I felt I needed to leave a note in the room as well as at the front desk. What if Minnie took one of the key cards with her and returned soon? I honestly can’t remember if there were one or two cards in that little sleeve. Better to be safe than sorry, right?
Back in room 418, I hover my pen over the paper. What should I say?The truth. Just be honest with her.I begin to write.
Minnie,
I’m not sure where you went, but I think we got our wires crossed. I meant everything I said last night. I want more than one perfect night with you. I want a million of them.
Pausing, I stare down at the paper. I want to give her my phone number, but what if housekeeping reads this? I don’t want my private number floating around with random people. That’s when I remember I put my contact info in Minnie’s phone last night. So I continue writing.
You already have my number. I put it in your phone last night under the name Remi. That’s my real name, by the way. I’m sorry I was dishonest with you about that, but everything else was the god’s honest truth. If you give me a call, I promise I’ll explain everything.
I’m going to our Waffle Ho to see if maybe you’re there. I miss you already and can’t wait to hear from you.
Yours,
Remi/Hardware Joe
Blowing out a breath, I read it over again. It’s not perfect, but hopefully she’ll find this, forgive me, and get in touch. I put the note in the envelope, seal it, and leave it on the nightstand so she can’t miss it.
When I exit the hotel, the first thing I see is my driver and security guard, Antonio, leaned against my car with one ankle casually crossed over the other. But appearances can be deceiving; Antonio is anything but casual. He was in a special forces unit back in his home country ofIreland. With green eyes so sharp they could cut glass, the man misses nothing.
“Nice night, I presume, Mr. Hale?” he asks in his thick brogue. I can barely make out the twitch of his lips behind his dark-brown beard. The man’s facial hair is nothing short of impressive.
“The absolute best,” I reply as I approach. The morning… not so much.
I can’t see his eyes behind his mirrored Ray-Bans, but I know they’re doing a quick assessment of my appearance. Wrinkled clothing. Mussed black hair. Untucked shirt. Very unlike me.
“It appears so.” He pushes from the vehicle and stands to his full height, six foot five like me, though he’s almost twice as broad. “To the hotel, sir?”
“Actually, no,” I say, pointing to the restaurant down the street. “I’m going to have some breakfast first.” One quirked eyebrow is all I get before he nods and opens the back door. “Actually, Antonio, I think I’ll walk.”
His other eyebrow meets the first, but he closes the door with a muffled thunk and sets off on foot beside me. “Your brothers got up to some shenanigans last night,” he informs me.
“Was anyone arrested?” I ask wryly, and that almost got a chuckle from the big guard.
“No, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying.”
“How long have you been waiting in front of the hotel?”
“Since I dropped them off about two. Helix told me where you’d be.”
I shift a glance his way as we walk. In contrast to me, his suit is perfectly pressed and his brown hair is slicked into a neat ponytail. “When do you sleep, Antonio?”
“Sleeping is for pussies, sir.”
“Did you at least get something to eat?”
“Eating is for mortals,” is his easy reply.
We walk another block before I ask, “Antonio, are you Batman?”
That does earn a chuckle from him. “That’s classified information, Mr. Hale.”
When we pass by the plate-glass window of Waffle House, I cansee Minnie isn’t inside, and my gut clenches. I had somehow convinced myself she would be sitting at our booth, smiling and waiting for me. Frustration bubbles deep in my core, and all I want to do is find her.
This has to be a misunderstanding. There’s no way she didn’t feel what I was feeling when we were together. I could read it in those pretty hazel eyes.
There’s a war going on inside me. I simultaneously want to go inside and leave. I want to be by myself, but the thought of that also fills me with an indescribable melancholy. So many contradictions it makes my head ache.
