Too Casual (2)

"Yes, Carry. Why don't you answer her? Tell her how casual her dressing is." Priscilla took the opportunity and asked him as well.

The man found himself in a tight spot and could only stare at them. He didn't know who's side to take. It wasn't even a choice which was given to him. He wanted to go with the truth and tell the ladies off. He wanted to side with the lady whose gleaming eyes were bustling with the twinkles of honesty.

But he also knew that if he went along with it, there was no way he would be forgiven by the two evil twins. He could only gulp down the truth and mutter a lie for the sake of his job.

His ocean blue eyes jumped from Noelle to the two ladies as his head bobbed up and down.

"I agree with you, Miss Sundseth. Her attire is indeed too casual even for a place like our hotel." The words left a bitter trail in their go as they left his lips. He was cursing himself internally for being too selfish, but that was all he could do. He was willing to kiss that lady's sandal just so he could keep his job. Telling a lie for the same reason was nothing to him.

The truth was, even with her simple outlook, she looked much better than her sisters, or any of the ladies he had come across since the morning. But too bad that it was a truth which he had to take along to his grave now.

He tried to swallow the bitterness as he trailed his curious and guilt filled eyes back to Noelle, only to be left stunned once again. It was as if lightning had struck him down.

She was smiling at him. He was hoping to find her glaring daggers with those majestic eyes of hers, yet she was looking back at him the same way as before. It made him more than curious. He wanted to know what was going inside that beautiful head of hers.

"If you say so…" She replied to him back with a bright smile, her rosy pink lips showcasing her naturally white teeth.

"See, Noelle! Even a waiter like him can see that, yet you don't listen to us. Even though we are just your step sisters, we are your sisters. We would want nothing but the best for you, wouldn't we?" Priscilla looked at her with her pitiful eyes.

"Priscilla is right, Noelle. If you don't own some fancy clothes, you can borrow some of mine. In fact, I have a couple of dresses which I have barely touched. Why don't you come by our suite later on, and take them along with you?" Porsha added to her sister's words, acting all generous.

In return to their not so polite words, Noelle smiled at them. Sure, I will stop by your room when you have returned, my dear sisters." She went along with the whole act, knowing fully well what they were implying.

Noelle was someone who owned a good heart. She could turn a blind eye to people who meant her arm, and this included both of her step-sisters. Though they had never tried to harm her actually, one could not say that they treated Noelle nicely.

Noelle knew that they were trying to put on an act of generosity before the concierge, and for those around. In reality, their act was just to provide the eavesdroppers and the gossip mongers of the lobby with something to talk about once they were gone.

One would wonder how Noelle knew it all?

Because she was not only smart to pick up the small bread crumbs which were sprinkled all over the hotel's lobby, but also she had learnt this all from experience. Her sisters would prefer to throw away their belongings after merely touching them instead of letting her have them.

It had always been like this since the day she turned sixteen. But never in her life had Noelle asked bad for them. Instead, she hoped that one day, her sisters would choose to treat her the same way they do each other. She knew that it was her wishful thinking, but wishes had the potential of coming true.

"What happened there, Priscilla?" Noelle asked, pointing towards her bare feet. She was a little younger than Porsha and had always wanted to use the term 'elder sister' for the two of them, but she was almost always scolded for doing it.

"We don't want a constant reminder that we are older than you."

Their reason was absurd, but Noelle decided to accept it with an open heart. For her, there was no reason to upset either of them. She could do with using their names.

"That Carry broke it." Priscilla replied as she eyed her bare feet with nothing but pity.

'Carry?' Noelle couldn't help herself but doubt her sister's words. What kind of name was Carry?

She turned around to check his name tag and chuckled lightly to herself as soon as her eyes landed on the bold uppercase letters which clearly stated his name as 'COREY'.

"You mean Corey did it?" Noelle turned around to face her step sisters, ignoring the glances which the man was giving her.

"Who's Corey?" Priscilla narrowed her eyes at her figure as a small frown appeared in between her eyebrows.

"Corey, the concierge." Noelle replied to her as a matter of fact. She turned around and briefly pointed towards the guy's tag after stepping to the side so that they could have a better look at his name.

"His name is Corey?"

"He isn't Carry?"

Both the sisters were left baffled as they stared at the name tag.

"Yes, I am Corey, not Carry." Seeing that a chance was served to him on a golden platter, Corey grabbed it and spoke politely to the two ladies as he corrected their earlier mispronunciation of his name.

"Then why did you tell me that your name was Carry?" Priscilla muttered out with confusion written all over her face.

Her words left both, Noelle and Corey, dumbfounded.

"He must have mispronounced it." Before Corey could say something, Noelle spoke up, putting the blame on him. She knew that there was no way he would have done that, and that it must be her sister who misheard it, but she found it better to keep things the way they were.

"Why don't you go to your room and change into another pair?" Noelle continued, suggesting her the obvious solution which only earned her two eye rolls, one from each sister.

"We were obviously doing that before you interrupted us." Porsha, who had managed to keep her mouth shut for some time, spoke up gruffly. She had been supporting Priscilla all this while, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

"Please, continue." Noelle stepped more to the side to get out of their way completely. "In fact, I will just go back to my room and order something nice for myself."

"You can do it, Noelle, after you have found my sandal which he lost." Priscilla ordered her, giving her a reason to stay back while they took the elevator on their own. "Carry here has to help me in getting up to our room." She added as she tried to make it sound more reasonable.

Noelle, who was no stranger to the real reason, gave her head a nod. She turned around briefly to wave at Corey who had only stepped forward to help Porsha with taking Priscilla to the elevator.

Noelle watched the trio leave from the sidelines. As soon as the elevator's doors closed, a low sigh left her pursed lips.

"So where are you now, little sandal?"

She mumbled to herself as she began to look for the thing which had started it all.