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“You couldn’t answer your damn phone?” That was Sid’s bellowing.
Sebastian’s answer was too muffled to hear. As I stood hunched over, I realized that my bladder was about to explode. The conversation was getting louder; it sounded like Sid was moving closer to the bathroom door. I winced as I picked out a few words here and there: ‘fucking some chick’, ‘missed brunch’, and ‘panties on the lamp’.
My head was beating out of my skull and I desperately had to pee, so I couldn’t care anymore about their conversation. I limped toward the toilet, holding my gurgling stomach, and realized Sid was talking right on the other side of the bathroom door. If I peed, he would hear.
“What the hell is this?” Sid was asking.
I turned on the water faucet, but it was one of those low-flow water savers that made virtually no noise.
“Who cares? They’re just some flowers. I probably stole them off a table somewhere. Now that you know I’m alive, would you just—“
I turned on the shower. Finally, enough noise to cover the sound of peeing.
When I was done relieving my aching bladder, I drank water from the sink faucet by cupping water in my palm. Nothing good was happening in my mouth.
I splashed some water on my face, wincing when I caught sight of my sorry reflection in the mirror — pale skin, raccoon eyes, smeared mascara, and ratty hair. Lovely.
I walked over to the shower and turned off the water. The water in my stomach that I’d just slurped down started to roil and bubble. Oh fuck ... I was going to—
Yes, I hurled. Until my stomach was empty. I flushed the toilet, but then I threw up again. It felt like my stomach was being wrung out. Violently.
I was dry heaving for a few minutes when a knock sounded on the door.
“Lacey, are you okay? Sid is gone.”
I stood on weak legs and shuffled over to the sink. “Give me a second.” I rinsed out my mouth and then splashed some water on my face. Somewhere along the way, I’d dropped the bedsheet. I looked around and saw it curled around the base of the toilet, so I grabbed one of the big fluffy bath towels and wrapped it around my body.
Sebastian was leaning up against the doorframe, wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs, when I opened the door. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I moaned. “Not at all. Do you know where my clothes are?”
He walked over to a lamp and pulled a tiny piece of black fabric off them. “Well, Sid spotted your panties over here on the lampshade. He stepped on your dress, which is on the floor by the door. I don’t think he recognized it. There’s a shoe on the chair over there, but I don’t know where the other one is.”
I looked around the room for my bra while Sebastian gathered up my clothes. I noticed the flowers Sid was asking about. It was a pretty bouquet of white roses and hydrangea. “Where did you get those flowers?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. We probably swiped them off a table.”
That’s what he’d told Sidney, too, but the stems of the flowers were wrapped in satin ribbon. That pinged a tiny warning bell, but my head felt like it weighed two tons and my legs didn’t feel like they could hold me up much longer.
He came back to where I was slumped up against the wall with my clothes, minus one shoe and my bra.
I slithered back into the bathroom to dress but realized quite quickly that my dress was torn almost in half. I slipped on my panties, which were so skimpy they covered almost nothing, and then wrapped the towel back around myself.
When I poked my head out of the bathroom, Sebastian was wearing a T-shirt and gym shorts. “My dress is torn to shreds. Can I borrow something to wear? A T-shirt maybe?”
“Sure.” He walked over to his small suitcase and started rummaging through it. “I didn’t pack that much stuff. I’ve got an extra T-shirt. No sweatpants, though. You want these shorts I’m wearing?”
I couldn’t stand upright anymore. I gingerly made my way over to the bed and collapsed on top of it. “The T-shirt would be great.”
He sat down on the bed next to me and handed me the T-shirt. “I’m sorry about your dress. Do you think I, you know, ripped it?”
I grunted. “What do you think?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Damn, Lacey. We drank all that absinthe. After we’d been drinking all night. I was so drunk. Honestly, I don’t think I had the ability to perform last night. Do you, uh, feel anything?”
I sat up and the room spun violently. “Like if we had sex?”
“Can you tell?”
