Rayna stepped out of the cab onto the gravel driveway and took a deep breath.
“Mmm, fresh Rocky Mountain air. This is exactly what I needed.” The driver took her bags out of the trunk and looked at her.
“Ma’am.” Rayna was lost in thought, she didn’t hear him. He cleared his throat, “Ma’am.”
“Oh right, sorry.” She reached into her book bag for her wallet. She paid the driver and gathered her things. “What an amazing old house,” she thought as she looked up at the old mansion. It was huge with Gothic carvings and statues. Rayna walked into the house and went to the front desk. The room was empty and eerie. She got goosebumps just being in there.
She walked to the desk and put down the duffel bag she had in each hand. “How weird! Hello. Is there anyone in here?” Rayna leaned over the counter and looked around. There wasn’t a person in sight. She found a bell on the counter and pushed the chrome button. The entire hall echoed with the sharp, high pitched noise. “Hello. God damn it. Does anyone fucking work in this place?”
She hit the bell about five times and turned around to lean against the counter. She saw a vague outline of a person through the stained glass surrounding the oak doors. One of the doors began to open and the sound of deep, male laughter floated in. A man covered in tattoos and leather stepped through. He was followed by a shorter man with red hair, purple tinted glasses, and eyebrow piercings. The first man was unbelievably sexy, but she was more attracted to the second. He was adorable and looked very welcoming. The second man pushed the door shut.
“Can’t let the snow in.”
“It’s snowing?” Both men stopped dead in their tracks at the sound of her voice. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya. It just wasn’t snowing a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, just started coming down a few minutes ago,” the red head said.
“So is there anyone here?” the tattooed one asked as he walked towards the counter.
“You, me and him,” Rayna said.
“No, I mean someone who works here.”
“Yeah, I knew what you meant.” She smiled at him. “I don’t think there’s a living, breathing soul in her, besides the three of us.”
“Well, shit. Have you rung the bell?”
“Of course, I rang the bell.” They stared each other down, until the red head broke in.
“Since my friend here has decided to be so rude, I’ll do the introductions. I’m Robby Takac and this is John Rzeznik.” Those named sounded familiar to her, but she couldn’t place them.
“Hi. I’m Rayna Marie.” Robby’s eyes widened and his mouth opened a little.
“You’re Rayna Marie. The Rayna Marie.” Rayna blushed slightly and looked at her feet. It suddenly occurred to her who they were.
“Hey, wait a minute. Robby Takac and John Rzeznik as in the Goo Goo Dolls.” Robby and Rayna began laughing, but Johnny looked confused.
“Okay, I’m lost. I know who we are but who are you?”
“Man don’t you remember anything? The other night I played that CD for you. The chick,” he was giving Johnny that come-on-you-know- you-remember look.
“oh, you mean when you practically busted down my door and started screaming something completely unintelligible. You were babbling about her?”
“Yeah, that was her,” Robby blushed.
“Man, this guy has the hugest crush on you.”
“Johnny, man,” Robby turned an even deeper shade of red.
“May I help you?” All three jumped and Johnny and Rayna spun around to the counter. The man smiled, “May I help you?”
“Where did you... Uh, yes. I’m Rayna Marie. I’m supposed to have a room booked.”
“Of course.” He hit the bell twice and a young boy appeared fro nowhere. “Take her bags and show her to the Royal Suite. He will show you to your room.”
The boy walked around the counter and went to her bags. She picked up her guitar case and slung it over her shoulder protectively. The boy shrugged and picked up her duffel bags. The boy headed to the stairs but Rayna stopped.
“I hope I get to see you again before we leave,” she said to Robby.
“Me too.” She turned and followed the boy up the stairs. He took her up to the third floor. She followed him down the hall to a set of oak doors. He pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He went in and set her bags on a fainting couch. She followed him in and just stared at the room.
“If you need anything dial zero on the phone by the bed. Dinner will be in the main hall at seven. It is a formal meal.” He handed her a key.
“Thank you.”
“Enjoy your stay with us at the Bancroft house. Good afternoon.” He left the room pulling the door closed behind him.
Rayna stood in front of the door and looked around. There was a small fireplace with a mirror above it. Two antique chairs easy chairs, a coffee table and the fainting couch were in front of the fire place. There were three floor to ceiling windows with lace curtains on the wall opposite the door. Across the room from the fireplace was a huge canopy bed covered in purple satin sheets and a velvety bed spread. There were sheer purple curtains surrounding the bed.
