"Housekeeping!"

What was Julie doing here?

It was the strangest thing. Of all locations, her domicile was the one in the world where Lilly did not expect to find Julie Hancock. Lil thought she'd have known if her beloved was staying at her own hotel. And...well, she supposed it was possible another woman could have this exact same, custom crafted handbag...extremely improbable, but possible. But going back to the hypothesis that Julie was in fact staying here...why in the world wouldn't she tell her own sweetheart? Was she planning some sort of surprise for her?

Lilly was a little unsure what to do. Should she just take a quick peek inside the purse to confirm it was Julie's?

No. There were better ways of checking on such things. She'd start cleaning, and maybe she'd come across something else to clue her in. And if not, she'd get one of the receptionists to let her know. Either way, she'd figure it out eventually. She set to work.

Lil was vacuuming as the clock struck 2:00. With the vacuum going, she didn't hear the key slip in the lock, or the door click. But she did see it open out of the corner of her eye. Reflexively, she looked up.

Julie entered the room. Lilly's face lit up in half-revelation. She was pretty certain she'd be back along at some point, but didn't expect her so shortly, while she was still tending to the room. And she also didn't expect the door to remain ajar after Jules came in...

...Or the other lass who came in behind her.

Lilly's facial expression faded from beaming to bemused. She shut off the vacuum cleaner.

"Sweetie?..."

Julie looked up and halted in her tracks to see her. An awkward look crossed her own face.

"...Oh. Uh...Lil."

"Lil"? What happened to "baby"?

Lilly looked back and forth between the two of them, Julie...and the doll-faced ginger who stood beside her.

"...What're you doing here...honey?"

"Oh...well, you know, I've got that meeting at Windham Hill in Solvang early in the morning, and this is right near the airport."

This wasn't quite what Lilly meant. She could see she'd have to ask the question she really wanted an answer to.

"...Who's your friend?"

Holding gaze on Lil, the mystery ginger tilted her head down while arching her eyebrows. It was Julie's turn to look awkward.

"...Ummm..."

The unknown companion turned to Jules.

"...Is that her?"

Lil unhanded the vacuum and took a step towards them, raising her voice.

"If you mean is that Julie's girlfriend, then yes, I am," she asserted.

Julie now had four uncertain eyes on her.

"I...thought you said you told her," said the ginger.

Lilly felt a chill grip her spine. She suddenly had a feeling she was standing in quicksand.

"T—...told me what, Julie?"

An innocent-looking smile crept up under Julie's nose.

"...Eh, Lil...this is Colleen Flowers. She's...well...well, I guess the only way to say this is to just come right out with it. Uh...

"...You've been replaced, baby."

Lilly's soul cracked as a gigantic dark cloud settled over her happy world.

"...What?"

"Yyyyyyyyyyeah..." Jules went on. "Well, I mean, y'know, we never officially agreed that we were gonna be exclusive, so..."

Lil almost instantaneously felt tears rush her eyes.

"You—...you're...you're dumping me?? Just...just like that? It's over?"

"Well, yeah..." Julie nodded, looking disturbingly apathetic over the whole deal. "I mean, I was honest with you, y'know, Lil. I never told you I was in this for the long haul.

"Well, and besides, baby...tell you the truth, uh...you never really turned me on that much anyway."

Lilly tried to hold back the wracking sob that suddenly wanted out.

"The way you made love to me suggested otherwise!" she shouted.

"This is awkward," Colleen stated. "Maybe I should go."

"Oh, no!" Lil contradicted her. "Stay! By all means, stay! Stay here, so I can kick your fucking ASS!!"

"WHOA, okay," halted Julie, stepping between them as Lil's angry eyes moistened. "C'mon now, Lil, you knew deep down this day would come. I told you early on, I don't settle down. I'm not a committer. I never promised to be with you forever."

As Lil thought back, she could vaguely remember Julie giving her a speech to this effect, but...well, she guessed at the time she'd found it hard to believe. She'd thought that even if Jules said this about herself, Lilly had the power and charm to "change" her. To make her see that Lil was the one. The one special person who'd win her heart and make an honest woman out of her. Evidently, she was wrong. But even so, how could Julie make love to her with such passion, and then turn right around and pull a stunt like this?? Lilly felt her blood boil over it all. She had to refrain from a physical attack just to save her job. She made and shook two irate fists.

