The Retreat

THE RETREAT

"Good evening sir. Is there anything that I can help you with?" An attractive young brunette asked as I approached the desk. It was impossible to deny the beauty and elegance that she had even as she sat behind that receptionist counter, the way she held herself upright showed off her slender physique, not to mention the way her blouse and jacket fit perfectly to her, not a single crease could be seen nor did the buttons holding it all together look strained and the way she smiled cooly at me as I stood before her left me momentarily speechless.

“Umm yes I believe I made a reservation here, the name is Antony Carmile.” I felt my face heating up the longer I looked at her.

“Ah yes Mr Carmile, you are in room 205. If you leave your bags I’ll call someone to take them to your room. If you follow me I will show you to your room.” As she stood up I couldn’t help but again be left speechless by her looks. She was around five-six with her heels on, and the way her skirt fit perfectly to her figure just like her blouse and jacket, all together it perfectly outlined her hourglass body and complimented her complexion perfectly.

She waved a hand for me to follow her. We made our way to the elevator in silence, she selected the 5th floor, we rode the elevator in complete silence, the only noise was the whirring of the air conditioning and music that was playing. Standing behind her I could feel my body heating up and couldn't stop myself from looking her over again. The way she held herself seemed to entrap me. I realised I’d been staring at her unblinkingly when the elevator chimed and the doors opened. I followed her out of the elevator and down the hallway, while we walked I found myself entranced by the swaying of her hips, the way her hair cascaded down her back and waved side to side with each step. Once again it was only when she spoke that I snapped out of it and stopped staring at her.

“Here we go Sir, room 205. If you need anything please feel free to dial 1 on the phone in the room for general inquiries or you can dial 2 for room service.” She gave me a professional smile just before walking back the way we had come.

“Haaa, what is wrong with me today? Normally I wouldn’t even care about someone that beautiful, yet here I am, completely enraptured by her every movement.” I said to the empty room as I fell into the reclining chair in the corner.

I stayed in the recliner for a while looking out the window as the sun set over the ocean, its golden rays reflecting off the water transforming it from a sea of deep blue to an ocean of gold. As I continued to look out the window I tried to forget about the receptionist and focus on the reason why I had come to this retreat, I needed to break through my writer's block. It had been nearly three months since I had been unable to write properly and my publishers have been pressuring me to get them something within the next month. However, as the sun nearly vanished below the horizon lighting the sky a majestic purple and navy the ocean began to look emerald, just like the receptionist's eyes.

“AHHH!” I yelled out, annoyed at myself for being so fixated on a woman who I had just met and barely even spoken to. “Oh stuff it, I’m not going to get anything done tonight like this.” I spoke aloud to the empty room as I walked over to the bathroom. As I did I began taking off all my clothes, by the time I was in the bathroom I was completely naked.

I stood in front of the mirror while I waited for the water to heat up. In my opinion, I wasn’t anything special, I was around six-two, I had an athletic build that I had trained over years of sports and workouts, my brown hair was cut short around the back and sides with some length left on top, my hazel eyes I didn't think were that special and I kept my beard short as to avoid any excessive maintenance. All in all, what chance would a struggling novelist with mediocre looks and social anxiety have with one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen? Jumping into the shower I let my thoughts flow freely, however, I wasn’t too pleased with the direction they took, all I would think of and stories I could come up with were now all about that receptionist. But on the bright side at least I was coming up with some new stories, even if they had no relation to the book series I was meant to be working on. Getting out of the shower I put on some casual clothes before jumping on the bed and putting on a movie. Looking at the clock I was surprised to see that it was nearly 7 pm, rolling over I picked up the phone on the nightstand and dialled 2.

“Hello, this is room service how may we be of help to you this evening?” an eloquent voice answered.

“Ah yes, I was wondering if you could bring up a seafood platter to room 205?”

“Yes of course Sir, would you like any drinks with that?”

“Would you be able to send up a bottle of Glenfiddich 30-year-old single malt scotch whiskey with that thanks.”

“Of course Sir, it will be up momentarily.”

I hung up the phone and resumed my movie, though I wasn’t really focused on it, instead, I used it as background noise while I pulled out my computer and stared at the blank document that was meant to be the sixth book and final book in the series I had spent the last 8 years of my life working on. Each one had been a bestseller and earned me millions each, but it had been almost 18 months since I had released the fifth book. In all the time I had been writing there had only been two other times I had suffered writer's block like this, the first was just after finishing my first book and the second was after the fourth book and each time to get over it I had thrown myself into other work and after a couple of months I was good to go again, but for some reason this time it didn’t work.

“Wow, now I’m monologing to myself in my head.” I chuckled to myself “And I’m even talking aloud to myself, I must be going crazy this time.”

Knock knock

My head snapped to look at the door, I looked down at the clock to see that I had been staring at a blank screen for almost half an hour.

“Who is it?” I called out as I got out of bed.

“Room service.” A strange voice called back.

Opening the door I was left stunned to see the Beautiful receptionist standing in front of me, however, she was no longer in her uniform, instead, she now wore a sleeveless white top with a forest green skirt and white joggers and her hair was still the same as when she had been working. Beside her sat a cart with multiple plates on it.

“Hello again, would you mind if I joined you for dinner?”