“Oh, shit,” Garrett mumbled weakly as he quickly made his way to the elevator. He shifted the box to one arm and frantically pushed the call button while he glared back at the small woman taking her time joining him before he glanced past her and-
“Oh, God, no…” Garrett mumbled hollowly, keeping his gaze locked on the little old woman who looked really fucking determined to get to him.
As soon as the elevator doors slid open, Garrett stepped inside, pressed the button for the sixth floor and mentally willed Kristen to move her ass. While she took her time, he alternated between glaring at her and struggling not to panic as he watched the little old woman who would haunt his dreams for years to come make her way towards the elevator with a predatory gleam in her eye.
A moment later, Kristen stepped into the elevator while Garrett frantically pushed the “Close Door” button. He glanced back at Kristen to find her leaning back against the wall, releasing a bored sigh as she scrolled through her phone before he glanced back at the hotel lobby and-
He saw this going differently in his head, Garrett thought as he stood there, watching the little old woman who was a hell of alot stronger than she looked, stop abruptly and narrow her eyes as she watched the elevator doors finally close. As soon as the elevator started moving, Garrett released a shaky breath as he dropped his head back against the wall.
God, he just kept fucking this up and he honestly had no idea how.
He’d tried everything.
Absolutely-fucking everything to make this up to her.
He showed up bright and early the morning after he’d realized just how badly he’d fucked everything up with a box of Hostess Snoballs, hoping beyond hope that she was willing to overlook the fact that he was an asshole and give him a second chance only to have the box of Snoballs plucked out of his hands before the door was slammed shut in his face seconds before the sprinklers were turned on.
That was followed by sending her a thoughtfully worded email, where he explained that he was an asshole that fucked up the best thing in his life and begged her to forgive him only to discover that she’d blocked him. That led to him deciding that it would be in his best interest to try a different approach.
He came up with a plan.
He canceled all his appointments for the rest of the week, bought the rest of her books and read them cover to cover. When he was done, Garrett read every article about her that he could find, devoured all of her social media posts for the past five years, looking for something, anything, that he could use to figure out his next move. The only thing that it did was to remind him of everything that he’d lost because he was an asshole.
God, he wished he could go back to that day and kick his own ass, Garrett thought as he closed his eyes and-
Found himself glaring when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a snort of laughter only to find Kristen leaning back against the wall, staring at the lights above the elevatordoors, still looking incredibly bored while she waited for the elevator to reach her floor. When the elevator doors opened a few seconds later, Kristen released a soft sigh as she pushed away from the wall and made her way off the elevator, leaving him with no choice but to follow her down the hallway.
A minute later, Kristen opened the door to her hotel room, stepped aside so that he could carry the box inside and-
Promptly lost her fucking mind.
Best.Signing. Ever, Kristen thought as she struggled to stop laughing, but God, it was difficult. She’d tried to warn him, but he refused to listen to her, leaving her with no choice but to break out a bag of M&Ms and enjoy the show.
At first, they’d behaved, most likely so they wouldn’t scare him off, but when he made the mistake of bending over for that little old lady’s bookmark…
All bets were off.
It provided her with countless hours of entertainment and memories that would last a lifetime, Kristen thought with a wistful sigh as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. She scrolled through the pictures that she took today until she came to the one where Garrett made the mistake of turning his back on that soccer mom and-
Sighed when her phone was suddenly plucked out of her hand.
Without a word, Garrett quickly deleted the photos as he alternated between cursing down at her phone and glaring at her. When he was done, he shoved her phone back in her hand, snatched the bag off the floor that she hadn’t noticed until now,and stormed off into the bathroom only to turn around and narrow his eyes accusingly on her before shutting the door.
When she heard the shower turn on a minute later, Kristen resigned herself to waiting until after he was done to throw him out. With nothing else to do, she decided to take a look at the room service menu. After taking her time debating her dinner options, she placed her order and found herself taking in her hotel room for the night, looking for something, anything, to do to kill time while she waited to throw the annoying bastard out.
When she didn’t find anything that needed her immediate attention, she grabbed her laptop out of her bag, climbed onto the king-sized bed, shoved the pillows behind her back, and got comfortable before she took her time selecting a movie and then…
Nothing.
For several minutes, Kristen sat there, staring at the blank screen until she finally gave up. She dropped her head back against the headboard with a frustrated groan and found herself wondering what she was going to do if she couldn’t fix this.
She used to love writing, more than anything, but now…
Now, just looking at her computer left her feeling sick to her stomach and she had no idea why. God, this used to be so easy. When she was little, she used to lay in her bed late at night, staring up at the ceiling while her imagination ran wild until she was left with no choice but to sneak out of her bed and hide in her closet with a box of crayons and one of her stepfather’s legal pads that she kept hidden so that she could draw the stories that wouldn’t stop playing in her head.
It only got worse once she learned how to read and write.
Since the library at her school only let her take two books out at a time and she normally devoured them by the time the bus dropped her off, she was left with no choice but to come up with her own stories until she could get her hands on another book.So, she wrote in notebooks, coloring books, on napkins, on the back of envelopes, anything within reach, which was a problem for her stepfather.
