The Sounds of Silence
Who: Brianna What: Swap plot Where: Le Breeze When: Current, early evening
She had been concentrating on the various proposals that had been submitted on a number of venues around the Las Vegas and Bolder City area all day until she was sure she was going to drown in a sea of numbers. The spreadsheets on her screen were starting to swim before her eyes, and she sighed, a little frustrated at not being able to concentrate. She'd kept her office door and the french doors closed, welcoming the silence as she worked to pull together the information she wanted to present at the meeting the following evening. A lot of money was involved, and she want to be absolutely sure of all the numbers she had crunched.
She looked across at her phone and stopped herself from reaching for it. She'd promised herself she would not message Flynn until she was happy with her presentation, as that would be her reward. Again, she flicked the screen back to Powerpoint and put it into presentation mode, sending it up to the tv screen on the other side of her office, and standing up. After taking a deep breath she pressed the remote in her hand and started talking, progressing the slides as she spoke, checking every detail that appeared.
After 45 minutes she inhaled deeply, finished the glass of water she'd been sipping from during the presentation and looked out the french doors, opening them to let in some of the evening air. The general burbling of activity going on downstairs drifted in, Chef's voice clearly audible as he called out for someone to get him another bunch of basil from the delivery that had just been made. She leaned on her arms and looked down as a white-hatted head hurried out with an empty trolley, located the required herb, and hurried it back into the kitchen before coming out to load the produce onto the trolley and wheel it into the cool room. Most delivery drivers brought it in for them, but when it was a delivery at this time, they knew it was probably safer to remain out of the kitchen!
She smiled to herself, glad to have been able to clear her head of what she'd been working on all day, and pulled the doors closed behind her. Turned and crossed to the desk, picked up her phone and headed out to go downstairs and check how the rest of the operations were going. She hummed softly to herself as she started down the stairs.
"Miss, would you like dinner downstairs or in your suite?" Marta asked as Brianna reached the bottom stair, her eyes on the screen of her phone as she prepared a message to send Flynn.
"I think I'll dine in the cafe," she replied a little absently, looking up from the screen and giving the young hostess a smile. "And how is Sebastian?" she asked, pressing her thumn on 'Send' on the message announcing to Flynn she was releasing herself from solitary before pocketing the device after seeing the slight tiredness in the young woman's eyes.
"His new teeth are finally through, so we're hoping he will get back into some sort of sleep pattern now," the mother of the toddler replied with a tired smile.
"Oh that will be a relief, for all of you," the manageress replied as the phone on the reception desk started to ring and Marta excused herself to answer, "welcome to Le Breeze, this is Marta, how may I help you?"
Brianna slowly made her way in a circuit of the brasserie, acknowledging the regular customers who greeted her, and offering a welcoming smile to those who simply looked up from their conversations. As she returned to the bar she paused, looking around the room, and tried to figure out what was different. Because there was something, something she'd subconsciously noticed upstairs that was stronger here. Something different. She carefully lowered her shields, or at least thought she was, but there was nothing changing, no slow increase in volume and quantity of conversations and thoughts, just the same level of audible conversations. Nothing changed.
She pulled her phone out, checking that her message was sent, only to find it was still sitting in the prep window, her finger seeming to have missed the 'Send' button. She firmly pressed it and watched at the message flipped up into the chat window.
'I finally finished it! I'm releasing myself from isolation now. How's your day been?'
She let herself sit for a moment on the bar stool next to her, again looking around the brasserie and getting a little nervous as all she could hear was the audible conversations taking place.