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Hereallydoesn’t like to be kept waiting.
“Thank you,” I say as sweetly as I can muster, then I bounce out of the elevator and turn left. One more minute and I’ll be snug in my room for the night, away from this rude little man. Well, big man.
I wonder if the Econo Hotel has cable? If theHousewivesaren’t on, I’d settle for a goodCake Warsmarathon.
Liam walks in my direction.
Maybe we reallywillbe neighbors.
Outside my room, I rummage in my bag for the keycard.
Liam walks up beside me, shoots me a sideways glance that isn’t exactly warm or friendly, then whips his card out of his suit pocket. He steps past me… and slides it into the slot on door 216.
For the umpteenth time tonight, a bad feeling fizzes in my stomach.
Oh no.
Oh no, oh no.
There’s been a terrible mistake.
4
LIAM
“No.” I cross my arms and look squarely at the receptionist—Cyrus, according to his nametag. “Absolutely not an option. No way. Out of the question.”
“B—but, that older lady said…” Cyrus splutters.
“I don’t care what the lady said,” I interject. My voice is calm and even, but Cyrus is shrinking back anyway.
The arms. Must be the arms. I’ve been going hard at the gym lately. ItoldLuke that there was such a thing as too many bicep crunches, but he said I was delusional.
I drop my arms to my sides. “There’s clearly been a terrible mistake.”
Beside me, for some absolutely incomprehensible reason, a smile tugs at Annie’s lips.
I really shouldn’t be surprised though. In the brief—and I mean,brief—amount of time we’ve known each other, the woman’s caught me off guard more times than I can count. One minute she’s falling over my suitcase and threatening to have me arrested, the next she’s leaping into my arms like a salmon, claiming I’m the love of her life.
“Is there a manager who can sort this out?” Annie asks as she bounces up and down on her toes. She’s been doing that—toe bouncing—practically the entire hour we’ve been standing here. She’s like a spaniel. A spaniel who somehow smells like a fresh ocean breeze. Warm and sweet.
I couldn’t help but notice that light, clean scent of hers when she jumped on me earlier. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the way her huge hazel eyes widened even further when I went along with her “he’s my boyfriend” charade.
I don’t know why I did, by the way. Maybe because I’ve never been good at reacting to things in the moment.
I need time to process things, mull them over before being able to communicate how I feel. Or maybe because, annoying as she seems, Annie looked petrified to see Slimy Guy.
Yeah, the guy happened to be the same smarmy man I did actually recognize from the conference. Pregnant bride at his side. Not that he was acting like it at Algorythm—I assumed he was single and looking with the way he was chatting up female attendees.
Something deep in my stomach twisted at the thought of a guy likethatcausing a woman discomfort. So I stepped up.
And now I’m paying the price in the form of Hotel Hell, which I’m sure must be a reality TV show.
“I-I’m the only person here. My manager went home when everything seemed to be under control.” Cyrus straightens his spine, seeming a little less intimidated now. In fact, he looks like he’s got about the same amount of patience left as I do.
Meanwhile, Annie—my self-proclaimed new girlfriend with terrible timekeeping skills and apparently equally terrible basic motor skills—looks downright sympathetic to the front desk clerk’s woes.
According to Cyrus, the Econo Hotel is full. We’ve spent the past hour calling every other airport hotel at Logan, but unbelievably, they’re full, too. Including all the suites and multi-bedroom units—I would gladly pay any amount of money to make this issue go away.
