A Broken Mind by Eva Sparks

Author:Eva Sparks [Sparks, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

Starlight Suites

Tacoma, Washington

The styrofoam container squeaked as he opened it and inhaled the scent of the orange chicken congealing alongside limp, overcooked broccoli and snowy white rice. Sighing, he pulled the name tag off his polo and dropped it on the nondescript table jammed into the corner of the hotel room. Brian Greer, Fuller Lighting, the tag read.

It was the third hotel he’d been in this month, and the sterile furnishings all began to blur together. Brian had developed a habit of placing the key card next to his bed at night so when he woke up in the night he could remember what city he’d gone to sleep in. Such was the life of a traveling salesman who spent most of his days as a road warrior putting in the miles far from his studio apartment in Portland.

At first, he loved the novelty of it. Every day, he entertained a different client and a new challenge. One day, it was a building site; the next, an architect’s office or an apartment complex looking to remodel. But in the past three years, he’d been working this route regularly, and the originality was wearing thin. The faces were different, but the suburban accounts were all getting predictable and stale.

Brian stood and pressed open the gingham curtains, observing the remnants of the brilliant sunset over the water. This was the reason he loved this seedy hotel on the edge of his regional territory. He scraped open the window frame, silently willing the ocean breeze into his stuffy space.

Peeling the paper off the wooden chopsticks, he stabbed a piece of chicken and popped it into his mouth. Then, he flipped open his leather portfolio. “Seriously?”

He riffled through the pages a second time. He must have left the contract with his laptop in the car. He shoveled three more bites into his mouth as he stood. Thankfully, cheap Chinese food was just as delicious cold. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

Plodding down the stairs of the mid-century motel, he stepped into the parking lot, which was mostly empty in the middle of the week. Only two more days until Friday, he consoled himself. But who was he kidding? Fridays used to be a reason to celebrate. Now, it was one more back-breaking deadline rather than a relief.

Reaching the car, he popped the trunk. The Westinghouse order was sitting inside his laptop, where he’d stashed it in his excitement to close the deal. At least this contract would push him over his sales goal for the trip. He pulled out the laptop and brushed against his wetsuit, which lay beside the inflatable paddle board that gathered dust next to his tackle box. He pushed them aside for the hundredth time and then paused. Holding the laptop to his chest, he slowly turned in the asphalt lot.

Seagulls argued on the edge of Puget Sound just across the parking lot. Laughter echoed from one of the nearby houseboats as the sun slipped low over the water.

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