Mortifying.“Did Ivomiton the bed?”
“Oh, no. You just passed out.”
“At least I am afforded one last modicum of dignity,” I grumbled.
“I tried to sleep on the floor, but you insisted I should sleep in the bed. You climbed into bed, grinned at me like a lunatic, and then your eyes rolled back in your head as you lost consciousness. I made sure you were breathing and covered you up.”
I needed to be certain. “So, you’resurewe didn’t consummate the marriage?”
“I wouldn’t have, and certainly not withyou.”
A little insulting. However, “Non-consummation is grounds for an annulment.”
“See? All for the best.” She waved at the clouds of steam billowing from the bathroom behind me. “And your water is hot. Go take a shower. Youreek.”
Ah, the same words as I’d expounded to John Borbon yesterday, coming back to haunt me.
Karma, complete.
I gathered my dignity and stood, careful to look unconcerned with my current circumstances, and strolled into the hotel room’s bathroom sized only for a goddamn mouse. I pressed the rickety door closed behind me.
As soon as the door shut, my knees wobbled and gave out, and I slid down the tiled wall, cradling my phone.
The tile chilled the bottoms of my feet and my ass through the thin hotel towel. The shower was pouring down in its minuscule stall, thundering on the plastic shower curtain.
With shaking fingers, I called John Borbon, who did not answer his goddamn phone.
His phone clicked over for me to leave a message, and I whispered with my hand cupped around the phone. “John.John, you son of a bitch.Don Juan Gómez-Acebo y Borbón,Duke of Badajoz and Viscount of La Torre, pick the fuck up.Pleasepick up. I fucked up. I got my ass drunk, andI fucked up.”
My heart quaked.
“John,” I whispered. “Call me back as soon as you get this. I don’t know what to do.I don’t know what to do.”
I struggled to my feet, damning all the vodka in the world to Hell, and was just pulling back the brittle shower curtain when my phone screen lit with a call from John.
I scrambled and juggled it to my ear. “John!”
“Nico, you old devil!” John chortled. He fuckingchortled.“Congratulations are in order!”
I dragged my hand through my greasy hair. “No, they’re the fucknot!Did youlistento my message?”
“No, I just saw that you’d finally returned my calls from last night and rang you right back. What happened?”
“I don’t know what I did. I’ve awakened next to women so many times. Ilikewaking up next to women. But Jesus, John, I think I really fucked up.”
“Did you not use a condom? Is she not on the Pill or something?”
“Worse.”
“What could be worse?”
I rubbed my hand up the side of my face. My beard scruff was thick. I needed a shave. And a shower. And a toothbrush. “There was this woman who was standing outside the Billionaire Sanctuary club in a wedding dress, and I proposed and married heron the spot.”Though flickers of memories felt like I’d been besotted with her, but I’m not a besotted kind of guy. How drunk had I been? “I’m an idiot. I’m a fucking idiot, John, and I fucked up my life on a goddamn whim.”
“You’re breaking up. Shitty signal. What was that you said about a wedding dress? Who was she? You seemed overcome on the livestream last night. I thought you were going to breakdown sobbing at her beauty like a peasant. God, I hope I don’t do that.”
Hesitant knocking pattered at the door. “Hey, I could hear you talking. If you’re notinthe shower yet, could I use the facilities before you get in?”
“One second, please,” I called to her. “John, I can’t talk. I’ll call you later. I’m hungover as shit and can’t think.”
