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He snorted, and I did another instant replay and inwardly groaned, hiding my flushed face as I rolled the sleeves back twice. Once my hands were freed, I fussed with the bottom of the hem where it hit just a couple of inches above my knees.
Once it felt like my cheeks were more pink than red, I glanced up at Liem, who was smiling as he took in my outfit.
“It wasn’t originally mine, but I did make some alterations.” He gestured toward the buttons. “Feel free to make your own too.”
I glanced down and toyed with the nearest one—a tiny bedazzled ship’s wheel.
An abrupt bang bang bang pierced the air, and I jumped out of my skin for what had to be the one-hundredth time this evening/morning, and Liem and I both snapped our heads toward the door.
“Liem! I heard your voice, so I know you’re in there. And tell me why this bathroom was one of the first places I came looking for you!” a deep, melodic voice yelled from the other side of the door, causing inexplicable goosebumps to rise on my skin. “I swear, Liem, if you are in there with some guy, I will come in there and embarrass you.” There was a brief pause and then a loud sigh before a thunk rattled the door, as if the man on the other side had banged his head against it.
I glanced at Liem to find him looking at the door in bemused fondness. I guess we were just going to let this play out?
There was another thunk, and then the exasperated voice lamented, “Right. It’s not possible to embarrass you, is it? Okay, I’m coming in. I hope you were just talking to yourself. Wouldn’t be the first time.” The last part was muffled, making hard to make out the exact words.
Before the door swung open, Liem winked at me and whispered, “I’ll see you again soon.” With a parting squeeze of my arm, he walked to the door.
“Bro! I’m coming out now.”
With one last wink over his shoulder, Liem pushed the door open and shimmied out. “You just missed a record pee. Kinda wish I’d timed it. Wanna do brunch?”
The door shut quietly as he spoke, and the sound of their voices faded away but not so much that I missed the scandalized shout.
“Where is your shirt?!”
I pulled the knit cardigan around me.
I had officially lived ten lives in this bathroom.
6
BREE
“Seriously, Cody. I think this sweater is magic.” I adjusted my phone between my shoulder and ear and ran a loving hand over the soft fabric where it lay draped on my little twin bed.
Even magical sweaters needed to take breaks.
It certainly deserved one. I’d worn it almost nonstop this entire week as I worked any job at Fortuna that allowed me to avoid… basically everyone.
“I guess if you were going to replace me, I’d rather it be with a sweater? Or is it a cardigan?” he mused, clearly laughing both with me and at me, and then continued before I could answer his question. “Are you going to tell me the story behind it? Because there has to be one. Cher… please tell me you didn’t steal it from the back of some random player’s slot machine chair.”
I laughed at the horror in his tone and ran my fingers over the loose-knit material. Like a woman possessed, I snatched it up and buried my face in it, inhaling deeply.
Eucalyptus. Lemongrass.
It was such a unique combination of scents, and every time I thought I had a handle on the delicious bouquet, new notes would bloom. Ones that my brain refused to attribute to Liem, who I unfortunately hadn’t seen a glimpse of since the bathroom incident. And I’d definitely been looking. He was the only person—besides Cody—that I had any interest in encountering. I even went as far as to swing by the Million Dollar Room a couple times and probably would have done so even more often if it weren’t for its proximity to the high-limits slots. Something about Liem was so refreshing. He was so candid, and without Cody by my side, I was desperate for a friend.
I was desperate for any connection that didn’t have connections.
“Are you huffing that sweater like an actual junkie right now? I swear to Christ, I’m five seconds from commandeering this cruise ship and steering it back to Mobile, which would upset a whole lot of upper-middle-class families who have been dying to go swim with the dolphins in wherever the fuck we are right now. I don’t even know because both time and space on a cruise ship are a fucking illusion. FUCK. I’ve been gone for barely a month, and you’ve imprinted on a fucking cardigan.”
I lowered the garment back onto the bed. That passionate response—its excessive number of f-bombs included—was exactly why I hadn’t told Cody about AJ’s reappearance. Pairing that news with my sudden and slightly alarming attachment to an inanimate object would throw him into full Bree is finally having a nervous breakdown damage-control mode, which he’d been preparing to launch for years.
I legitimately worried that he’d do something crazy to try to help me and would end up getting thrown into the jail of whatever country’s waters he was currently cruising in. My best friend didn’t have many of the details about what happened between me and our former friend at the end of last year, but he knew enough and guessed even more.
The reason I didn’t say anything about Liem was a little more complicated. Even once you get past the murky narrative waters of meeting the equivalent of a tattooed, partially naked, gay fairy godmother—who you still weren’t sure wasn’t a figment of your imagination—in a women’s bathroom, it wasn’t an easy story to tell without including AJ.
I wouldn’t lie to Cody, so it was best to let it, well… lie.
