AMA Week - Ch 366-369

Hello Folks! We are entering AMA week again, so about 25k words will release in a row and I'll bundle it all up in a nicely formatted release with the PDF and ePub files at the end. This release fills out 5k out of 25k.

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Chapter 366

“You have a minute, Rob?” Doug asked, sticking his head in my office.

“Sure,” I nodded, starting to get up from my desk to follow him, but he waved me to sit and came in, closing the door behind him. My awareness immediately shot up because, for all that Doug wasn’t exactly a forceful boss, he tended to try and do things in safe territory for him. The conference rooms, his office, or on the move from one location to another. We’d certainly had conversations in my office over the last couple of years but never anything long, or behind closed doors. “What’s up?” I asked with a frown, settling back into my chair but leaning forward with my elbows on my desk, trying to give him my obvious attention.

Doug unbuttoned his suit jacket and flopped down into the chair across from me, letting out a long, belaboured sigh.

“Right,” I said slowly. “So… a lot of things, or one big thing?”

“See, Robbie, that’s why I like you,” he said, giving me a finger-gun point. “You pick up on things.”

“You’re not exactly being subtle here, Doug,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, well… it’s been a day,” he said.

“It’s only two o’clock on a Tuesday,” I said. “And I haven’t heard about anything happening.”

“Well, you’re not hearing this from me,” Doug said. “But there’s a shakeup happening.” He pointed upwards, and I assumed he meant at the Board level rather than literally up in the hotel rooms towering above us. “And it’s making people nervous.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How does anything happening at that level land on us?” I asked. “It doesn’t matter who owns the building, does it? And how much shaking are we talking about?”

“Unsure so far, but there were disagreements going on last week while you were gone,” Doug said. “Not that you would have heard anything then. But now the people above me are getting restless, and when that happens it means…”

“Problems,” I nodded. The real issue, I realised, was trying to correctly guess where the problems would manifest. The most dramatic, wide-reaching effect could be tightening budgets and layoffs, where everyone got pinched hard on labour amounts. Or ‘consultants’ coming in. I’d never been through a run with consultants myself, but I’d heard stories from some of the longer-serving Vegas staffers and it was always chaos, a big waste of time, and caused way more low-level problems than the one or two mid-level non-issues that the expensive suits ‘fixed.’ “So what are we doing about it then?”

“Officially, nothing,” Doug said. “But I need you to go on the offensive for us. I know we’re booked up, but we’re not booked. Tracy is busy, and angry with me, right now, and Walt is in the doghouse. I need you and Jonas to find ways to fill in every crack in our schedule, and make sure Tan is… well, involved.”

I did the quick math in my head, slowly shaking it. “Doug, there might be ‘cracks’ in the schedule, but we’re talking about times that are super useful for turnover procedures, or facilitating staffing transitions. I can’t just cram more bookings into the Ballrooms on short notice.”

He grimaced. “I need you to make it work,” he said. “Jonas has already started - he’s filled in that four-hour block on Friday in the Sunset room.”

“Wait, what block in Sunset?” I asked with a frown, turning to my computer and waking it up. “Doug, that wasn’t an opening! That was the setup time for the Lau wedding, and he’s filled it with… a birthday party?”

“He’s got it figured out,” Doug said. “Or says he does, at least. It’s a small party, something about a Sorority, and he’ll close the partition so half the room can be prepped while the new event is going on, then there’s an hour to prep the other half before the reception.”

I gave my boss a look that could have probably curdled milk. “Has Tan informed the Lau’s about this change? Because I’m pretty sure they had plans for some traditional decor they were having an outside company come in to set up. Not to mention that the plan for the stage for their wedding band, and late-night karaoke, was set for the west wall right where the partition crosses.”

“I don’t know,” Doug said. “But that’s not your problem, OK? Tan is supposed to be in charge of that event, and now Jonas will work with him on the transition. You can be hands off of it so you can focus on bringing in other new bookings.”

My groan was almost a growl of frustration. I’d been hand-holding Tan through the prep for that wedding for six months, and it was supposed to be the first one where he would be flying solo. The amount of work I’d put into the pre-prep to make sure everything could basically run on auto-pilot, even with the addition of the traditional Hong Kong cultural elements the client wanted, had been significant. All Tan would have needed to do was show up, work with Dayana (who would backstop him for me just in case), and shake hands.

