Through the eyes of a doorman

by gaston

Chapter 3

As the grey mare walks across the lobby, your mind buzzes with the many ways you can approach this right. How the conversations starts will dictate how she will respond to your questioning. By the time she had gotten to your desk, you had made up her mind.

Why was she cheating on Vinyl? How could she cheat on Vinyl?

Octavia was literally taken aback at the boldness of your accusations, taking a moment to compose herself. "Not only am I not cheating on Vinyl," she retorted, "but I fail to see how it is any of your business."

Vinyl is a friend, a friend who came to you for help when she suspected the love of her life to be cheating.

The mare simply tips her nose up and starts to walk away.

You explain to her Vinyl's dilemma, being sure to include every detail. You tell her about the birthday night, how she almost stopped seeing her, the odd behavior. As you continue, her face almost starts to slope as she takes a sadder tone. Her eyes drift to the ground, though whether in guilt, shame, or general sadness you cannot tell. She walks slowly back to the desk, unable to meet your gaze.

It is almost a minute after you finish that she can speak. "I didn't realize how sad I was. How much I've been hurting Vinyl. It's hard to believe that we've come to the point where my mood can send her mind racing for an answer." A smile creeps on Octavia's face as she starts looking brighter already.

Perhaps this would turn out alright. Maybe it is possible to get through this while avoiding a big stunt.

"Wait a minute." Octavia's bright face turned fuming red, eyes turning to daggers. "Why am I telling you all this, you are the one trying to steal Vinyl from me!"

Shazbot...

What? What force in the universe could influence her to think you had your eyes on Vinyl? Sure she was good looking, but you would never think of breaking them up.

"You don't think I don't remember you trying to take her, on my own birthday no less?"

Now it was your turn to be taken aback. Whatever was going on seemed to be centered on the night of Octavia's birthday. You needed to know what happened that night, and you needed to know now.

Appearing almost calmed by your reaction, Octavia relates the night to you. "It was my birthday; Vinyl had taken me out to the hotel restaurant. She spent the whole night telling me about how I would love my present. How happy I was going to be at the end of tonight. I can't believe I got my hopes up, she's never attempted to do anything that required as much effort as getting a gift." She rolled her eyes as you considered a job as a couples therapist. It wouldn't work. "As usual for our nights out, she drank, a lot. Just as we were about to leave, she told me to wait while she got my gift. I waited there for fifteen minutes, and when I went to look for her what did I find?"

You start to put the pieces together as she continues the story. You could see why she was mad. You would be too if you saw your date drunkenly swooning over an almost stranger. Though a few things still didn't add up, where was the gift, why was Vinyl wasting time talking to you, and most importantly, why the hell did you get the feeling you're more involved than you think?

Octavia's mood seemed to soften as she kept talking. "Looking back, you didn't seem too interested in her in that way, but still. When I see Vinyl practically dripping over your desk, you should consider yourself lucky I didn't buck you in the face." You never considered luck to be a factor in anything, until now. "I tried dragging her to our room, but she kept grumbling about how I was "ruining the surprise" and how "it was going to be awesome". When I got her back to the room, I found everything set up for a romantic night. There were champagne bottles in an ice cooler and even some, umm "special oils". She was too drunk to do anything, so I put her in bed and went to sleep."

Now you remember why that night stood out to you, the maids tend to take unopened bottles of champagne and uneaten food for themselves. These events are few and far between, but that next day they discovered two unopened bottles, so they decided to share one with you. But it made no sense, why would Vinyl order champagne when she knew she was going to get drunk during dinner? It was almost as if she was expec-

At that moment, all the pieces click into place and you are given a full picture of the night, or rather, how it could have gone. The extra alcohol, the flirting, the lack of a physical present, it all made sense. You're unsure whether to tell Octavia about your theory or not, maybe Vinyl should get a piece of her mind for thinking of this to begin with. But now was no time to leave her out, you've gone too deep into this to not let the truth come out.

You try to explain to Octavia as best you can without upsetting her. Her interrupted Vinyl while she was getting her gift. It didn't work.

"Wh- I, she- Where do you get off making such wild accusations about Vinyl. That is an absolutely outrageous statement and is even bordering offensive to both Vinyl and myself." She almost looked disgusted as she backed off towards the elevator. "But it does not matter what you think," she retorted, "I'm getting to the bottom of this now."