"But you said you loved me!"

"Yeah, well, now she loves me, cleaning lady," Colleen informed her, stepping out from behind Julie. "And I'll tell you something else, too: I don't need her to defend me. You get nasty with me, I'm not too much of a lady to teach you a lesson."

"Oh, really?!" demanded Lil. "We'll just see about that!"

"Yeah?? What're you gonna do about it?" asked Colleen, standing up to her. "So far, all I see's a lotta talk and no action."

"I'll show you action, you little cu—"

"All right!" Julie commanded, pulling Colleen away. "I said that's enough! Lil, take your shit, and get out of our room."

Lilly didn't move.

"...'Take my shit'...and 'get out of your room'?"

Julie had given Lil this order in the heat of the moment, and now did regret it a bit a few seconds later. It was rather rough and insensitive, especially considering she'd just broken Lilly's heart. Indeed, she however had no idea just how devastatingly—until Lilly covered her face with her hands, shut her eyes tight, dropped to her knees on the floor, and cried. Julie and Colleen watched her a few moments. Her first weeping breaths were quiet and still, building to the wracking sobs charging forth to escape. Before the three of them knew it, Lilly was bawling uncontrollably all over the floor of room 937.

Lil had no idea how long it was after she broke down—it could've been a few minutes, it could've been immediately—but she heard Julie say, "Y'know what? No. No, Lil. I changed my mind. You stay here, and finish cleaning our room. And, uh..."

Lilly opened her soaked eyes to see one of them reach down and pick up something that had fallen from her front waist pocket.

"...We'll see if we can find a suitable use for this."

Julie took Colleen and they started heading back out of the room. Lil looked up to see they had just stolen her $10 tip.

"Hey!" she cried. "That's my money!"

"Room better be clean when we get back!" Slam.

*****

Heartbreak Hotel

Saturday, December 5th, 2015, 1:28 a.m.

An irreparably heartbroken Lilly Amshire tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. After having her heart and world shattered by the girl she loved more than life itself, she'd been presented with the afternoon from hell. What with the busy Meridian's hundreds and hundreds of rooms needing attention and t.l.c., poor Lil couldn't just take the rest of the day off, without an airtight excuse. Projectile vomiting in her basin would cut it; emotional anguish, alas, would not. Not even the heartbreak of a lifetime.

Somehow, she'd made herself carry on and finish cleaning 937 to move on to the next room, despite her intense misery. The springtime of her life was in full bloom. How had such a frigid, doomy-gloomy winter crashed around her so abruptly? She'd had to continue cleaning and finish out her shift through tear-ravaged eyes. Unfortunately, her suffering did not end as her hours did.

She couldn't begin to discern the worst of it all—having the love of her life taken right from under her nose, the utter humiliation of breaking down into tears in her own home and workplace, the oh so cavalier attitude the two of them had displayed in broaching the news to her—"you've been replaced"—the addition of insult to injury by taking her money, or the fact that she couldn't do a single thing about it, because she needed her job and because in the service industry, the "customer was always right." What a crock of shit.

After work, Lilly normally liked to do any number of leisure activities, from going out with the other maids—or, more recently, Julie—to lounging in her room watching TV, playing computer games or taking a nap. Today she felt the will only to sob her eyes out. And to make matters yet worse—if possible—the crying gave her a headache, compelling her to call down to the front desk and ask someone to please go pick her up some aspirin, thereby depleting her funds even further.

An hour or three later, the tears finally tapered off, but the unbearable pain eating at her gut remained. How could she??! Lilly wanted to know. She'd given this girl six of the finest months she would ever have, and while six months may not be an eternity to some, she'd built such a solid investment in this relationship, she couldn't help but feel destroyed. Her life might as well be over.

Okay, just try to get a grip here, she told herself later Friday evening. You're a big girl. You can handle this. Awful things have happened before and we've always gotten through them. Time heals everything sooner or later.