“What’s the goal here?” I asked once I took a breath and sat forward again, focusing on Doug instead of the chaos that this new effort would do on the perfectly organised schedule we had until now.

“Honestly?” Doug said. “We need to look like we’re stretched even more thin than we already are, and overachieve like crazy. If the worst happens, I need the cuts to be as minimal as possible for us so that we can keep functioning. But I also need us to be positioned to take advantage of opportunities.”

I blinked slowly, letting out a half-breath, because I could hear in his voice that this was the real goal. Trying to make sure to save someone’s bacon was a great selling point, and a classic Doug move to try and sandwich good and bad news. “What sort of opportunities are… possible?” I asked slowly.

Doug gave me a brief look like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but with his mouth already stuffed with cookies. “I’ve got a suspicion, that’s all,” he said, holding up his hands to caution spreading this around. “Someone in the C-Suite might be making a transition soon, either by choice or… not. And if that happens, then a certain someone should be in line to step into that role, which leaves a vacancy one step away from me…”

I saw where he was leaning and did the quick math. Doug, as the VP of Events, answered to the VP of Hospitality, Remi Bernard. He answered directly to Cynthia Warden, the COO, along with several of the other ‘big tent’ VPs. If Cynthia was on the outs with someone on the Board and left, then Remi was likely to be promoted into that spot because he was decent at his job and put in face time with all the Owners whenever they were in the city - meaning he was a bit of a boot licker, but still effective enough at his job that he hadn’t tripped over himself. But Remi moved up to COO, then it would be a fight for the VP of Hospitality position, and that would come down to Doug or Shaun Waters, the VP of Food and Drink, and Dayana’s direct supervisor. That would be a tight race, but if Doug squeaked it out, that meant VP of Events would be open.

Tracy didn’t want it, with her focus on the gallery above anything else, and Walt wouldn’t be considered. Especially after the whole thing with scorching up the side of the hotel. Tan was way too new, so unless he had a nepotism hook it would be me or Jonas.

Of course, at any point in that chain of events, things could get disrupted by someone deciding to go for an outside hire instead of promoting internally. And in our business, that outside hire could come from someone jumping over from another major Vegas casino, or from anywhere else in the world that had 5-star resorts.

“Shit,” I said.

“It’s a long shot, but you should be ready,” Doug nodded, seeing me putting the pieces together.

Then I frowned at him. “You went to Jonas first with this?”

“I… did,” he said. “But only because I had to meet with him early this morning about something else.”

“You do realise-”

“I know, I know,” he said, holding up his hands. “Don’t say it.”

He knew Jonas was a prick, and if things worked out perfectly, by setting Jonas up for success he’d probably be forcing me to look for a job at another hotel and making himself continue working as Jonas’s direct superior. I also knew that he liked to play me against Jonas because I had a minor competitive streak when it came to his dickishness.

“So now I have to play catch-up while scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill cracks in the schedule at the last minute,” I said.

“If it makes it any better, Jonas doesn’t know why yet, he’s just happy to do it,” Doug said, just a little smugly.

We both knew that Jonas was happy to do it because he knew it fucked with me way more than it did him and his theatre scheduling.

“Alright, well, great,” I sighed. “I guess I’ll start… finding cracks that need filling.”

“Thanks, Robbie,” Doug said, clapping his hands on his knees and then standing up, re-buttoning his suit jacket. “If this all works out, you’ll be in a good spot.”

“Thanks,” I said, shaking my head ruefully. “I should really get you to put that offer in writing.”

“If I did that, we’d both be in deep shit,” he chuckled. “Now get to work.”

“Yes, boss,” I sighed, shaking my head at him. He left my office, and I sat staring after him for a long moment before finally muttering, “Fucker,” under my breath.

I wanted that promotion but hadn’t thought it would be up for grabs any time soon. Now, with everything going on at home, that promotion wouldn’t just be good for me and Cass. It would come with a nice raise to help with dating eight women, and chipping in more towards the Big House plans. Not to mention mine and Cass’s wedding.