You try to stop her from leaving, but it's no use, she's gone. You try to contemplate what you just did. You not only insinuated a hypothetical three way, but you might have just ruined your friendship with two good ponies. What if you were wrong? What if Vinyl never intended to get drunk that night, and the Champaign was for them? What if she just lost the present?

You should never have gotten involved. This is just one big mess. One you're not even sure you can fix. How could anyone fix something like this? They both think the other is cheating, but you know that none of it is true. But the idea festered. It festered in both of their minds right in front of you and you did nothing to stop it. You're a muppet for not stopping it.

Not that you can do anything about it now, you can't stop them from colliding. She had been up there for more than fifty minutes now, they had definitely talked by now. Why hadn't one of them left? Should you be worried? What if one of them lost it? What if one of them was injured, or worse! Would one of them try to blame you for this? Would someone find motive for you?

You scramble out of your desk, sliding on the marble floor. Moving to the elevator, you keep sliding. You have to tell the janitor to stop with the polish. Just as you reach the elevator, you fall flat on your face.

*Ding*

You decide that your face isn't much to look at and lift it off the reflecting floor to look up at the elevator. A dripping wet Vinyl Scratch stands in the elevator, a slight smile on her face. She offers a hoof to you, the other being used to hold the door. "You look like you need help."

Her sarcastic remark does nothing to calm your mind. What reason could a pony have for taking a shower so early in the day? Perhaps a pony who wanted to wash something... As soon as you are on your feet, you begin to inspect Vinyl intensely. From her legs to her head, the only trace of red was her ruby eyes. She does not stop you, she almost seems amused at your antics. You then attempt to smell her, maybe the shower missed something. While she did not smell of death, she did have an odd scent to her. It was a peculiar, musky smell that reminded you of-

You back off Vinyl, eyes going wide in surprise. Her smile gets wider, she knows you know. You ask her to follow you to your desk to talk about her... condition. You tell her to wait at your desk as you get a towel from your room. As soon as she is dried off, she begins to tell her tale.

"At first," she started, "we were both mad. I said some things, she said some things. We weren't getting anywhere. For a while we were both silent. We just couldn't talk to each other. Then, all of a sudden, we both realized that neither of us could cheat on the other, we love each other too much. There was a lot of crying. Crying turned to hugging. Hugging turned to kissing. Kissing turned to-"

You stopped her right there, you didn't need to hear the rest.

"Yeah, well, I just wanted you to know it went well. And to thank you for listening, for the both of us."

She gives you a slight peck on the cheek and begins back to the elevator. Before she goes in, she turns back. "Oh, and don't be surprised if I still want to give Octy her present. She can't wait."

You begin to blush as she heads back up to her room. It's been one hell of a day. First with Vinyl's side of her problem, keeping her in the hotel and calming her down. Then your business with Quill and Filly kept you busy for a while. Even unraveling the mystery with Octavia and your tiny mental breakdown took some time. All in all it was a good day. You talked more with the hotel guests than you have in weeks. It is rather lucky no one bothered to check in much after your little adventures started up.

It's closing time for you, so you head down to your room to get ready for bed, tomorrow is your day off, but you will find a way to spend it. While in your chemical shower, you hear the door to your room close. Brushing it off as a draft, you finish your shower and head into your room. After toweling off in the dark, you slip on some boxers and slip into your bed in the middle. You expected the furnace to keep your bed warm, but it's warmer than expected. Opening your eyes, you see why. It might have had something to do with someone in your bed. Somepony to be specific. Two someponies to be even more specific. It looks like they thought it would be fun to sneak in while you were showering.

You don't mind them of course, it's nice to have others to share the bed with. You snuggle into the two ponies, hoping they had ideas for your day off.

---

Author's Notes: Well, after over a week of writing this last part, it's done. A big thanks to TimeTravlnDEMON for giving the only bit of criticism/comment on the whole thing. I tried to make the convincing more, well, convincing. I honestly don't think it worked.

I am going to be honest, I was almost disappointed with my ending. I'm not sure what it is, but I think I could have done better. Please comment so I can get some feedback. Maybe next time I’ll get a proof reader.

Comments

[bahatumay]

Not bad.