Scrolling through my phone, I came across the photos of Cassidy and me being silly. What had started out as a joke, quickly morphed into tradition. The moment we arrived in a new city and checked into a new hotel, we raced up to her room. Hers was always nicer than mine although she always offered to upgrade me, I never saw the point. If I wasn’t asleep or changing, I was hanging out in hers. Setting foot in the room, Cass went straight for the bathroom to see what kind of goodies they’d left on the basin, while I checked the closets for robes. If there was a robe, we stripped down to our underwear, donned the robe, and ordered dessert from room service. It didn’t matter what time of the day or night it was, we always ordered dessert—the more over the top the better.
When I found a selfie of us sitting cross legged in the middle of her bed, plates of cheesecake, chocolate cake, and pie spread out around us, I couldn’t help but smile even as a tear escaped. I missed her. She was my boss but she was so much more than that. She was my best friend. My confidant. The person who I told everything to. And now she was gone and she wasn’t coming back.
Wiping away the tear, I kept scrolling until I found a video of Cass I’d taken. One I threatened a million times to leak to the press, but never would. It was the day she’d found her favorite shoes. We’d been out shopping, something completely unlike us, and there in the window next to us while we waited to cross the street, sparkling in the sunlight, were the loves of her life. A pair of shoes she claimed were the most uncomfortable things she’d ever worn but refused to take off.
I’d started recording being a smart-ass as she’d oohed and aahed, gushing over them from the street before she grabbed my arm and dragged me inside. Twenty minutes and way too much money later, she was hugging the bag to her chest completely and utterly in love.
“If you tell Hayden how much I spent on a pair of shoes…” she threatened before we both dissolved into a fit of giggles, earning us strange looks from the people around us.
We both knew Hayden wouldn't have cared how much they cost. If they put a smile on Cassidy’s face, then it was money well spent.
When a guy jogged past me, his gorgeous golden retriever on a leash in sync with his every step, my eyes bobbed up and down as his feet pounded the pavement. He was hot. Even with his sweat-soaked, gray t-shirt clinging to his body he made me look twice. Or maybe it was three times. When his gaze locked with mine, I was grateful I was sitting down.
“Morning,” he panted with a wave as he kept running and rounded the corner.
I’d like to pretend I was put together enough to not drool, but there was no doubt about it, I was horny as hell. It hadn’t helped that I’d spent the last few days surrounded by Hayden who was pretty much perfect. I wouldn’t go there. I couldn’t go there. But if I didn’t find someone to scratch this itch, the itch that my bullet vibrator couldn’t seem to scratch, then I wasn’t entirely sure how long I’d be able to hold out and not do something stupid.
Needing a cold drink, and probably a cold shower, I stood up, dusted my butt off and headed back to Hayden's.
Not looking where I was going, I was knocked down by a cyclist going way too fast to be on the pavement of the park.
“Fuck!” I cried, sitting on my butt in the dirt, staring down at my hands.
I’d hit the ground and hit hard. My hands were indented with bits of gravel and the grazes were oozing blood. My knees hadn’t fared much better. But what really pissed me off was the rip in my favorite jeans.
“Are you okay, miss?” a beautiful young woman asked as she looked down at me worriedly, the two kids at her side staring at me with wide eyes.
“Yes, thanks,” I told her as I pushed myself up.
“He was going so fast. He didn’t even stop!” she offered, clarifying what I already knew.
Taking a step forward, my knee screamed in agony as I tried to put weight on it. I must’ve twisted it as I fell before landing awkwardly on my butt.
Beside her, the kids fussed and I knew she had to keep moving. “Thanks for stopping and checking that I was alright.”
“You’re welcome. Most people these days are too busy to even show some human decency and manners,” she said sadly.
“Well thank you. I’m going to head home and get cleaned up.”
Leaving her standing there, I limped away but not before getting knocked again. This time though it wasn’t a physical hit, it was a memory jumping out and punching me in the face. Something I should’ve remembered sooner, but had been too busy ogling Hayden’s ass or being overcome by the manly scent of his body wash, body wash I wasn’t embarrassed to say I’d borrowed this morning, lathering myself from head to toe in the smell.
I was sitting on the couch, ice pack on my knee and a packet of skittles in hand, shoveling them in like an addict in need of my next fix, when the door opened and Hayden stepped inside looking like my guilty pleasure.
“Honey, I’m home!” he called out with a chuckle as he shut the door behind him and bent down to untie his boots, leaving his ass sticking up in the air for me to appreciate.
After mentally slapping myself for checking him out, again, I snapped harshly, “Where the fuck have you been? And why haven’t you been answering your damn phone?”
Shocked, Hayden stood up and looked at me like I’d grown a second head. I couldn’t blame him. Hearing myself speak, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I sounded like the worst sort of nagging wife imaginable.
“Whoa!” he started, holding up his hands in surrender. “Rough day?” He pointed to the ice pack on my knee.
“I figured it out!” I replied loudly. Way too loudly. I think I almost deafened us both.
“Okay, Skye, I’m gonna need you to take a breath and tell me what’s going on,” Hayden replied calmly as he unbuckled his belt from around his hips and set it on the counter, before grabbing a bottle of water and returning to the lounge area and facing me.
For the next twenty minutes I told him everything that had happened, ten of which were spent assuring him that I was okay and other than a swollen knee, a few scrapes and bruises, and a cracked phone screen, I was fine.
“So you called the hotel?”
