Free Holiday Hotel Hookup by Jeff Adams

I T WAS two days before Christmas, and I arrived in Dallas to hold a client’s hand while we overhauled their security protocols. Worldwide Suites, a large hotel chain, had decided to part ways with their existing cyber security contractor after a nasty data breach. They brought SecureITech in to create new systems and have them in place by the time their existing contract ran out, which was January 1.
    Since they’d suddenly become skittish about us making the deadline, as SecureITech’s executive vice president of technology relations, I was dispatched to ease fears. Being an EVP doesn’t keep you from traveling on holidays. If anything it makes you more susceptible to it.
    Did I have plans for Christmas? Yes, in fact, I did. But those had been laid to waste.
    I took off my glasses and rubbed my tired eyes as I sat in the back of a cab on the way to my hotel. It’d been a long day between the early morning flight from San Francisco and a packed agenda of meetings to ensure everything was on schedule. The good news at the end of the day was that the CEO felt like the project was in good shape. The head of IT was still worried, but I hoped he’d see over the coming days that SecureITech would deliver as promised.
    I read over the last e-mail of the evening from the team in our main office, and the day’s task list was completed as expected. Thankfully when the cab pulled up at the hotel just after nine, I was done with the day’s work. I was ready to get some dinner and crash.
    The hotel, Worldwide’s flagship hotel in Dallas, was very nice. As I got out of the cab, a bellman offered to take my bag, but I declined since it was easily manageable. The large lobby featured a mix of natural colors and stainless steel, in keeping with the chain’s comfortable but modern look. Clearly there was even a branding pattern to the decorations, as they looked the same as what I’d seen earlier in the day at the corporate office. Here, though, the three-story waterfall in the atrium had colored lights behind it to add to the holiday festiveness.
    At the check-in desk, there was one person already being helped, so I was next in line. A door to the rear office opened, and the guy saw I was waiting, so he stepped up to a terminal and called me forward.
    “Good evening, sir. Welcome. You have a reservation?” He spoke with an accent that was a great mix of Southern and Spanish.
    “Yes. Martin Bell.” I handed over my driver’s license and credit card since I knew he’d ask for those next.
    The nametag read Jose Juarez, Assistant Manager . As he took my cards, I noted a few hairs on the back of his hand that trailed toward his wrist and disappeared inside his suit jacket. I loved that on a guy, a bit of hair that peeked out. Jose smiled, and all the lights in the lobby reflected in his dark eyes. He was attractive, with closely cropped dark hair. It was hard to tell under the suit what kind of build he had, but he certainly filled out the suit nicely. The dark-blue shirt, part of the corporate colors, looked good on him.
    “I see you’re with us through the New Year on an open reservation.” He typed more on his keyboard. “And you’ve been upgraded to a deluxe business suite.”
    “I didn’t request an upgrade.”
    “It looks like this came from corporate. I can check on it further, if you’d like.”
    He looked at me with an open, gentle expression. He must excel at his job, because I couldn’t imagine him not being able to defuse any situation within minutes.
    “That’s okay. I’m in town doing work for corporate, so they must have done it this afternoon.”
    “Oh, very good. What do you do, if I may ask?”
    “IT security.”
    “That doesn’t sound like a very exciting way to spend the holidays,” he said, handing me my cards. As expressive as his eyes were, his face really lit up when he smiled.
    “It’s not,” I said, breaking into the first genuine smile I’d had all day. “But when you’re needed