After a while, she retreated to the bed, falling into a restless sleep until dawn. By the time she was up, showered and dressed, there was a loud knock on the door. She pushed the intercom button and waited, having been cautioned not to say anything unless spoken to first. It was a relief to hear Charlotte’s voice from the other side.
“Good morning, Kelly. Are you ready to start your new life?” Charlotte asked with a large smile.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Kelly replied.
“Then, let’s begin.”
Charlotte had gotten her on the move as quickly as they had finished discussing the particulars of her move. She had been taken straight to the airport and put on a private plane operated by a crew of women. It was something she had noted in dealing with Charlotte and her staff. There were no men, only women. It was a curiosity that she didn’t inquire about but found interesting. Perhaps, Charlotte had once had her own issues and thus, only trusted the female sex.
Kelly stepped off the plane and looked around her at the small airport. She already felt calmer now that she was hundreds of miles away from Cullen. Skipping the line of cabs out by the curb, she made her way instead to the buses that would take her into the city center. There, she found a cheap hostel, selecting a room with seven other occupants. Tomorrow, she would meet with the client Charlotte had sent her here to meet. If it went well, he would make arrangements for her housing from there. If not, she would begin her pursuit of work here in her new hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The hostel wasn’t ideal, but it was a place to sleep while she made other arrangements. She still had enough money left over for a much nicer place, but until she knew where she would go from here, she dared not risk overspending unnecessarily. Putting her things on her bunk, she made her way back out to the entrance.
“Is there a market nearby?” she asked the front desk clerk.
“Sure, honey. Just down the street. Go out the front doors and hang a left, go about three blocks.”
“Thanks.”
An hour later, Kelly had returned with a bag of food she could keep in the room to nibble on and a hot sandwich from the deli, which she relished with a bag of chips and a diet soda. It had been the first food she’d eaten beyond a few snacks on the plane. It could have been cardboard, and it would have been delicious, but luckily, it was quite good.
The hostel was full of other twenty-somethings like herself as she sat in the community gathering spot on the first floor and finished her meal. She wanted to wander around the town, but it was already past dark here and most of the shops were closed. Perhaps she would get up early in the morning and look around a bit before her meeting with Charlotte’s client.
“Kay? Kay Newton?” a female’s voice said from the other room.
Kelly continued to eat her meal, oblivious to the woman calling out. It was only when she felt a hand on her shoulder that she realized the woman had been talking to her.
“You are Kay Newton, aren’t you?” the woman said.
“Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.”
Kelly supposed she had best get used to people calling her by her new name. As of this morning, she was Kay Elizabeth Newton from now on. It seemed more than a bit weird. She wondered if there would ever be a time when that would pass.
“You have a phone call at the front desk,” the woman told her.
“Me?” Kelly replied, looking at her with a puzzled expression.
“Yes, dear.”
She stood up and walked to the front, where the woman took the phone off its hook and pressed a button before handing her the receiver. Kelly spoke into it uncertainly.
“Hello?”
“Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking all over town for you. This is Bradley Ryan.”
“How did you know where I am staying?” Kelly asked.
“I didn’t, but there are only so many places you can stay. I called about a dozen before I tried this one.”
“I see,” she replied, not knowing what else to say and not wanting to be rude by grilling him about why he was calling.
“I wasn’t supposed to be in town until tomorrow, but I got in early. I didn’t want to wait to meet you. Are you free tonight?”
“I, um, I suppose.”
“Great. Can I pick you up in say, an hour?”
“Yeah. An hour would be great,” she replied.
“See you then, Kay,” he replied.
She handed the phone back to the desk clerk and thanked her before retrieving the slender remains of her dinner and tossing them into the bin. “Kay” returned to her room and showered quickly, changing into a pair of chinos and a V-neck pullover. She had hoped to buy something nicer for their first meeting, but she would have to work with what she had that was the least wrinkled instead.