“Fuck,” I muttered again. “Fuck.”

Chapter 367

“You said yes to what?” Dayana growled at me.

I’d gone to find her instead of trying to call her up to my office and we were standing in the back service corridors that serviced the ground floor restaurants. She’d been negotiating an argument between one of the Sous Chefs and a delivery driver over produce that should have been delivered six hours earlier and, apparently, was green onions and not leeks.

She’d seen me waiting down the corridor, hovering at an intersection while keeping my distance, and she’d signalled she saw me and then let the two of them have it for acting like children once she’d heard them both out. Then she took about ten minutes to stop and step into the other kitchens along the hallway, and was able to get the delivery of green onions parcelled out between them all while on the phone with the delivery company to organise a rush order of leeks before it would be too late for dinner service, and fixing the order moving forward.

When she’d finally come to meet me she’d blown out a breath, shaking her head, and I’d followed her to one of the back storage rooms. It was public enough that no one would see us and think ‘What are those two doing?’ but also private enough that we could have a conversation with little risk of being overheard. She knew, with me coming down to her instead of texting to meet, it would be potentially sensitive.

I’d told her about Friday, and why it was happening. And she’d pulled an Elaine Benes and shoved me with two hands in the chest as she chastised me.

“I didn’t say yes to anything,” I defended myself, grabbing her wrists for a moment when it looked like she was going to shove me a second time in a row. She smirked and leaned towards me instead, putting her weight into my hands and glaring with her eyes to demand more explanation. “It was already done, and I couldn’t change anything about it.”

“My staffing is going to be fucked,” she said. “When were they planning on telling me?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m telling you,” I said. “So we can figure out what to do about it.”

Dayan grunted and pulled away from me, and I let go of her wrists as she went pacing up and down between rows of stacked chairs and tables. Then she turned back to me and pointed accusingly. “You want me to wait to fix this,” she said.

“I want to figure out what to do,” I repeated myself.

“Yeah, but if I wait and let the problem get worse, it reflects worse on both of them,” Dayana said. “And helps you. But the chaos won’t help me, and it could let Shaun know that something is up if anyone complains to him.”

“Those are all true points,” I nodded.

“So what do you want to happen?” she asked me, coming back over to me and glaring into my eyes again.

And I noticed that, the same as with her maybe-flirting moves, she looked fucking cute when she was aggravated and demanding. Her big eyes were fixed on mine, her lips twisted slightly and so kissable. Long, dark hair I could run my fingers through. Her tight little body perfect for-

Down, boy, I internally grunted at myself.

“I want to win, but I want to do it without making things harder on you,” I said truthfully.

That made Dayana sigh and purse her lips, cocking her head to the side as she planted her hands on her hips. “Robbie, I don’t think you can have both right now.”

“Then fix it now,” I said. “Even if you haven’t officially heard about it.”

She nodded slowly, looking up and away as she did the mental calculations. “Without the details of the catering for the birthday party, I don’t know exactly what needs to change, but I can get the service staff shifted slightly, and I have at least a few who are looking for more hours right now so they’ll jump on the shifts- except it’s a Friday afternoon? OK, I only have two who will jump on it, so then…” She wiggled her fingers like she was moving things around on a computer screen instead of in her mind, and then sighed and her shoulders relaxed. “OK. I can… do half of it now. The actual food portion of the catering is a lot harder to just move things around for though.”

“I know,” I grimaced. “But I figured more warning was better than less.”

“Thank you,” she sighed, rolling her head to stretch her neck and then doing a larger stretch of her whole body. I tried not to look too closely. “Fuck,” she groaned, then sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “What are you going to do about drumming up more events?”

“I don’t know yet,” I shook my head. “I need to figure something out that’s going to use the space but not suck too many resources from anywhere else. And preferably with fast set-up and take-down.”

“Good luck,” Dayana grimaced. Then she shook her head. “What are you and Cassidy doing for dinner tonight? Want to come over to mine? I’ll bring home Franky’s.”

I groaned. Franky’s was what we called the Italian bistro Francesca in the back corridors of the hotel. And it was fucking good, and fucking expensive. Unless you happened to work in catering and could stick your head in the back door of the kitchen and just ask for shit.

