Page 63 of Sour Notes

Nick nods stiffly glancing between us. “So you two… uhh… are sharing a room, right? Sorry, this’ll be really fucking weird for a while.”

“We are, even though Wolfie snores so loud at home I sometimes force him to sleep on the couch.” I laugh, but even to my own ears it sounds totally fake.

“At least the room fuck up isn’t an issue so I guess thats a little silver lining, if I can shake the mental image of my best mate violating my baby sis.”

“Enough with the baby, you’re five minutes older, dude. You don’t get to pull rank. Keep it up, and I’ll start telling you about the many ways my Wolff likes to violate me.”

Swayze barks out a laugh, and Nick turns a little green, so I think I win this round.

Nick hurriedly waves us away, pointing to the corridor on the left. That, like everything else around us, looks like it’s been carved out of endless smooth, white stone.

Excitement bubbles in my blood when a concierge greets us and takes our luggage from Swayze. With his hand free, he slides it into mine, gripping it with a squeeze.

I don’t hate it.

It's almost like we’re a team. Us against the world.

Except it’s not real.

We follow the attendant back outside and down a cobbled pathway, passing multiple white doors gleaming in the bright sunlight, until all too soon we come to a stop at ours.

This is it, now we’ll have to live in this one room together for two weeks.

Nerves flutter in my belly while I watch the guy scan our keycard to enter. Why am I even nervous, for fuck’s sake? We’re already roommates. This won’t be much different, right?

It’ll be fine.

It’s all fine.

He holds the door open for us to pass, and my jaw immediately hits the floor when I step inside.

The room's stunning. White walls are interspersed with black mirrors and artwork. Gleaming gray wood floors shine in the sun, with a huge cozy looking king-size bed on one side.

And the best part is, the open unobstructed view of our own private pool overlooking the ocean… or what did Nick call it? The Caldera.

I’ve never set foot in a place this amazing. I leave Swayze with the luggage and walk out to the pool area. A dark wooden platform covered with a plush mattress juts from the edge of the pool to sit on the water.

It looks like it’s a bed floating on the water… a pool bed.

Not sure if that’s the technical term, but it works. I’m calling dibs on it to be my office while I’m here.

Walking past the pool to the end of our—what do I call it? Patio?—I look over the cliffs to the water and have the undeniable urge to stand with my arms outstretched, Titanic style. It might not be a boat, but that view's something else.

“You flying, Rose?” Swayze steps up behind me, slipping his arms around my waist.

Jumping, I let out an undignified squeak, making us both laugh.

“Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help it.” He holds his hands out, palms up, giving me a wide smile.

He’s pretty when he smiles. He doesn’t do it nearly enough.

Stop it, Mia. What are you doing? You’re not supposed to crush on your fake boyfriend.

“So that went well, huh?” His smile morphs, looking way more mischievous than it did a second ago.

“Oh yeah? What was your highlight? Was it my mom’s sex-ed lecture? Or maybe you holding my vibrator up like you were air traffic control? Wait, actually maybe that’s my highlight.”

“I was talking about Nick finding out we’re dating. He took it better than I expected, all things considered.” He quirks a brow at me.