I shook my head, fighting the urge to laugh.With the way the morning was going, there was every chance it could end up in hysteria.
“I’m sure housekeeping can handle it,” I sent back.“Are you going to leave the room at some point so they can come in?”
A picture in reply this time; I quickly shaded the screen with my hand, just in case someone around me might be glancing over at the conversation.Probably wise, too: Kai had responded with a photo of himself in his swim trunks, taken full-length in the mirror.Shimmering red fabric, hugging his hips.I realized I was chewing my lip.
“I hope that means you’re going to the pool, because otherwise housekeeping is going to be really confused.”
“Heh, yeah, that was the plan,” he confirmed.“You’re welcome to join me?”
I glanced down the list of sessions I’d decided would be politically-inexpedient, at work, were I to come all this way and not attend them.It wasn’t a long list, but it was a fairly spread-out one.Certainly, I couldn’t just escape for the whole afternoon.
“I could come have lunch with you?”I suggested.The row of happy emojis Kai sent back showed me he approved.
Chapter Eighteen
By lunchtime, though, I was wishing I’d just gone back to bed.The presentations weren’t dull, just long, and I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to make the most of them.On the few occasions I managed to at least start to concentrate, the thought of Kai in his trunks distracted me.When they finally applauded the last speakers off the stage, I practically bolted to the door.
As I got to the pool area, I was all but convinced that Kai had the right idea.Two pools, in fact, surrounded by palm trees, tables, and loungers.Clearly this was where the “plus one” crowd hung out while us suckers were in sessions, given the number of occupied chairs and the amount of people either swimming or just floating in the water.It was barely noon, but that hadn’t dissuaded a number of them from consulting the cocktail menu.
I glanced around, then saw Kai sitting with his back to me at a table across the room.The wide set of his shoulders unmistakable.Picking my way through to him, I saw that his hair was wet and messy, evidence that he had indeed been swimming.
Pulling up behind him, I rested my hands on his shoulders.Chuckled as I felt him jolt a little in surprise; smiled when he craned his head around and saw it was me.
“It looks like your morning was more fun than mine,” I observed.
Kai grinned.“I’m happy with our division of labor, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Settling down in the seat opposite, I stretched my arms up over my head and groaned.“How can sitting in a room, listening and pretending to take notes be so exhausting.”
“Are you sure you can’t skip out on this afternoon and spend it with me, instead?”The look of eager hopefulness on his face was adorable.
“I really can’t,” I protested, weakly.“I’m already planning to do the bare minimum as it is.”
He sighed.“Isn’t there, like, a friend you can just ask for the notes afterwards?”
I rolled my eyes.“This isn’t high school.And anyway, I’ll have you know I never did that.”
