Douze

In which a lover from the previous piece is seen with a new lover.

Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive rooms. There was an ostensible reason for the weekend. Someone told him he looked like a Calvin Klein model, he should come. He said I'm not a fan. They said doesn't matter. Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive rooms at convention rates. Don't miss it.
It was like swimming out into a lake, he told him. The model and the bellboy. "My name is Eugenio," the bellboy said, "that tells you my whole story right there." "How is it like swimming out into a lake?" "A lake of attractive people," said Eugenio. "Right," said the model.
"No really," said Eugenio. "I've always been on the beach trapped and dry and sunburning but the attractive people overflowed this weekend." It was true, they were dripping out of the interior balconies in the fourteen-story atrium like egg yolks over the banisters. They were peering out of the tropical planters like two eyes in the dark in cartoons. They were hanging from the skylights "So," said Eugenio, "the attractive people tide came in so far that it lapped at my feet. Poor dry me got his toes wet and so. I figured. I'd. Try to swim."
"You're an attractive people," said the model.
"I wasn't Friday night," said Eugenio. "I was just a Eugenio. But first there was Virginia. She was actually my fellow bellperson. We'd flirted. But now my toes were wet. So I dipped further. Now I was in to my ankles, I mean, she was there already."
"Right," said the model, thoughtlessly unpeeling a banana.
"Um," said Eugenio. "Then there was Wilbur. Organizer for the organization. He had a clipboard. He was halfway between me and the lake. At the waist-line. I mean his name was Wilbur so! A natural step."
"Naturally," said the model, swallowing the banana casually. The jazz band in the lobby started playing "My Funny Valentine" and they could hear it.
"Then I took the plunge. An actual attractive person. Mikaela. I had momentum now. I got totally wet with all the attractiveness I was swimming in. So naturally when I met you, you thought I was attractive."
"But I won't when you dry off?" said the model, discharging the banana peel and the metaphor.
"The weekend is only three days," said Eugenio. "I'm a smart kid."
"Yes you are," said the model. "Now I need to get to my cab."
They stepped through the gap in the luggage cart. Eugenio pulled on the rack grip to trundle it towards the taxi lane, but the banana peel was (in)conveniently placed. He slipped and hit his head.
When he woke up in the dry, dry hotel later, he'd have sworn it was all a dream, except for the moistness between his toes. He smiled.