He smacked my shoulder. “No worries. You’re a friend of the family. Let’s go.”
I didn’t feel very good as I picked up my bags and followed Cooper out into the parking lot to his Fiat, but then again, I was being a coward.
9
WICK
Gritting my teeth,I pushed the glass door at the office, but it was locked. I sighed and fumbled with my keys. I’d woken up alone, which was unexpected and extremely unpleasant, and my phone was dead. I didn’t see Maurice’s car in the lot anywhere, so he likely wasn’t here.
Today was going about as terribly as it could—with the exception that I’d been able to shower this morning with the lights on. That had been nice.
Maurice hadn’t been anywhere at the hotel, either.
“Fuck, what is wrong with this lock?” Finally the key turned and I was able to shove open the door. I had trouble getting my key out again but won the war and tucked the ring back into my pocket. I stomped around the reception desk and through the break room, and I was happy as the lights turned on in the hallways—they were on a sensor. Once in my office, I immediately set about charging all my devices, just in case the power went off again, then flopped in my chair.
What did I do wrong with Maurice?I massaged my temples and glared at my phone as the lightning bolt flashed on the dark screen while it began to charge. I didn’t want to be here at the office today, but I needed to make sure no one was having an emergency like yesterday, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to test my luck on the roads to my home. I closed my eyes and my gut churned while I dissected every single word I’d said to Maurice yesterday. Maybe nothing was wrong with me and he’d simply had an emergency? But then, why hadn’t he woken me up? Wouldn’t he tell me he needed to leave if there was something wrong? Maybe even ask me to go with him?
There was a noise in the outer office, and I sat up tall in my chair as a knock rang through the room.
“Yes?”
Maurice cracked open the door and sent me a smile, but his face was red and he seemed like he was holding his breath. He was wearing the same clothes he’d had on last night as he snuck in the door with a large box in his hands from Muscarello’s. The smell of cheese, sauce, and oregano danced along the air and had my mouth watering. Maurice walked over to my desk as if it was any other day and removed a sturdy tin tray with foil wrapped over the top from the box and set it on my desk, then dropped down a bottle of Sprite and a roll of silverware.
“Here you go, Mr. Guidry.” His tone was subdued and he didn’t make eye contact.
Relief tangled with anger in my chest. Mr. Guidry—my own name was like a slap in the face after hearing him chantWicklast night while I was blowing him, as if I were some sort of sex god. Maurice didn’t offer to eat with me, even though he often did on the weekends, and instead, went back out to his office and shut the door. Were we going to ignore last night?
I sighed and stared at the food, confused and irritated... and hurt. What had I missed? Obviously I’d done something wrong, right?
At a little after three there was a knock, and I stared up guiltily from the movie I’d been watching rather than doing any work. I’d thought about asking Maurice to join me, but after the way he’d acted earlier, I wasn’t sure what to do. He opened the door and lingered on the threshold.
“Uh, yes?”
He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “They’re saying the roads are better. I’m gonna chance going home. No one has called today.”
“Okay.”
With that dismal excuse for a farewell, the door closed, and my heart ached. Shit, maybe he’d been waiting for me to say something about last night? Did I mess up right now? I rested my elbows on the desk and dropped my forehead onto my fists. Maybe Maurice just needed someone last night and I was there? He was nice and sweet, but he was also a man, and that wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities. It had felt like something more was going on between us when we were kissing, but maybe I was wrong.
Instead of trying to go home, I finished my movie and went back to the hotel. I asked Mrs. Riggins to send someone with a suitcase for me so I could be comfortable, but I wasn’t ready to leave the place where something so good had happened, as silly as that seemed. My gut churned that evening when I climbed into the bed because at some point during the day the sheets had been replaced and all traces of Maurice’s cologne were missing when I buried my face in the extra pillow.
I had trouble falling asleep and was almost a zombie the next morning when my alarm went off. It was a Monday times ten thousand because half the office called out, claiming they needed to take care of things because either the power was out at their homes or the roads they needed to travel were still impassable. I couldn’t be mad about an emergency, but that meant anything immediate had to be handled by the rest of us. Maurice made it to his desk on time, but I only knew that because I heard the shuffling around of another warm body in the office outside of mine.
I decided to drag myself out there to see him, and my heart hammered in my ears as I pushed open the door and went to stand beside his glossy black desk. I stared at the starry painting across the room instead of looking at him.
“Um, good morning,” I said, then darted a glance toward his face.
He smiled and my heart leaped. “Good morning to you, too, sir.”
He stared at me, and I looked right back. Tension coiled around my chest as the silence dragged out, and then I walked back into my office because it was clear he wasn’t going to open his mouth and tell me what I’d done to chase him away. I would ask, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer yet.
When I got to my desk, I opened my laptop—I would find things to do that wouldn’t take me back out past Maurice until closing time. I was pecking away at my keyboard when there was a knock at the door sometime later. Normally Maurice rapped once, then popped right in. Not this time. I hated the change.
“Come in,” I said, without looking up.
The door opened, but I stared at the Excel sheet in front of me.
“It’s after two and you haven’t eaten lunch.”
