She walks a little stiff and sore but thinks it feels good not to be waddling. Desperate and tired, she walks to her room and kicks off her shoes. She strips naked and takes a long hot shower. She scrubs every inch of her body trying to get all of the residue off. While she is finishing washing her hair for the second time, there is a knock at the door to the motel room.

  Outside her room, a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and swim shorts is standing with 2 men wearing bck suits. The man wearing a Hawaiian shirt is ughing at a joke from one of his bodyguards. He is holding a half Hawaiian, half garlic pizza.

  She checks the time; it shows 11:34 in the morning. “Shit, I needed to check out by 11," she says. She scrambles to towel off and get dressed. She throws on her sweatpants and a baggy shirt with her hair wrapped in a towel. She answers the door.

  "Oh hey, can I come in?” He asks, his Hawaiian shirt looking new and freshly pressed. The hot, fresh pizza everyone involved agrees smells amazing.

  “Is this about my checkout time?” she asks as she finishes adjusting her clothes

  “Do you want it to be about your checkout time? Can we speak inside?” he responds, raising an eyebrow.

  “Would you mind telling me who you are before I let you and your bodyguards into my motel room?” she asks back

  “While this is fun, what if we talked inside instead? He responds; she notices his overly thick eyebrow.

  “Not until I know what this is about,” she responds agitatedly.

  “See, there you go. You lost the questions game,” he smiles a friendly uncle smile.

  “You've got to be kidding me. You bring two bodyguards and a pizza to py games with me?” She says, confused and starting to get angry now.

  He waves the pizza around. “Look, the pizza is getting cold. You want to talk in the doorway? That's fine. I hate a cold pizza, though," he motions for the bodyguards to move back. “It's ok, boys; she isn't going to eat me. They split up and moved 30 feet apart, keeping a perimeter watch.

  “They are nice boys, just a little overzealous in everything they do, but now it's just me and you. What do you say? Pizza and a conversation?” He says, motioning to be let in.

  One of them jumps at a passing tumbleweed and scoops it up, examining it for microphones. “All clear,” he reports over his earpiece.

  “Understood, number 2,” the second one responds.

  "I thought we agreed I was number one," the first one shouts back.

  She looks over his shoulder at the two bodyguards yelling at each other.

  “Forget about them. Uahhh, let's go inside, eat some pizza, then talk business.” He smirks. "It's Hawaiian, and if it's not the best pizza you have ever had, I will give you 5000 dolrs."

  She ughs and motions for him to come in. He sits on her bed opening the pizza box. He has the first piece to his lips before she can even move. She gets a piece, and it's delightful. 'Damn, there goes 5000 dolrs,' she thinks.

  “You ever want one of these, let me know; I can have the chief work one up in 10 minutes if I bribe them.” The Hawaiian shirt man says, mouth still full of pizza, she notices he is older than he looks; at first gnce, she guesses 55 and is wrong; he is 56, but it's a good guess.

  They sit and eat pizza in silence after that. not uncomfortable but also not casual. He closes the pizza box after eating 3 slices.

  “Proposal time. You appear to be exceptional, so we would like to hire you." he says, tapping his finger on the pizza box lid

  "For what?" she asks, confused. She shifts on the bed; even though it's soft, her parts are sore.

  "We need to keep the peace with other races, and to do that we built this motel. What I need from you is to help them have a good time,” he says.

  “What do I get in return?” she says nervously; this feels like prostitution to her. What if the money is good? But what about her dignity? She thinks about how good it was st night. But she also thinks about what people will think about her…

  “100,000 a year that is negotiable; just don't rake me too hard over the coals; it's your first time here.” he says and lets that sink in “Stay here in the motel for 6 months out of the year. You get a free room, free food, and have fun. Then we will throw in first-css tickets to anywhere. ON EARTH we had to add that to the contract after a guy wanted to go to Alpha Centauri. We made it happen, but man did I get my butt chewed on over that.” He pulls paperwork out of his pocket. It's a little crumpled.

  "What if I say no?" she says, causing his smile to falter.

  "Then you can go, but you can never breathe a word of this pce," he says in a serious tone, “to anyone ever."

  He brightens, "But why would you want to? Stay here and make great money. Why waste it being boring"? He hands her the papers and tells her, "Take some time to think about it; the room is yours for as long as it takes to decide. The wifi password is tacotuesdayisthebest. sign the papers and give them to the receptionist or just go home and know you can't ever speak about this to anyone ever."

  He stands up to leave. “Hey, what about the rest of your pizza?” she says as he leaves.

  “I told you I hate cold pizza. It's all yours.” He smiles, waves, and shuts the door behind him.

  She sits on the bed feeling sexually satisfied for the first time in a long time. She reads through the contract. It's all NDA and scary warnings. but it looks like everything is in order. She logs into the wifi and finds she has 27 voicemails and 65 text messages.