Chapter 4 Get you butt up here
Yesterday was such a hassle. I was trying to fix some shit I can't believe Darla had the guts to tell me Terry was in trouble only to find out she was the one in trouble now she had no place to stay. I had to save her space in my house.
I pick up my ringing phone just as I’m settling into my office chair, after just taking a quick sip of my first coffee of the day.
“.Golden Shiva”
“Shiv, it’s Vicky. Get your cute little butt in my office ASAP. I need a word with you.”
“Okay, give me two.” I hang up.
Vicky is my boss and director of the luxury Alpine resort I work for.
I’m a hotel freelancer too. Etiquette is… well, it’s everything. I’m also a translator freelancer.
So, in essence, I work with a high-end hotel and write features for a magazine about lifestyle and luxury hospitality.
This was the first and only writing gig I’d landed while managing my hotel. My degree was in Hospitality and Event Management, but my two loves have always been hotels and storytelling, so writing for Etiquette had seemed like a natural fit.
This writing work was supposed to be a side hustle, a filler, while I focused on climbing the hotel management ladder. But two years later, I’m still juggling both.
My work at Etiquette is to review luxury hotels, write profiles on hot new resorts, and sometimes interview prominent figures in travel, hospitality, and entertainment who choose to stay at the Alpine resort.
I’m good at what I do. I grew up around hotels. My dad owned a boutique resort, and I’ve been managing rooms, events, and staff since I was a teenager. Writing for a magazine isn’t ideal, but I like Vicky. She’s smart, funny, demanding, and she treats me like an equal.
When I first started, I was just submitting small columns on boutique hotels. Vicky pushed me to expand, gave me my own full-page feature, “Shiv’s Travels,” and it’s been running for a year. It’s also well received by readers.
The only downside? Etiquette demands glamour, exclusivity, and mainstream appeal. I’d rather write about the offbeat, the boutique hotels no one’s discovered, the hidden gems with heart and character. But for now, mainstream it is.
I switch off my laptop, take another gulp of coffee, burning my tongue in the process, and then head to Vicky’s office, walking through the CEO office. This resort was the headquarters of all Alpine resorts in the country. The door was slightly open, and I caught a glimpse of someone I so somehow know. I wonder why.
I reach the director’s office, and her door is already open. She’s on the phone but gestures for me to come in with that infectious, wide-toothed grin of hers. I sit down across from her desk.
Vicky is stunning. She is already in her mid-forties, though she refuses to confirm her age, but she looks twenty years younger. She’s sharp, confident, funny, brilliant, and one of the few people I trust to push me professionally, and maybe if you could add my mystery man to the list.
She hangs up her call and turns those lively hazel eyes on me.
“What?” I ask, suspicious.
“Natte Johnson,” she says, practically humming his name.
My heart stutters.
Natte Johnson. The name alone makes my stomach flip. It is one of the biggest names in the hotel business world, lead of Rossy Forever. He is also a music rock icon and someone I once knew better than anyone else.
We grew up together. I was his next-door neighbor. He was much older than me by fifteen years. He was always inseparable from my dad until he moved to America at thirty. When I was fifteen, he just left. And that was my first friend, first crush, first heartbreak.
We’d lost touch over the years. Life had pulled us in different directions. He’d become a global businessman; I’d carved out a life managing a views on luxury hotel. Our worlds had collided briefly over letters and phone calls for a few years, then nothing. Everything went silent.
“And… you got in touch with him?” I whisper, trying to steady my voice.
She nods, grinning like a child with a secret.
“How?” I breathe, dumbstruck. Natte is notoriously private. Exclusive interviews are nearly impossible to secure.
Vicky leans back, her hazel eyes sparkling again. “Turns out, a little persistence and knowing the right people goes a long way. And you, my darling, are going to get the first exclusive. I don’t even need your help this time.”
I stare at her, my heart already racing. Not like it races when my mystery man touches me each night. My stomach twists, the memories of my childhood flooding back, and a pang of something I thought I’d long buried resurfaces. It’s longing, nostalgia, maybe even a small spark of old love.
But I shake my head. I’m a hotel manager now. I have responsibilities, a career, and a life built on professionalism. The past is complicated. I also have a free man who satisfies me each night, who can leave me breathless.
Still, the thought of seeing Natte again, of interviewing him for Etiquette, sends a thrill through me I can’t deny.
“Alright,” I finally say, forcing my voice steady. “Tell me everything.”
And in that moment, I feel both terrified and exhilarated. Because some stories, like old friends and old loves, usually don’t stay buried forever
Natte’s intensely private. He talks about his deals when he has to, for PR of course. But he never talks about himself outside of that.
Which is funny, considering how he lives his life very publicly in many ways. He’s such a playboy who loves drinking, the drugs, the women. I don’t know if that’s true about him.
Vicky shifts uncomfortably in her seat and grimaces slightly. “Well, it doesn’t matter how I got it. It is just that I did, and you’re going to do the interview.”
“What?!” I almost reel backwards off my chair.
“Don’t look so surprised. You’re my best writer, Shiv, and well… you’re my only influencer writer. And you have this huge connection with Natte, you grew up together for crying out loud! He’ll open up to you more than he would anyone else. You could land us an exclusive here.”
“Oh, no.” I’m shaking my head rapidly. “I don’t think this is a good idea. He was 15 when I was born. By the time I turned 12 he was already 27. How is that growing together?”
I might be a dedicated influencer, but I do have this thing called morals. I’m not going to spread Natte’s guts all over the internet in the name of news.
“It’s an excellent idea, and we need this, Shiv.” Her normally smooth features furrow. “Sales are rubbish at the moment, and this exclusive with Natte Johnson will give us the boost we’ve been waiting for.”
Ugh. She’s right. It will be good for the resort, no, scrap that, it will be amazing for my reputation too as an influencer.
All I need to do is get a great interview from Natte and keep my morals at the same time.
Holy fuck. Is this really happening? Am I really going to see Natte again after all this time?
My nervous energy passes through me.
He probably won’t even remember me. It’s been seven years.
“Okay. I’m in.”
“That’s my girl.” Vicky smiles, clapping her hands together.
“When and where?”
“Tomorrow, 10am, at his hotel suite.”
“Tomorrow?” I feel another, much larger, shot of nerves rush through my blood."
“He’s only here in the city for a few days. This is the only window we’ve got
.”
“Okay… should I book Tim to go with me?” Tim is our photographer.