Olivia
1t is 8:30 am. 3rd February 2026
James is sat in a room on the fifth floor at the Raddison Blu Hotel in Birmingham. He is a bit unhappy.
He booked the hotel for two nights through Booking.com. But when he arrived at the desk he was told that he would have to leave a credit card deposit as he had not booked directly. Apparently this was in the small print of one of the many emails he had been sent by the hotel following his booking. The deposit was to cover any damage in the room – presumably a feature of guests who used booking.com?
But he did not want to leave a credit card. So, just to be awkward ( character trait that you will discover more about as the story develops), he had gone out and got £50 from a cash machine and made the receptionist store it in the safe.
He really didn’t want anyone to know he had been here.
He was also glad that he had asked Olivia to book her room in her own name and he had not enquired about her. He wondered if she would encounter the same difficulties.
They might talk about it. In the meantime he is dressed and looking at Olivia’s picture on his laptop. He has suspended his membership of the site where they had met and now had the picture in a hidden directory on his laptop and phone. Although he wondered how private his Apple Cloud information is?
Time to meet her. He goes to the door, looks at the non-trashed room and leaves.
Leave a Reply