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“I don’t think my back can handle sleeping on a couch,” she said. The couch in question was also pretty tiny. She wouldn’t be able to stretch all the way out.
“It’s fine. Whatever,” I said. I was cranky and tired again, but what else was new. “Let’s go have dinner in the restaurant.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. I didn’t want to stay in that room with the one bed any longer than I had to.
We went down to dinner and listened to the sound of soft jazz piped through speakers.
“This is nice,” Natalie said as she looked around. Several people were dressed in more formal clothes than we were, but there was no way I was going upstairs to change into something else.
“I hope they have something with melted cheese,” I said, looking at the menu.
“Same,” Natalie said.
* * *
After two meals that did include cheese, and dessert, we headed back up to the room and the bed.
I escaped to the bathroom to shower, but I also had to send an SOS to Paige and Linley.
Can you get another room?Paige asked.
No I told her. I didn’t want to get into my money issues. She wasn’t loaded, but I knew in an emergency, she would send me enough to get a room. I couldn’t let her do that. Linley asked the same thing, and I gave her the same answer.
I was stuck.
For about a half a second, I thought about sleeping in the truck, but why put myself through that?
Natalie and I had shared a bed before, and it looked like we were going to be doing it again. Plus, the bed was huge. I probably wouldn’t even notice her.
I got out of the shower to find Natalie in a robe and sipping a glass of wine.
“I got you one,” she said, pointing to the second glass on the nightstand.
“Thanks,” I said. Things were a tiny bit awkward when I got into the bed.
She was just so…close.
“Sorry,” I said as I adjusted myself and got the pillows the way I wanted them.
I didn’t know what I was apologizing for.
“I’m going to shower,” Natalie said, popping to her feet.
“Okay,” I said. Looked like she’d put on an old show that ran for a million seasons about crimes in New York. I actually liked this one. I’d put it on sometimes when I was folding laundry or doing other mindless tasks at home.
Natalie was in the shower for a long time. Good thing we weren’t responsible for the water bill at this hotel.
She seemed a little twitchy when she came out, but I was trying not to notice.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
“Not really,” I said. Maybe my body was finally getting the hang of driving all day. That boded well for the rest of the week. Part of me considered just saying ‘fuck it’ and gunning the rest of the way back to Castleton, but if I did that, I’d have to go back to work. It had been so nice to be away from forced office small-talk, and fixing the copy machine, and helping Gerri, the elderly assistant, open a PDF. It didn’t matter how many times I showed her, she still called me to her desk to do it.
There was only one thing worse than being stuck with Natalie, and that was being back at work.
Paige had been pushing me to get a new job, but doing what? My degree was just in business, and I’d barely graduated. My mom had pushed toward getting an accounting degree, but I’d rather have thrown myself out a window. When I graduated I’d just taken the job temporarily, hoping that something better would come along and, so far, nothing. I was stuck until I could figure out how to marry rich or win the lottery.
