The Wanderer

After asking, quickly and apologetically, for directions at reception Lilith ran as fast as flip-flops would allow accross the road from the hotel and down a narrow lane towards the sea. The Wanderer was basically a hut with large windows which looked onto the pavement. Mr Forest, her cousin, saw her coming and opened the door to let her in.
'Have a good time last night?' he asked turning his back to her and pulling out a coffee cup.
'Is it normal that I can't remember most of it?' She said with a laugh.
'Nico can take his drink'
'I think him and the barman conspired against me to get me as drunk as possible, which is not as hard as you'd think'.
'I left after the third round and it was all going off'.
'It was smart getting the receptionist to call me.'
'Ahead of the game,' he said, flipping the coffee machine on.
There were no customers yet and Lilith noticed the huge windows were mirrored on the back wall. She walked over and looked out over the sea. A layer of wet mist hung over the top of the murky water. She could see the beach which reached miles out of sight and covered in light coloured sand. A tractor was making its way slowly along the shore and someone was taking their dog for a walk.
'Like the look of this place, it's sweet'.
'It has a really relaxed feel. Lots of students hang out here and old hippies... young ones too. east coast seems to attract them more than the west.'
'I noticed there were a lot of nationalities around last night, actually...I'm used to Glasweigans'.
'It's the University, it attracts a lot of young folk and there's loads of Americans. They love Scaatland you know? They think it's so "cute"!' He said with an awful false american twang. She giggled and bit her lip looking around again.
'So there's only one person on at a time?'
'Yes, you'll get used to it. It can get quite busy though when Uni comes back so you need to be on the ball'.
'What about uniform?'
'There's nothing as such, just try and look smart.' He said, eyeing her denim skirt and flip flops. There was a pause.
'Right well, Paul is in charge here and he comes in at 8. Here's a set of keys, here's my number, here's your coffee. Just relax and I'll see you in a few days and you can try out some different roles in the hotel.'
'Great, thanks for everything,' she said as the door swung shut behind him. Lilith walked tentatively over to the window and sat on the arm rest of the beaten leather sofa. The tractor was still edging slowly accross the shore. Looking at it, she sipped the strong coffee and curled her lips in together, as a tiny electric thrill went through her.