Chapter 159 You Don’t Need to Follow Along
“Stay focused. The president of the SG Travel Group’s Eastern Branch will be visiting our hotel this afternoon to review the qualifications of our hotel. Not a single mistake can be made today! Do you understand?”
“Understood.”
Courtney finished the motivational session held inside the meeting room of Sunhill Hotel.
Previously, the headquarters had been in discussion with a well-known overseas travel corporation, SG Travel Group, to form a long-term cooperative relationship between the two companies. At this stage, the preliminary part was completed. Only the on-site evaluation was left, and the other party selected the hotel Courtney was working at to be the site of evaluation. As long as the audit team coming this afternoon was satisfied with the hotel’s qualifications, the two companies would sign a long-term cooperation agreement with each other. Once the contract was established, Sunhill Hotel would become the default accommodation choice for all future customers under SG Eastern Branch.
That afternoon, all the management-level personnel at the hotel were gathered at the entrance. They were waiting for the arrival of the audit team under the scorching sun when a black Bentley stopped in front of them. After that, a person that seemed to be an assistant got out of the passenger seat and opened the door of the back seat.
The first thing everybody saw was a pair of 12-centimeter-high rhinestone heels, followed by a pair of slender and well-proportioned legs as a woman stepped out of the car. She was wearing a black spaghetti-strapped full-body jumpsuit that made her look very tall. Her black hair was neatly tied in a bun behind her head, and her bangs were curled into retro-styled curls on one side of her face, revealing a pair of Bvlgari earrings. Paired with her flaming red lips, she looked spectacular.
How young! Are you kidding?! Everybody looked at each other in surprise—nobody could have imagined that the person coming today would be such a young female manager. After all, SG was an internationally renowned travel corporation while the Eastern region was an important development area for the tourism industry. The woman standing in front of them looked no more than 25 years old. Moreover, she was insanely beautiful. It was inevitable that her identity aroused suspicions.
The hotel’s general manager, Evan Elliott, stood forward and asked, “Are you the president of SG Eastern Branch, Vivian Shepherd?”
“Yes, that’s me.” The woman took off her sunglasses, smiling gracefully and politely.
“My name is Evan Elliott. The hotel has completed all the preparations before your arrival. You can check it out as you please.”
“That’s great.” Vivian nodded. “I was just transferred back to Otharia not long ago. Although Sunhill Enterprise is very famous, this is my first contract in the Eastern region after all. I have to ensure that my clients get to enjoy services that will keep them satisfied. I hope you don’t mind putting up with us.”
“Don’t worry about it.” After a few words of greeting at the entrance, Evan and the rest escorted Vivian into the hotel. During that exchange, Courtney felt as if Vivian had looked at her several times. However, she was not certain whether it was just her imagination.
“This hotel is the oldest among all the other Sunhill Hotel branches, but its facilities are the most up-to-date. The decoration—”
“Wait.” Vivian suddenly interrupted Evan’s explanation. At the same time, she stopped at the lounge area and stared at the flower vases on the coffee table for a moment. Walking over to the flower vases, she coldly asked, “Who can explain to me why these flowers are here?”
His expression tensed in response; he did not understand the reason behind her question.
“This is a hotel. It’s a place where all sorts of people come and go, including the social elites and the upper class. It’s common to have all sorts of special needs and requirements. How can you leave a bunch of flowers here just like this?! Have you not considered that your guests might be allergic to pollen?!” Her expression was extremely displeased, and she seemed to be very disappointed.
“Uh… We will take care of it right away,” he responded. Then, he glared at his assistant. “Hurry up and remove all the fresh flowers in the hotel!”
“Wait a minute.” She frowned, studying the assistant’s name tag. “Responsibilities should be clearly defined. This should be under the responsibility of today’s lobby manager, right? Is that her?”
Evan was slightly taken aback for a moment. Then, he glanced to his side nervously. The lobby manager on duty today was Courtney. However, everybody was aware of her relationship with Alexander. Even if it were her responsibility, he could not humiliate the wife of the company’s president in front of so many people.
“It’s me.” Courtney’s voice rang out from among the crowd. “The lobby manager on duty today is me. The fresh flowers are my mistake.”
Vivian looked in the direction of the sound and saw Courtney. Courtney was wearing her beige lobby manager uniform, walking out of the crowd with an attitude that was neither humble nor overbearing.
“Court-ney Hun-ter.” Vivian read the name on Courtney’s name tag out loud, syllable by syllable. “Nice name.”
“Thank you.” Courtney frowned slightly. “I will immediately handle the matter involving the fresh flowers. I assure you that it will never happen again. I hope this incident will not affect your overall evaluation of the hotel.”
“Mistakes can be fixed, but people who frequently make mistakes are not easy to deal with.” Vivian glanced at Evan and said meaningfully, “You sure dare to employ just about anybody, don’t you?”
Those words were heard by everybody. It was clearly a direct insult that was meant to publicly embarrass Courtney. Courtney wasn’t sure if it was because she had been highly praised recently, but those words left her feeling lightheaded and unsteady. Simultaneously, her face burned with shame.
“You don’t need to follow along anymore.” Vivian left with the rest after spitting out that sentence.
Penelope, the receptionist, watched as the crowd entered the elevator. Following that, she came over to comfort Courtney. She said a little angrily, “Miss Hunter, why didn’t you defend yourself?! You didn’t arrange for those flowers to be there!”
“How could I say that?” Courtney smiled bitterly. “How could I say in front of so many people that Mr. Elliott personally asked for those flowers to be placed there this morning?” That’s tantamount to discrediting the hotel… If the lower-level employees made a mistake, that was understandable. Moreover, it would not make much of an impact on the hotel. However, if one of the management-level personnel had made the mistake… Unlike Courtney, who was a mid-level manager, a mistake made by a senior manager like Evan would be much harder to resolve. Therefore, Courtney had no choice but to take the blame for the sake of preserving the overall situation.
“That’s just so wrong…” Penelope muttered reluctantly. She looked even more upset than Courtney was.
In response, Courtney squeezed Penelope’s hand and forced a smile. “Come on; I don’t even feel that bad, but look at how upset you’re getting on my behalf! Go on; go back to the front desk. I’m happy I don’t need to follow them around during the evaluation. With this, I can return to my office and continue doing my own work.” After saying that, she went and waited for the elevator without so much as a change in her expression. She looked like she was completely unaffected by the incident from before.
As soon as Courtney entered the elevator, her expression reflected in the mirror turned gloomy immediately. Finally, she let out a long sigh. That was so humiliating.
That afternoon, inside the VIP suite on the top floor of the hotel.
“Vivian, you will be living here during the duration of your stay. This is the best room available in this hotel. There are only two rooms of this sort per floor.”
“Okay.” After sending the hotel manager and everybody else away, Vivian closed the door and sat down on the sofa to make a phone call. The moment the call connected, her entire demeanor changed instantly and became that of a sweet young lady. “Gale, I’m back! Can you guess where I am right now? I’m at Alex’s hotel! No, I’m not here to play. I came here for work! My company is working together with Sunhill Hotel. Never mind; that’s not what I want to talk about. Let’s have dinner together tonight. You’re not free? No, you can’t do that! Even if you’re not free, you have to find a way to let me meet Alex!”
