CHAPTER TWELVE-A — THE FIRST BOOKING
The next test came on a Tuesday when Hollis announced that its first completed Nestwell room would open on a limited schedule.
The company had replaced the original vendor’s promises with a written checklist signed by its own facilities staff.
Rosa insisted that employees be allowed to test the booking system before the opening date went back onto the public calendar.
Mallory volunteered for the trial because her work shift overlapped the proposed service hours.
A receptionist named Daphne met the workers at the finished room with a tablet and a paper fallback schedule.
The furniture had been installed, the private door locked properly, and the sanitation instructions were posted at a height everyone could read.
The room looked less impressive than the photographs in Nestwell’s advertising.
It looked more useful.
Rosa examined the reservations page on the tablet.
The first available slot disappeared when she selected it, even though nobody had booked the room.
Daphne frowned and tried a second device.
The same problem appeared.
The scheduling vendor explained over speakerphone that the system was using a different time zone for the site’s operating hours.
The error could be corrected, but it would take another review cycle to confirm the fix.
Mallory looked at the room, then at Rosa.
“We could have missed this again,” she said.
Rosa nodded.
“That’s why we’re here.”
Daphne offered to take reservations by phone until the corrected system passed testing.
The workers agreed that the temporary method could be used if Hollis clearly explained its limitations.
No one pretended it was the automated service they had purchased.
That afternoon, Belinda arrived with Anna to provide the final records requested by the client.
She found Rosa writing the corrected reservation instructions on a large sheet of paper.
“May I help?” Belinda asked.
Rosa studied her for a moment.
“You can check whether the customer-service number is staffed during the hours printed here.”
Belinda made the call in front of her.
A representative answered and confirmed the hours.
Belinda asked the representative to repeat them without referring to any promotional document.
They matched.
She wrote the confirmation beside the number.
Rosa took the sheet and thanked her without enthusiasm.
That was enough.
Belinda walked outside and found Mallory loading a child’s booster seat into her car.
For several seconds they stood in awkward silence.
Belinda had known Mallory for most of her marriage.
They had spent holidays together, argued about board games, and laughed at Jonah’s habit of repairing gadgets no one had asked him to repair.
Now Mallory looked at Belinda as though she were a stranger.
“I owe you an apology,” Belinda said.
Mallory tightened the seat belt.
“You owe the employees accurate information.”
“I know.”
“Jonah didn’t tell me to be angry at you.”
“I didn’t think he did.”
“He kept telling me not to guess what you knew.”
Belinda swallowed.
“That sounds like him.”
Mallory closed the car door.
“My brother is hurt, and I don’t want to be your messenger.”
“I won’t ask you to be.”
Mallory nodded and drove away.
Belinda watched her leave, then sat on a bench outside the building until she felt well enough to drive herself.
She wanted to call Jonah.
She wanted to tell him she had helped confirm the number and that the room would finally open.
Then she considered what he had said about honesty that did not demand a reward.
She put the phone back in her bag.
The room’s opening belonged to the workers, not to her relationship with Jonah.