“I’ve got a thing,” I said. “But Cass is flying solo because of it tonight and I don’t know what she was planning.”

“Sure, I’ll text her,” Dayana agreed with a smile. “But what’s ‘a thing?’”

I mentally kicked myself for not having something prepared for that question.

“Just a thing,” I said. “A personal thing.”

Dayana frown-smiled at me, her expressive brows coming together at me being even more obfuscating. “OK, Mr Man of Mystery,” she said. “I’ll just get it out of Cassidy. Unless you’re keeping secrets from her, too.”

“She knows, and she can tell you my private secrets if she wants to,” I sighed.

Dayana smirked and then blew a kiss at me as she sashayed by me. “You owe me one for this, Robbie.”

“For what?” I asked, following her. “Giving you a heads-up?”

“For not stopping it in its tracks before it had to get to me,” she said, grinning as she looked over her shoulders. “Now fuck off, I have work to do.”

“And so do I,” I agreed. Then I jumped, surprised as she gave me a team-mate level slap on the ass. Her laughter at the expression on my face was warm and playful.

It’s just friendly, I told myself as I walked away. We’re just friends.

Chapter 368

“Twice in twenty-four hours?” 

I coughed politely and gave Vanessa my most winning smile. The severely pretty blonde was sitting in her office as usual, keeping the Vaso marketing machine on track.

She exhaled in exasperation and cleared a space on her desk for me to set down my offerings - I didn’t have the time to run out of the hotel before I had clients coming in for a meeting, so I’d stopped down at the bakery and convinced them to brew up a pair of double, steaming hot and dark as sin espressos. Plus the requisite oven-warmed cookies.

“What do you need from me?” she asked as I sat down the saucer and espresso in front of her, followed by the plate with the cookies and my own cup.

“Remember what we talked about yesterday?” I asked. “Maybe I’m coming here not to ask you for something, but to offer it to you.’

She narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down shrewdly before gesturing for me to grab the other chair and sit with her. I had no idea where Azir was, but once again he’d abandoned ‘his office’ to work elsewhere and leave Vanessa in command of her office. As I sat down and got settled Vanessa took a sip of her espresso.

“The fact that your ‘gifts’ are going down in quality is a disturbing trend,” she said, setting the espresso down.

“I’m on a time crunch here, Vanessa,” I admitted. “I have a client meeting in under thirty minutes.”

“So you do need something from me,” she said.

“No,” I said, drawing it out. “I actually don’t. Well, there’s something I could use your help on, but it’s more academic than a specific work favour. There is something I do need to tell you about, though.”

I had plenty of friendly acquaintances at work, all through the organisation and different departments. Some were better than others. Some I only saw once a month, others several times a day. I could count my actual friends at work on one hand, and I felt like that was a pretty healthy number. Dayana and Vanessa were definitely at the top of the list. And now that Dayana knew what was going on, I wanted to make sure Vanessa did as well.

Even if I knew telling Vanessa was a bit more of a risk, because she was much more cut-throat and could try to manipulate things to her advantage.

But I told her about the rumours. She immediately had the math of the potential shake-up figured out, shaking her head. “You need to take him out at the knees,” she told me.

“Jonas?” I asked.

“No, Doug,” she said, surprising me. But then, she liked Doug about as much as she liked Jonas.

“Why would I handicap Doug?” I asked. “The best-case scenario is everyone moves up a step.”

She gave me a look that could have been interpreted as ‘You’re dumb, but at least you have your looks.’ “That’s not the best case, that’s just the case where the least number of people get cut out,” she said.

“How is that not the best case?” I asked.

“Because the best case would be you leap-frogging Doug into the VP Hospitality role,” Vanessa said, then held up a hand. “But it’s not that likely to happen, so then you need to look at how to best position yourself. You and Dayana work as a pair, and we all know Dayana does almost all of Shaun’s job herself except the paperwork. When the shake-up happens, you want either Shaun or Doug on the outs while the other one looks strong, that way you control who goes into the VP Hospitality role while the other one gets canned. Then you both get promoted, stay at the same level working together instead of changing the dynamic that works, and both of your departments function at a higher level because of it.”

“Which makes things easier for you,” I said.