Of course, this was a big one. She couldn't see this monumental an ordeal being healed any time sooner. She felt horrible, but as the evening wore on, her emotion transformed a whit. Seeing the two of them together, all Lilly wanted was to crucify this she-demon who had taken her beloved away; to just fasten her hands around Colleen the ginger's pretty little neck and make her choke for mercy. She grew happier just thinking about it. Oh, and that name. "Colleen Flowers." "Flowers," for fuck's sake. How ridonkulous. Why didn't they just name the little twat Daisy, get her beat up every day on the playground and scar her for life?

The anger calmed down into melancholy forlorn sadness after they left. But hours later, it flared back up to searing ire again as she reminded herself that Colleen was only half the problem. This was each bit as much Julie's fault as Colleen's. In fact, while the fault may have been equal, it could've too been weighted on either side. If Colleen knew, hypothetically, that Julie had a girlfriend, and then still pursued her...but then, there was that other statement of Julie's about how she wasn't a settler and didn't commit. She may have mentioned this to Colleen as well. If this was true, Lil thought, cheering herself up a tiny bit, Colleen would eventually get hers.

Oh well, none of this was really important right now. They both contributed, and Lilly was content assigning fifty-fifty blame. But it didn't make coping any easier. Her anger escalated as she recalled the hurtful things Julie'd so lackadaisically told her. Especially, "And besides, baby, tell you the truth, you never really turned me on that much anyway." Ooooh, did that one cut deep. Once again, Lilly thought with fury, their passionate nights would prove otherwise. She let the words eat her up inside, the irritating sting just prodding away at her. How COULD she??! Did our time together mean nothing to her?!

Her unfortunate but inanimate pillows took the brunt of her rage. A sufficient amount of steam had to be let off before Lil allowed herself to calm down. Her heart was broken, and it looked like she was just going to have to deal with that, but...she next began to contemplate things in terms of justice and ramifications. There had to be consequences. There had to be some way to pay these two back, to let them know that such deplorable actions couldn't simply be gotten away with. But...how?

In the wee hours after midnight, Lil got out of bed and took a walk down to the lobby. She couldn't sleep, and figured if she wasn't getting any rest, she might as well find something constructive to do. She'd told a number of individuals of her tragedy, just to elicit a little sympathy. But she was done whining about it. Big girls didn't cry, she reasoned. They didn't get sad, mad or glad; they got even.

She was a bit surprised, even at 1:30 in the morning, to see no one manning the front desk. Normally at least one receptionist was taking care of things down here at all times. The clock-shaped placard was on display, informing visitors that someone would be back shortly. Hmm, thought Lilly. Apparently whichever one was on duty had trotted off to the restroom. Technically speaking, as a maid—and off the clock—she shouldn't really be doing this, but...Lil slipped behind the front desk.

Aha. The computer was up, and unlocked. Lilly maneuvered through its system to the guest log. There wasn't really any info in here she didn't already have or needed to know, but...she guessed...she didn't know, she guessed she just wanted to be sure her now ex-girlfriend and her new slut kitten had actually registered and paid for their visit, and had not simply stolen this too.

Yep, there she had it: room 937—Julie Hancock and Guest. Lilly quietly snorted. "Guest," indeed. Their check-in time had been 4:00 p.m. on Thursday the 3rd, and check-out would be by 11:00 a.m. later today. Then of course, they'd be flying to California for this wine thing of Julie's. Lilly felt sour and hurt as she remembered how they'd enjoyed wine together, not to mention the pleasures it led to after. She'd kind of felt like having a drink tonight to get the edge off a little, but just the idea of alcohol now dredged up the same memories. For all she knew, Jules had indefinitely wined, dined and sexty-nined her whore Colleen as well.

But more importantly, they'd be leaving and catching their flight in just a matter of hours. Lilly didn't know if or when they might meet again after this, but she knew that if she wanted to get even, she'd better think of something quick. It was difficult enough to begin with, and the clock was ticking. She sighed, pounding her fist on the desk in frustration.

