Book Title: Love’s Not Welcome at the Hotel Cairo
Author and Publisher: Gary Alan Hidalgo
Cover Artist: Ambhen Dacasin
Release Date: May 6, 2023
Genres: Gay Romantic Comedy, Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: May/December, Boss/Employee, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn
Themes: Coming of age, Welcoming love at any age, Finding home
Heat Rating: 2 flames
Length: 158 553 words/561 pages
It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.
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You are cordially invited to the Hotel Cairo, where everyone’s love story is welcome.
Blurb
Hughie must sell his hotel shares to save his dream. Fabian must persuade him to keep them for same sex weddings’ sake. You are cordially invited to the Hotel Cairo, where everyone’s love story is welcome…
The Hotel Cairo is an aging but still enchanting hotel that its majority shareholder recently axed 60-year-old soap actor Hughie Roman plans to sell to the highest bidder to get back his Hollywood dream. Not if Fabian Flores, the hotel’s 44-year-old manager, can stop him by winning him over with love. Love is Welcome at the Hotel Cairo, that is, an invitation to same-sex couples to wed in its magical setting in a conservative state which, in the past, denied them as petty as a wedding cake.
Unlike the lovers that the Hotel Cairo woos, Hughie and Fabian don’t welcome love because of secrets from the past and fears about the future. They’ll fight their developing feelings tooth and nail even while others try to get between them, like Fabian’s fiancee, the hotel lawyer, James, Hughie’s TV nephew, Herbie, and co-owner, Xenia, who has her own plans for her deceased ex-husband’s legacy. Fortunately, a heavenly male escort named Hunky Hector lends his voice of reason in their bedlam.
Are you looking for big, flawed LGBTQ+ characters with heart & wit in an unputdownable story with infinite humor & hope? Love’s Not Welcome at the Hotel Cairo is a romantic comedy novel about embracing love no matter how old you get or how jaded you become. Told through the eyes of a desperate, newly divorced Hughie and an equally determined but altruistic Fabian, not even a wedding cake will be safe from their explosive courtship.
Mr. Roman beamed at the lawman as he locked arms with him.
He said, “Thank you for your help, Sheriff. I promise to be of no more trouble during my stay in your quaint but outstandingly safe town. We don’t want you to have to handcuff me after all.”
Hank wrinkled his suntanned forehead, blind to Mr. Roman’s flirting.
Fabian listened behind them before interrupting. “I’ll take you to Redwood Lodge now so you can rest, Mr. Roman. Thank you, Hank. And James, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
The hotel manager offered his arm to his guest. In response, Mr. Roman linked arms with Fabian while making certain to smile smugly at James as Fabian whisked him off.
As they left the driveway and headed past the manor, Fabian felt a lump in his throat grow. He could still hear James take Hughie Roman to task for ruining things between them. Worse, the lawyer hauled himself over hot coals without pity for looking like a jackass in front of everyone. He was relieved that Mr. Roman, in his exhaustion, either hadn’t heard the rantings or as a mercy to the horrified Fabian, overlooked it.
They approached the northwest edge of the property where a faint breeze that seemed to stay one step ahead of them swept through the trees, so that delicate yellow, orange, and red leaves trickled from above and carpeted the ground. They crunched softly below their shoes with each footstep. As Mr. Roman glanced around, looking for Redwood Lodge, Fabian led them deeper and deeper into the surrounding forest. He’d mentioned their best cabin would be Mr. Roman’s rightful accommodations as majority shareholder.
Just as the bewildered man was terrified that he’d be camping out in the forest that night, Redwood Lodge sprung out of the early evening fog. Even the nodding Hughie Roman’s eyes lit up at the lovely sight of the mocha-brown wooden lodge with its tall windows lit from the inside. Its main deck faced the Cherry Hills, which blazed in its distinctive rainbow fires as if it had been saving it for Mr. Roman’s arrival.
“That is the best light show I’ve ever seen.” He yawned. “But I need a hot shower, then a whole day of sleep.”
Fabian swiped his keycard and grinned, assured their extra special guest’s expensive luggage sat safe and sound in the lodge’s foyer where the porters’ dropped them. Before he could point them out to Mr. Roman, his frazzled guest rushed past him.
“Where’s the shower and bed?” He hurriedly asked.
“The master suite is on the second floor. There’s a smaller bedroom and bath down here too if you have guests.” Fabian said to no one since Hughie Roman was already long gone. He heard his heavy footsteps navigate the flight of stairs that ended on the topmost floor. Fabian understood he didn’t mean to be unsociable but probably wanted to wash away the grime and stink (which he was too polite to comment on, but he reeked like a skunk… possibly worse). Who wouldn’t want to forget being treated like a criminal when you first set foot on the property you half-owned? He hoped the water was hot enough to relax every stressed-out muscle on Mr. Roman’s body. Combined with the hotel’s special honeysuckle soap, the tropical steam of the shower was a heady brew of sweet aroma and life-giving warmth.
Fabian blushed, dripping with sweat. Why was he thinking about Hughie Roman in the shower all this time when he heard the water stop dripping? Then he remembered to put Mr. Roman’s soiled clothes in a hotel laundry bag to drop off. The less they reminded him of today’s humiliation and brutality, the better. Fabian rushed upstairs like a man on a mission.
As he entered the room, sure he had enough time to remove the offensive garments before he left to let Mr. Roman sleep, Fabian’s first thought was to turn on the lights so his guest didn’t walk into the bedroom, which in five minutes while he showered (he had to stop thinking about that) went from dazzling to pitch black.
Fabian reached for the light switch. Hughie Roman was drying himself off with a cotton towel when the overhead lights flooded the room. The hotel manager’s cheeks flushed red-hot at the brief glimpse of the actor’s nude backside, his creamy tan stretched from head to toe. The skin on most of his back glistened with shiny droplets that looked like he was sweating from intense activity. Hughie turned around, still not noticing he had company. He didn’t have a young man’s body with washboard abs like some celebrities. He may even have had a slight bulge, but it was neither fat nor flat. Fabian’s eyes traced the salt and pepper wisps of hair congregating in faint strokes across his armpits, chest, and tummy down to his… Fabian’s mouth dropped wide open as he finally covered his eyes.
“Mr. Roman, I’m… I’m…” Fabian sputtered, out of breath.
Gary Alan Hidalgo writes LGBTQ+ stories always with much humor & heart ‘cause only LOVE & LAUGHTER can save the world.
He grew up in Southern California. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was employed in the entertainment field in Los Angeles.
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