He drags his big hands down his face and groans. “Let’s see what other rooms they have. We’ll reassess if it’s just as…”
“Fatal?” I offer. “Decaying? Haunted? Noxious?”
He trudges back towards the main office without a response.
I try not to scream when something rustles in the woods behind the murder shack, because statistically it’s probably a raccoon and not a man named Earl who collects toes.
Nico eventually comes back out with a horrified look on his face.
“The only room left is the one they use for performing animal sacrifices,” I supply for him.
“Worse,” he mutters. “The only room left has only one bed.”
The room itself isn’t so bad. It’s almost cozy, in a ratty, mouse-lair way. It doesn’t smell damp or like Giardia or the blood of virgins.
Even so, we both still stare at the one bed as if it’s soaked with the blood of virgins. Virgins with Giardia.
“Well,” I announce, “Pile of needles, it is.”
Nico looks like he is about to cry.
“I can sleep in the car?” I attempt to help.
“No one’s sleeping in the car.” He tears at his hair. “Is this really not gonna be okay with you? I can get us a new rental car and forfeit this one if it’s not.”
“How much is that gonna be?”
He shrugs. “For several days, booking on the day we need it… probably thousands of dollars.”
I stare at handsome, successful Dr. Nico, who picked me up frommy parent’s basement where I live, devastating in the dim light of the shit-brown room. “You’d pay that?”
“If you’re uncomfortable, then yeah.”
Oh boy. “I…” My body immediately goes into fight mode. Sister Annie tries to wrangle Annie of the past into submission, because she is currently salivating and chomping at the bit at the opportunity to use this rich man for nice, free things. She is fortunate in her triumph. What the hell is wrong with me? “No. I can handle it. It’s a big bed, and it’s just a few hours.”
All the tension leaves Nico’s body, and I realize just how wound up he was over this. It almost makes me feel bad. No, it does make me feel bad. Because it’s a reminder of just how unbearable I can be. Exhausting. Because that’s what I am, orwas to people. Just… effort, making everyone clench their teeth and flinch in advance, like I'm a slap they’re waiting for.
“Even fewer hours than you think,” he adds on, oblivious. “I gotta get to DC to meet with this chef at his restaurant. You wanna come with? By the time we get back, it’ll only be eight hours that we gotta be trapped in this room.”
I blink at him. “It’s ten at night.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t eaten yet. And it’s a two-star Michelin menu. For free. Besides, they close at eleven, and I don’t know if you know this, but kitchens after closing are usually a fuckin’ party.”
Ohboy! Old Annie shrieks with delight. Use this hot, rich man to throw down at a party that very likely involves a heavy amount of stimulants? Sign me the hell up. But alas, Sister Annie wins this round again and knocks her out.Stay here.
Nico remains ignorant of my internal struggle.
“I’m good,” I mumble.
He frowns. “What are you going to eat, then?”
“I have the rest of that cheesesteak from Gino’s.”
“You’d rather eat an old, cold, soggy sandwich than have a highly regarded menu of extremely high quality, expensive food? Forfree?” he asks incredulously.
Not to mention free drinks, because I am, in fact, very familiar with a city restaurant after closing. I have to physically peel myself from the offer. Heart heavy, I drag my suitcases further into the rat lair.
Nico takes a few steps away, and I suddenly have a lump the size of a baseball clogging my throat. I know he’s just giving me room to maneuver, but the motion makes my stomach clench, because again, this is what people have always done, what I’ve always been—sharp edges and emotional wreckage and a hurricane of serious issues that people learn to avoid or tiptoe around. “Enjoy, Dr. Nico, but don’t get too fucked up.”