“Amazing,” she said to herself as she began unpacking her clothes and placing them in the dresser by the bed. She got all her clothes put away and grabbed her book bag. She pulled out a black leather bound book and a couple of pencils. She threw the book bag on the dresser and picked up her guitar case. She unzipped it and pulled out a sleek acoustic guitar. It was black with purple in the center, purple that was so dark you almost couldn’t see it, and a pink sticker that said “You call me a bitch like it’s an insult.”
Rayna set the writing materials on the fainting couch. She stopped, “Something is missing.” She looked around the room, trying to figure out what it was. Rayna spotted the ice bucket on the dresser and her candles next to it. “A drink and candles,” she said as she stepped towards the dresser. She grabbed the ice bucket and opened the door. The door across the hall opened right as she pulled her door closed.
“Wow, I didn’t expect to be seeing you again this soon.”
“Hi, uh...” he stumbled, unsure of what to call her.
“Rayna. You can call me Rayna or Ray, whichever you prefer.”
“Okay Rayna, you can call me Robby.”
“So where are you going?”
“Ice,” he said as he pulled the bucket from behind his back.
“Me too. You want to walk with me.”
“Sure. Do you know where it is?”
She giggled, “Uh, no.”
“Oh well. Let’s just walk around until we find it.”
“Works for me.” They started off down the hall together. Neither of them saying anything, neither of them knew what to say. Finally Rayna spoke up, “So, uh, what are you and Johnny doing here?”
“Vacation. We love being rock stars but sometimes we just need time by ourselves. Especially Johnny, he really does love his job but when he’s writing he’s a complete introvert.”
“I know how that feels.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“Pretty much the same thing. I was having major writer’s block. I grew up here in Colorado and when I was younger I used to go up to the mountains to alleviate writer’s block. There’s just something about the mountains,” she said thoughtfully.
“I know, they’re like peaceful and serene. I can’t believe you grew up in Colorado. From your songs, I always figured you to be a city girl.”
“There are cities in Colorado, you know.”
“Sorry, I mean...” she cut him off.
“No need to be sorry, I was just teasing you. You mean city as in New York or LA, right?” He nodded in response to her searching look. “Well, I grew up about ten minutes from Denver but I always wanted to see the world. So when I graduated from high school, I went to San Francisco for college. Then I did my junior year abroad at Oxford. A lot of my early songs were written then, so that’s probably where they get that city fell from.”
Another awkward pause in their conversation, they has both forgotten this feeling. The butterflies in your stomach, the uncertainty, the confusion, the warm fuzzy feeling you get when they smile at you. Neither of them had felt this since high school. It was weird.
“So, um. uh, where do you think that ice machine is?” Robby said with a smile.
“I don’t have a clue,” Rayna said with a half smile. “I guess we could ask someone.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Robby and Rayna headed down the stairs to the front desk. The big front hall was empty again. Rayna got goosebumps just walking into the room.
“It’s so eerie in here,” she whispered hoarsely, just adding to the mood.
Rayna hit the bell on the counter.
“Hello, is anyone in here? We could use some assistance here?” Rayna suddenly got this creepy feeling, like someone was standing behind her. She spun around quickly and Robby did the same. “Did, did, did you feel that? I mean,” Rayna was breathing heavily.
“I know what you mean. It felt, it felt like there was someone behind us.”
“How can I help you?” Rayna and Robby spun back around.
“Would you fucking stop doing that?”
“Madam, there’s no need to shout.”
“I’m sorry, but you scared us half to death.”
“Pardon me, madam. What may I do for you?” the man said with a smile.
“We just need some ice?” Rayna sighed heavily.
“On the even numbered floors, on the west end of the hall.”
“Thank you. Come on Robby. Let’s get out of here.” Rayna grabbed Robby’s free hand and began pulling him to the stairs.
“That was too creepy.”
“I know it freaked me out.”
Rayna and Robby walked up to the second floor and got their ice. They walked up to their rooms on the third floor.
“So, um,” Robby kicked the floor nervously.
“I’ll see you at dinner tonight?”
“Uh, yeah dinner.” Robby couldn’t understand why he couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say.
“Bye Robby.”
“Bye Rayna.”
Rayna let herself into the room and closed the door behind her. She leaned back against the door and hugged the ice bucket to her chest.
