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And shit, why can’t I think straight? Everything is so fuzzy. When I reach for them, all memories of last night slither away.
Slow footsteps in the bathroom. The faint rustle of a towel.
Okay. Okay, this is nearly over. I drop my hands, brushing a feather off my forearm before fixing a polite smile on my face and staring at the en suite door.
I can do this.
The door swings open, billowing clouds of scented steam into the room, and a man steps through, a towel wrapped around his trim waist, his muscled chest glistening and damp. His green eyes go wide with shock.
“Oh,” I mumble, raising a shaky hand. “Hey, boss.”
Guy
“Get out.” It takes a few seconds for me to form words, but once I do, they fire out of me like bullets. If there’s one person I don’t want to see me like this, dazed and hungover to shit, it’s my bubbly assistant. How did she even find me here?Idon’t know where I am. “Wait for me in the lobby.”
Effie huffs, swaying on her feet, and my brain finally shudders into gear. For the first time, I notice her wild dark hair, tangled and littered with feathers, and the makeup smudged under her eyes. She looks clammy, her olive skin almost gray, and her usually red lips are pale.
My chipper assistant looks as wrecked as I feel.
“Effie?” I rasp.
“It’smyroom, you giant dork.”
I blink, leaning against the en suite door frame. I’m stunned to silence, but she’s not done. She’s angry, waving a slender arm around as she jabs at the room. “That is my suitcase, andthoseare your boxers, and that was my shower. You better not have used up all the hot water, Mr Coltrane.”
“It’s a hotel,” I snap, latching on to the only part of that outburst I can handle. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course there’s more hot water.”
My boxers? Fucking hell.
How did I get here? What did wedo?
I swear to god, if I slept with my assistant last night and I don’t even remember it, I will… I will…
Oh, fuck. I might vomit.
“Okay. Okay, um. Sit down.” A small, cold hand takes my elbow, tugging me carefully across the room toward the bed. Feathers crinkle under my bare feet, my toes sinking into the plush carpet, and I’m pushed down, my towel flapping precariously. The sight of my folded underwear on the bed beside me makes me choke.
“Oh. Yeah.” Effie prods at the black cotton pile and I have to fight the urge to smack her hand away. She saw those? Shefoldedthem? Who does that? “They were hanging from the lampshade.”
Ugh.
“That’s…” I search for an explanation, for something,anythingI can say to salvage this moment. Nothing. I’m drawing a blank, and my insides feel like a wriggling mass of snakes. “You weren’t here when I woke up,” I say instead, going on the offensive. Fixing her with an accusing glare.
Effie scoffs, rolling her bloodshot eyes before stomping over to her suitcase. “I slept on the floor.” She throws this over her shoulder, infuriatingly calm. And this is all wrong—I’mthe one always in control, the one held in check, and Effie is the human embodiment of a tornado. All bright clothes and wild curls, always five minutes late to every appointment. “Bet you ordered me down there before you drooled all over my pillow.”
No. I glance at the stripped bed with its single squashed pillow and rumpled sheet. No, I wouldn’t do that, even drunk. I may be abrupt, but I’m not a complete asshole. And there’s something under the churning, sickly feeling in my gut now, something that feels horribly like guilt.
Effie really slept on the floor?
I’m the boss here. This is her suite, and she’s my responsibility, so this is my fault, no way around it. I open my mouth to say something, toapologize, but as Effie crouches beside her suitcase and carefully levers it open so I can’t see inside, something prods at the back of my mind.
An image from this morning when I stumbled past on my way to the shower, dazed and dizzy. Something long and thick and hot pink, sticking up from the mountain of clothes.
My stomach swoops.
Jesus Christ.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I wait for a sinkhole to open up and swallow the hotel whole. And when Effie straightens and glances at me, she definitely knows what I saw, because her cheeks flush bright red and her eyes go wide.
