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“I left a note,” she reminded him.
“Twenty-four hours!”
“You’re angry, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not angry. Furious, enraged, violently mad…” he considered them all aloud. “They don’t begin to touch the feeling I have for you right now.”
“I worried you?”
“Twenty-four hours?” He was moving easily between hot-fired rage, and cold-fired fury.
“When I need to think, I disappear,” she explained. “I guess I never told you.”
“You don’t have to now. Your demonstration makes it perfectly clear. You realize that I’ve called hotel security and the police to find you.”
“No, Reg,” she looked chagrined that he would take such measures so readily. “The police are looking for me?”
“They wouldn’t be doing anything about your missing until this morning.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cover it.”
“The door of the conference room cracked an inch or two, and a young lieutenant belonging to some businessman peeked out the door.
“Hadn’t we better get back to the meeting?” she asked.
r /> “I’ll be getting back to the meeting, you go to our room and stay there till I’m done.”
“But you need me in there.”
“I sure as hell don’t need you at my side when I’m so fucking furious with you I could whip your behind bloody! Now get to the room and don’t go anywhere, nowhere. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
***
It was the penance she was paying for being thoughtless, being banned from the business meeting, imprisoned in the hotel room by Reggie’s decree, and made to wait for hours to find out the fate of this latest scene in the bizarre drama of their relationship.
When Reggie finally came through the door, it was nearly five o’clock, and Jocelyn was munching a cracker she’d ordered from room service. She popped up expectantly, trying to get a glimpse of his mood.
All the hot fires had ceased to burn, or at least they were well away from the surface. He was as cool and calm as the typical Reggie. He was functional and businesslike walking into the room, depositing his briefcases on the table where they belonged. Going into the dressing room, he removed his tie. After that, he took off his suit coat and hung it in the closet. He hadn’t said a word.
Returning to the room, he stood for a second looking the place over as if he’d never seen it before. Scrutinizing the bed, the sitting area, and even her. The purpose of his cursory glance was unknown. She assumed he was merely thinking.
“I’m sorry,” she offered the apology.
“Damn right you’ll be sorry.”
“I had to have some time away, we’ve been so close.”
“I thought you wanted close,” he replied.
She took a deep breath.
“I do.”
He allowed himself to look perplexed so she’d explain.
“Occasionally, when things get too hot for me to handle in a relationship, I disappear for a while. It’s just time off. I thought you might be able to use it, too.”
