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“It’s nice you have a pool.” Not as nice as the ocean, but it was something.
The smell of the chlorine was intense, but it was nice to stick my feet in the coolness of the water.
“So, how much did Wyatt pay you to come here?” she asked.
“That’s none of your business,” I snapped. That was harsh, but I didn’t care.
“Okay,” she said, looking out across the pool.
I swished my feet back and forth and wished I was anywhere else in the world.
Natalie’s phone buzzed and she frowned as she read a new message.
“Oh. The movers are here early,” she said.
Finally, some good news.
Natalie and I put our shoes on and walked back to her apartment to find three buff guys in T-shirts with the moving company log on them.
Natalie showed them the apartment and they seemed completely confused when they saw that just about everything was already packed, but they got to work, and in no time the moving truck was full and the apartment was empty.
We thanked the guys, Natalie gave them all tips, and then it was time to go to the hotel.
“You do know how to drive this, right?” she asked, after she’d taken one last look around the apartment and dropped off her keys in the mailbox.
“Yes. I drove it all the way here. It’s not that hard.” I didn’t need her questioning my driving abilities on top of everything else. All I wanted now was to slide into crisp hotel sheets and sleep for a very long time.
After a few minutes of sitting in the passenger seat, she seemed to relax. The hotel was only ten minutes from her apartment, so it was a quick trip. I parked and we double-checked that the truck was locked before going to the front desk to check in.
“Okay, here is two room keys,” the front desk person said.
“You mean keys for two rooms,” I said. Wyatt hadn’t said anything about us sharing a room. He’d assured me that he’d booked hotel rooms for just me.
“Let me check,” the desk person said, frowning at the computer. “Okay, so it looks like there’s only one room booked for this card.”
“No, there has to be a mistake. Check again.” This was not happening. I was not spending one minute longer with her than I had to.
The desk person checked again. “I’m sorry. I would say that you can just book an extra room, but unfortunately we have two conventions in town and we are fully booked. There are two beds in the room, if that helps.”
Not really. It did not really help. I was stuck with her.
Inside, I was screaming. Outside, I said, “Sure, fine, whatever.”
Natalie had been waiting off to the side while I dealt with the room stuff, and she looked up from her phone as I approached her.
“So, I guess we’re sharing a room,” I said, shoving a keycard at her. “Wyatt told me booked one for me, but I guess he didn’t.” Either he had fucked up the booking, or he’d lied to me. The second was much more likely. I couldn’t wait to call at him and ask him what the hell he’d been thinking. And tell him that he owed me more money.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine, for agreeing to do this, and my brother’s, for being himself. I should have known.” Given his track record, I really should have.
“It’s fine. Let’s just go to the room,” she said.
The hotel was packed and we got crammed into an elevator together with a group of people heading to one of the conventions. I’d seen signs downstairs, but hadn’t really paid attention to them.
“What do you think the conventions are for?” Natalie whispered in my ear.
I shivered and tried to move further away from her, but that was impossible. We were stuck here until the doors opened.
