Blindsided 24

Having been awoken by someone hammering on the front door, Robbie slowly opened it to see Shar glaring at him with her arms folded.

“Thhar! what are you doing here?” A tired-looking Robbie announced.

“It’s not by choice. I can tell you that,” A surly-sounding Shar replied while shaking her head.

“Oh, I thee,” Robbie replied. “So Agatha thent you?”

“Exactly,” Shar replied. “So, can I come in?

After inviting her in, the pair made their way to the kitchen, where Shar decided to brew up a pot of coffee. As she pottered about there was an eery silence in the kitchen as Robbie watched her with a blank expression on his Botoxed face. When done, Shar placed a mug of coffee in front of Robbie and took up a seat on the opposite side of the table.

“So, maybe I overreacted a little yesterday,” She said while pursing her lips. “I shouldn’t have shouted at you the way I did.”

Looking down at his huge, puffy lips, Robbie sighed. “I wath angry and emothional and took it out on you,” he said. “I’m thorry. You’ve been thuth a big help throughout all of thith crazinethth.”

“Apology accepted, sweety,” Shar replied before smiling. “You know, we need to stick together. This crazy bitch Agatha is out of control. In fact, this whole situation is out of control. We need to put a stop to it.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Robbie announced as he struggled to thread his long pink acrylic nails through the handle of his mug. “But what can we do?”

“We stay alert and look for an opportunity to strike back, but in the meantime, we keep communicating,” Shar said before pausing to take a sip of her coffee. “Have you heard from her today?”

“No,” Robbie replied while shaking his head. “But I’ve been given a miththion.” He then proceeded to tell Shar about his meeting with Jimmy and how he was tasked with breaking into James Hemingsworth’s room.

“How strange,” Shar announced after listening carefully to Robbie’s story. “A bag of apples? It sounds as if she’s just messing with you now?”

“I know, right?” Robbie exclaimed. “It’th tho bizarre, but I get the feeling thhe hath thome thort of mathterplan.”

“Masterplan?” Shar said, tilting her head to one side. “Like what?”

Robbie pouted and exhaled through his nose. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Perhapth thhe wantth me to get caught and arrethted. What did thhe thay to you thith morning?”

“She just said to come over here and assist you with whatever you need today,” Shar said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Nothing about a masterplan, I’m afraid.”

Robbie sighed loudly while shaking his head. “Ok, tho I guethth I have no thoithe but to do what thhe wantth!"

“Any idea how you’re going to get in and out without being seen?” Shar asked.

Robbie nodded. “Well, I’vee worked in the Grand for yearth and I know their thythtem. Tho, making a key card for the room thhouldn’t be a problem, but getting in without being theen will be difficult. There’th no reathon for front dethk thtaff to go to the upper floorth. If anyone thaw me it would be a problem.”

“So you need a disguise?” Shar happily announced. “That way you could walk straight in, and nobody would bother you, right?”

“I guethth,” Robbie mumbled. “But it hath to be good enough to trick my colleagueth. I don’t know what would work, looking like thith!”

“You just go to work as usual and leave that part to me, ok?” Shar said while smiling. “After all, giving people new looks is kind of my thing, and I have an idea.”

====================================================

“Thhar, I’m not thure about thith?” Robbie said as looked at himself in the rear-view mirror of the beautician’s car.

“Which part?” Shar replied from the driver’s seat.

“All of it! couldn’t you have come up with thome thort of dithguithe that didn’t involve me wearing thix-inth heelth and a mini-thkirt?” Robbie moaned.

“Come on, Robbie,” Shar replied, rolling her eyes and the words. “This has the best chance of working, and you know it. Those nails and lips aren’t going anywhere, so what better way to disguise yourself than as a rich socialite brat? I bet you get women like that checking in all the time, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Robbie mumbled while playing with the ends of his wig. “But what if thomeone recognitheth me?”

“Nobody’s going to recognise you behind those sunglasses and that fake nose I stuck in place. And besides, Ruby’s gone home for the day, right? That means no one will expect her to be around with her shift over.” Shar replied with a tut. “Just strut through the lobby with attitude. Would you go up and ask someone like that, what they were doing or where they were going?”

“Probably not,” Robbie quietly replied. “But thtrutting ithn’t exactly going to be eathy in thethe thhoeth,” he added while looking down at the thin spindly stiletto heels attached to his strappy sandals.

“You’ll be fine,” Shar shot back. “You walked much further in those pink platforms yesterday, and they were just as high. Now, you should hurry before this James guy comes back. I’ll be here waiting to give you a lift home when you're done.”

With the plan already in motion and Shar’s promise to call him if she saw a middle-aged man in a suit approaching the hotel, Robbie reluctantly hopped out of the car and wobbled towards the Grand hotel’s entrance. Entering the lobby, the terrified, cross-dressed man held his head high just like Shar told him to as he tried to keep his nerves in check.

(See image 33)

Thankfully, nobody bothered him as he clicked through the lobby. Or when he stood looking shifty as he waited for the lift to arrive. Once inside, he tapped the keycard he had made earlier against the scanner and pressed the fourth-floor button without incident.

Robbie let out a sigh of relief as the lift started its slow ascent. "So far, so good," he thought, surprised that Shar's plan had worked so well. Now all he had to do was hold his nerve and get in and out of the room as quickly as possible. Well, as quickly as one can while wearing perilously tall high-heeled sandals.

As the lift pinged, he shuddered while catching a glimpse of his feminised image in the reflective metal doors. “Look at the state of me,” he thought while watching the image of a leggy, pouting princess split in half to be replaced by a carpeted hallway. "In and out, Robbie," he muttered to himself while stepping out to feel his stiletto heel sink slightly into the plush carpeted floor. "Look confident. You're just a woman going to her hotel room."