“It would,” she said, giving me one of her rare little smiles. Then she returned back to her cold business expression. “It will be easier for you to undercut Doug than Shaun. Dayana already doing his job for him and everyone knowing it means anything against him will just reflect on her. You haven’t covered for Doug nearly as much, so he’s more vulnerable without it blowing back on you.”

I grimaced and sighed. “You know this is not my MO.”

“I know,” she said, her voice sweet but her expression still cold. “And that’s why I trust you enough to lay it out for you, and not use it against me.”

“I wouldn’t ever,” I sighed. “And I hope you wouldn’t either.”

“I wouldn’t need to,” she smirked a little, her expression softening again. “You’d step out of my way if you were ever in it.”

That made me chuckle. “That’s fair, I would.”

She gave me a look that was a little confusing. Something floating around curiosity, sadness, pity and wistfulness.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing, Robbie,” Vanessa said, her expression hardening again. “Nothing. Was this really all that you came up here to talk about?”

“It was,” I promised her. “I just wanted to make sure you knew things were… in motion.”

“Well, thank you,” she said. “Now what are you going to do?”

“About Doug?”

“About needing to find more last-minute bookings,” she clarified. “I can’t exactly start marketing that we’re seeking small, niche-timing events at full price.”

“Tell me about it,” I shook my head. “I’ll figure it out. If you do hear about any of the companies you network with thinking about something, let me know. Depending on what it is, I can probably do some sort of discount.”

“I’ll keep an ear out, but don’t expect anything,” she said.

I nodded. “Thanks. Anything I can do for you?”

Again she gave me a flash of a weird expression, and this one was even more complicated and hard to read. “I’m good, thanks,” she said. Then took a bite of her warm, gooey cookie and breathed in and out slowly through her nose as she chewed. Once she’d swallowed she sighed. “Better than good. Now get out of here, I have work to do.”

“And so do I,” I said, flashing her a smile and standing up. As I moved the extra chair - or Azir’s desk chair, if he ever dared use it - back to its position I had a flash of Deja Vu that made me laugh. Dayana had said the same thing to me that Vanessa had, and I’d responded the same. The idea of Vanessa giving me a playful, friendly smack on the ass to send me on my way was absurd, though.

“What is it?” Vanessa asked me as I headed for the door.

“Nothing, just a stray thought,” I said, lingering in the doorway. “Have a good day, Vanessa.”

“Have a good afternoon,” she replied, correcting me mildly. “And say hello to Cassidy for me.”

“I will,” I promised her, and left her to her work.

Chapter 369

My welcome home, about an hour later than I wanted but better than I’d worried it would be, was solely by Cassidy.

And it was quite welcoming.

“Oh, fuck,” I grunted, leaning back against the front door.

Gack-gack-gack, she slurped and gagged loudly on my cock. Then she came off my cock, jaw still open, laughing breathily as she left spittle stringing between us.

“Hi, Tiger,” she said with a grin, stroking my messy cock with one hand.

“Hey, baby,” I groaned. “Where’s-?”

“Upstairs getting ready,” my fiancee said, standing up and reversing her grip on my cock, still stroking me and she pressed her front to me and went on her toes to kiss me. She’d met me at the door naked and her bare breasts pressed against me, even through my suit, was still intoxicating. Her kiss was less messy than her cocksucking, but her lips were still spittle-covered and it got on me - and I didn’t give a fuck. She moaned into my lips and I slid my hands around her waist and then down to her ass, grabbing it firmly and making her giggle softly.

“What’s the plan?” I murmured to her. 

“Well, you guys are going on your date,” she said, pulling away from me a little but tugging me to follow with her hand on my cock. She walked backwards, leading me deeper into the house as she talked, all the way to the kitchen. “And Dayana texted, I’m gonna go have dinner with her. That’s OK, right?”

“Of course it is,” I said, frowning slightly. “When has it ever not been?”

Cassidy made a little guilty face. “Well, now that you know what I used to do…”

I grunted, having not made that connection. “Oh,” I said. “Well… I trust you. And her.”

She smirked a little. “You trust me alone with your work wife? Most fiancees and husbands would be worried about that.”