The desk drawer below rattled from the impact of her blow. She heard a jingling sound. The drawer was supposed to be locked, but would still give way if yanked hard enough. She did so, forcing access to its contents. Ah, so that jingle-jangle was a set of keys, two of which unlocked the hotel safes. Lil thought back to her first days here, when the managers had showed her around and told her about, among other things, the hotel safes. One was for valuables, she recalled them saying, and one was for supplies. That was right, she remembered now: first-aid and CPR, maps, flashlights, batteries, matches, generators, a massive length of rope...

Her eyebrows jumped. A light bulb clicked on over her head.

She closed out the computer guest log, took the keys, shut the drawer and snuck back to the private quarters where she'd find the safes. She clickety-clicked the key in the second's lock, turned, opened...and lo and behold, amidst everything else, there it was.

For the first time in twelve hours, Lilly Amshire smiled.

*****

Room Service: Special Delivery

Saturday, December 5th, 2015, 1:57 a.m.

Lilly returned the keys and swapped them for one of the master hotel keys she and the other maids used. After filling a thermos with a generous helping of coffee and dropping back by her own room to get a few things together, her next stop was 937.

Stepping off the elevator onto floor nine, she shuffled down the hallway in her slippers. Her heartbeat quickened. Intimidation snuck up on her. Could she go through with this?

She conjured the vivid, horrific scene of being unceremoniously thrown overboard by Julie as motivation. It worked. Yes. I can.

Acting natural and inconspicuous, she touched her ear to the door to make out any sound. None. She retrieved the master key. This was going to require some finesse. She took a few breaths, told herself to be cool, and inserted it.

It was physically impossible to open or close a hotel room door without making any noise, so Lilly had to shoot for very little. She held her breath, chain-bolted the door, and turned around.

To her relief, no one except she was awake. There was only darkness, save for the moonlight filtering in through the blind. She knew the basic identical layout of each room by heart. She passed through it like a ghost, each step deliberate and precise. She could make out each distinction from a normal unoccupied room, from belongings strewn here and there...to a half-full wine bottle on the nightstand...to their forms cuddling under the comforter. Ugh...how sickening.

Well, you two're about to be together far more intimately than you bargained for.

Years of experience turning down beds under her belt, Lilly exercised immense care and discretion sliding the covers down off both unconscious bodies. Unblanketed, the girls curled up a bit in response to the draft, but did not awaken. Lil smirked. Her eyes having adjusted to the dark, she determined that Julie wore no slippers or socks, just her striped pajamas Lilly'd always hated. Colleen, conversely, was naked. Hm, thought Lil. How delightfully convenient. And nice curves...for a thief of hearts.

She thought back on the times when she and Jules would be playing in bed together. She brought to mind the couple of instances when she either accidentally or purposely brushed her nails over Julie's bare skin, making her shriek hysterically. It was how she'd found out just how insanely ticklish she was, a secret she'd always wished to keep private. Part of Lilly had always wanted to try tickling her feet, but Jules never let her even think about touching them.

Before Lil knew it, a massive grin played about her lips.

Ostensibly, they'd been drinking before going to bed this evening. Only able to hope the alcohol had knocked them out good and cold, Lilly cautiously, gently took hold of their ankles, tranquilly guiding all four to the foot of the bed. When this was done, she held still a moment to make sure their legs stayed there, and they remained asleep. Time to put the rope to use. She crossed the inner two legs over one another so that their feet alternated, then threaded the rope around their ankles, again carefully as possible.

This was getting exciting already, thought Lil, making herself keep from giggling. Once the feet were lassoed together, she took the rope under the bed, bringing it around and up, through the headboard, proceeding to do the same with their hands. Now she was getting really excited, not to mention a little turned on. There was something about hot chicks—beautiful on the outside, at least—turned into damsels in distress, tied up to one another, that made Lilly feel all warm, fuzzy and tingly inside.

At last, the lasses were down, and weren't going anywhere. It was time to have some fun, thought Lil as she switched on the lamp beside where they lay. And she had to throw in some hustle now, as the light and the feeling of their bound limbs were interfering with the girls' slumber. They were starting to wake on their own. Lilly wanted to awaken them her special way. She scurried back to her tote bag at the foot of the bed, rummaged a moment, whipped out her notorious Hitachi, and hastened to plug it in.