“Why am I acting like this? I’m not some stupid, giddy 15 year-old, so why am I acting like one? What time is it anyway?” Rayna had a habit of talking to herself, she was always getting caught too. That’s a weird situation to try to talk your way out of. “Five. Well, I might as well try to get some work done before dinner.”
She grabbed some scotch from the mini bar and poured it over ice. She sat down on the floor in front of the fire place. Rayna suddenly realized there was a fire lit in the room.
“Man, this is some amazing service.” She began plucking out a tune she had had stuck in her head all day. Rayna would play a few chords and scribble in her notebook. The process continued for nearly an hour and a half. Rayna played the piece once through and smiled to herself. She left her stuff laying on the floor and went to change.
She put on a long, black velvet, wrap around skirt, a black silk tank top, and a purple, silk button up shirt. She brushed her long, dark red hair and put some make up on. She took her contacts out and put on silver rimmed glasses. Rayna spun around in front of the mirror. “I look pretty good, don’t ya think?” she said to her reflection.
Rayna walked out of her room and headed downstairs to the dining room. She found a candle lit room filled with four seater tables, round the corner from the front desk. The boy, who had showed Rayna to her room earlier, seated her at a table in the corner. She sat facing the door, so she could see Robby come in. A young woman came to her table.
“Good evening, ma’am. I hope you are enjoying your stay at the Bancroft House,” she said without conviction.
“I am,” Rayna answered truthfully.
“What may I get you to drink?”
“A red wine would be nice.”
“I’ll be right back with that.”
The girl sauntered off towards the kitchen. Rayna stole a quick glance at the door. She did a double take. Her adorable red head was there, looking as cute as ever in his black suit and deep blue shirt. The boy came over to seat them, but Robby said something and pointed at Rayna. Robby walked across the dining room, practically pulling Johnny with him.
“Come on, Johnny, please,” Robby whined.
“All right man, but if you don’t make a move on her tonight, I’ll say something,” Johnny threatened.
“Okay. Man,” Robby added under his breath. “Rayna, hi.”
“Hi, Robby. Johnny. Uh, would you like to join me?”
“Uh,” Robby didn’t want to seem to anxious. Johnny elbowed him in the ribs, a gesture that Rayna did not miss. “Sure.” The waitress came back with Rayna’s wine and told them all the specials for the night. Johnny and Robby gave Rayna a funny look when she ordered vegetarian lasagna.
“What?”
“Vegetarian lasagna?” Johnny raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’m a vegetarian. You got a problem with that, buddy,” Rayna said playfully.
“No problem. Freak,” he added under his breath.
“That’s cool. How long have you been a vegetarian?” Robby asked, genuinely interested.
“Um, let’s see, I must have been about 15 or so. Actually, I started just to piss off my mom and then I ended up sicking to it.”
“To piss off your mother,” Robby chuckled softly.
“Yeah. We never really got along. We are complete opposites. Back then, pretty much everything I did was motivated by pissing my mother off,” Rayna laughed.
The waitress brought their food to them. They spent the rest of the meal alternating between idle conversation and discussing the music industry. They all enjoyed talking to people who didn’t treat them like celebrities. While they were eating desert and after a few too many glasses of wine, Rayna slipped off her shoe and lightly ran her foot up and down Robby’s leg.
At some point in their under the table flirtations, Johnny excused himself and went to his room.
“I’m spent. Do you want to go upstairs and see if we can polish off my mini bar?” Rayna smiled at Robby.
“Sure.” Robby wasn’t sure what she was suggesting, but neither was Rayna. Robby helped Rayna to her feet and they stumbled drunkenly up to the third floor. They could hardly get the door unlocked and finally fell through the door laughing.
“All right. Let’s check out this mini bar.” Rayna began pulling all the little bottles of alcohol from the bar. “Itty, bitty vodka, itty, bitty rum, itty, bitty tequila,” Rayna continued to prattle off the kinds of alcohol in the cabinet. Robby found it unbelievably funny and fell on the bed in hysterics. Rayna walked over and threw herself on the bed next to him. When they finally caught their breath, they began to talk.
“So what’s your story?” Robby asked, as he brushed a piece of hair out of her face.
“I don’t have a story.”
“Everybody has a story.”
Of course they do, but you don’t want to know mine, she thought. “What do you want to hear? The story of a girl who picked up a guitar to piss off her mother, and ended up finding her first, and maybe only, love.”
“That’s a good place to start.”
As the alcohol induced haze lifted, they began to talk. They talked for hours, until they both fell asleep in Rayna’s bed.
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