“She’s not my work wife,” I sighed. It was a long-standing teasing between us. I’d never taken it seriously because I’d made the effort to make sure they could be friendly, and eventually, they’d become friends themselves.

“Suuure she isn’t,” Cassidy grinned as we entered the kitchen. She kept tugging, slowing as she backed up to the counter.

“Vanessa says Hi, by the way,” I said.

“Ooh, I say hi back,” she said, then gave me a look. She didn’t even need to say ‘your other work wife’ to make me glare at her, which made her laugh. “I love you,” she said with a sigh.

“I love you too,” I said.

Her butt hit the edge of the counter, and a glance told me what she was hoping for, so I picked her up by her waist and she wiggled to put herself in the right position as she spread her legs for me to stand between them. “Anyways, I’ll be eating with Dayana and hanging out for a bit,” she said. “While you’re on your date with Cattie. And you guys are getting alone time tonight, I’m not horning in on your alone-sex, but I’ll come home to sleep in your arms still,” she said as she hugged me around my shoulders and pulled me to her. My cock bumped against her mound, pressing between us as she pulled me into a kiss. When it was done she slid a hand between us and wrapped it around my cock again, both of us shifting as she pushed it into position. “But right now my job is to get you nice and relaxed,” she murmured against my lips. “And get your first orgasm of the evening out of you so that when Cattie gets your pants off you last extra long.”

I groaned in my chest as my cock sunk into my fiancee, and she hooked one leg back around my hips as I bottomed out in her, our lips locked.

We fucked, not hard, and definitely not as wild as the night before. It wasn’t lovemaking, it was sex, but it was sinuous and slow. Heartfelt but wanting. Hungry.

I lost track of time, fucking Cass. Feeling her gripping and squeezing, hearing her pussy squelch softly and our bodies come together. Listening to her little happy grunts and moans, and matching them with my own.

“God, I love you,” she whispered, looking up into my eyes. I was holding her waist with one hand and had my other woven into the hair on the back of her head.

“I fuckin’ love you too,” I grunted. “So fucking much.”

“Your phone’s been buzzing in your pocket,” she giggled. “Want to see if any of the girls have sent you any nudes while you fuck me?”

I’d heard it too, and it was a possibility since they knew I wasn’t at work anymore, but I shook my head. Looking at my other naked girlfriends while I was having sex with Cass and Cattie was kinky fun, but not what I wanted. “I just want you,” I murmured. “I’m just here with you.”

She sucked in a breath and pulled me into another hungry, soulful kiss.

“Are you two done down there or what?” Cattie called down from upstairs.

That made Cass and I pull away from each other a little, both of us laughing at the impatient tone in Cattie’s voice.

“Almost, babe,” Cass called back.

“Hi, gorgeous.”

“Welcome home, Tiger,” Cattie called. “Now fill Cassidy’s slutty little pussy up with cum so that you can come get ready and we can get outta here for our date. I want to make this relationship official on every level!”

“Such a needy submissive,” Cattie chuckled softly.

“I heard that!” Cattie shouted down.

“Love you,” Cassidy cackled.

“I’ll just be a minute more,” I promised Cattie, then picked Cass up from the counter and lowered us both to the floor. She clung to me, giggling breathily, and once her back was on the tile she hissed softly and moaned as I started fucking her more firmly.

“That’s it, Tiger,” Cassidy said. “That’s it. Fuck my brains out. Fuck my brains out so you can absolutely melt Cattie’s brains later. We’re both your little fucktoy girlfriends. Dump your load in me. I want to feel it all ooey and gooey while I’m eating dinner with Dayana. Oh, fuck, Robbie, that’s good. That’s good! That’s-”

Cassidy hiccuped softly, her shoulder pressing back against the floor as she arched her body in agonizing pleasure while I thumbed her clit quickly and ground myself inside her, thrusting with little shots as I pumped ropes of cum deep into her.

“Yessss,” she hissed out her breath.

I grunted wordlessly, enjoying every moment of using her for our mutual pleasure.

When we were both finished panting to catch our breath, grinning at each other, she shook her head and raised her voice again. “OK, babe. We’re done.”

“Finally! I was starting to think I’d have to start fingering myself up here, listening to you two!”