and boarding pass. The Guard made sure to take extra time with Nathan, before he looked him square in the eye.

"No futuro, leia o sinal senhor. OK?" He asked to the clueless Nathan.

"He say, read the sign in the future." Came a voice from behind him from a Portuguese/English passenger.

"Oh! Yeah. Right, sorry mate!" He responded. The Guard seemed to understand, nodding silently to the English tourist. Nathan paced away from the check stand, his phone still placed in his rear pocket. He retrieved it once he left the zone, making sure to get as much distance as he could from the Border Guards.

"Not a problem! Asjgye ow]b'f[mamwkkk"

He had responded to Natalia but had not locked his phone when the Border Guard challenged him, his rear having produced the garble at the end. Worse, Natalia had "Read" it, and had not replied.

"Sorry!" Nathan wrote back. "I was at the Border Check and had to put my phone away quickly. That was a butt text!" Nathan cringed with embarrassment.

Natalia didn't respond immediately, so Nathan just continued on to his Hotel. Nathan boarded a shuttle service that took him straight to his Hotel an hour away, in the quieter part of the island. On the way, he could not help but check his messages.

Nothing.

Shit. Did Nathan blow it? He was a little too invested in Natalia's non-response, maybe he was too excited that she added him in the first place? Perhaps he was overthinking Natalia's intentions. Perhaps she just wanted an English work friend. Perhaps she was even already taken. Nathan decided to stop worrying about it. They'd only met the other night, after all. He arrived at his Hotel, happy to be away for the week ahead but also sleepy from the flight. He had hoped his night schedule wouldn't have impacted his vacation but, he couldn't help being tired. Once checked in, Nathan slotherly dragged himself to his room. He dropped his bags down and plonked himself on to his bed, sleeping for 40 minutes.

"Hahahahahahahaha" Nathan woke to the sound of another message on Facebook.

"So your butt is texting to me?" She sent another message.

Nathan, still half asleep chuckled at the response. He rallied himself to embrace the humor in it.

"Well, my butt does talk a lot of shit!" He joked.

":D"

"Hahahahaha! You are funny".

Nathan smiled, he apologized again for the garble. He also added Natalia as a friend having not done so earlier.

"I will forgive you, but..." Natalia replied. Nathan watched in anticipation as the app indicated that she was typing another reply.

"I want to see photos of your vacation! Send to me what it looks like." She finished. Nathan chuckled again. He was confused, was Natalia into him? He was clueless if this was her way of flirting or not.

"Fine! Guess that'll have to do, since you're not here :P" He replied. He knew he was taking a risk with this response. He was trying to reciprocate her interest in his vacation, alluding to having a hot Lithuanian lady with him in complete privacy.

Natalia read his response, but didn't reply. The absence of the three dots in a speech bubble did somewhat bother Nathan. Did he show his cards too early? Nathan didn't put too much thought into it. But he did notice over the course of the first day he was trying "too hard" to get good photos of the resort. He elected to wait a few days before sending her his photos across. Didn't want to appear too eager.