Her lips move in the most interesting ways when she smiles.They’re like a little heart shaped road with upturned edges—a road I can’t wait to travel tonight.
“We should cut our losses and get a room for the night,” I say and pull her closer still.
She’s not pulling away, her body melts into mine just like it used during those stolen kisses in her room.And on the beach… man, the beach.Maybe we don’t need a room at all.Just the sand and moonlight.
But she deserves a night in a five-star hotel room.She deserves a five-star life.And I can’t wait to give it to her.
She inclines her head to look at me, exposing her tenderly soft neck to my lips and I can’t resist.She shivers as I kiss her tender skin, her moan vibrating against my lips.Just like it used to the first time I kissed her like this.The last thing I expected was her being this willing tonight.Maybe my luck is turning.
“OK,” she whispers.“Let’s go.”
I lead her away from the table, fighting the urge to lift and carry her to get to the front desk faster.
There’s a line at reception, tourists in sporty shorts and shirts mixing with guests who probably spent as much money as we just lost on their outfits.I hope there’ll be rooms left by the time we get our turn.
“I’ll be right back,” she says.
“What?Where are you going?”
She smiles at what must be total shock on my face.Because what she said felt like an ice bath.It killed almost all my buzz.
“Look at that line,” she says, smiling very widely.“I have to go to the toilet… can’t wait.”
She sways a little in a way that proves her point.
“You get us a room,” she adds.“And I’ll be right back.”
She starts moving away and I mutter, “OK, fine.”
Two blinks later, she’s lost in the crowd.Another blink and I can’t see her anymore.And it’s not a good feeling.It’s like something’s been cut loose from me and is floating away.But that’s probably just all the whisky I drank talking.I should sober up.Otherwise, I’ll be no good for her.
The pretty ladies working the reception desk are so nice and friendly to everyone that it takes forever for me to get my turn.And as I stare into the soft brown eyes of the blonde asking me how I’m doing it finally dawns on me that Goldie should be back by now.Even if there was a huge line for the toilets.
“Where’s the nearest ladies room?”I ask and the receptionist’s eyes go so wide it looks like she’s about to pass out.
“Umm, it’s…” She points directly behind me.“But did you want a room?Sir?”
She must think I’m insane.And I probably am.Thinking Goldie came back to me.Thinking everything could be good now.Thinking she trusts me again.Thinking she’s mine.
“No, I don’t.”
I turn away and elbow my way through the crowd waiting to check in.A lady in bike shorts and a neon-green shirt shrieks as I burst into the ladies’ room.The others in there just give me very nasty looks.Including the grey-haired lady with a walker that I nearly knocked down while rushing to check all the stalls.
“Goldie!Gianna?Are you in here?”
More women are yelling at me to get out now, but there’s only one voice I want to hear and it’s not among them.I want Goldie to say she’s here, that I’m making a fool of myself, that I need to stop shouting for her and crawling on the floor to check under the doors of the locked booths.
None of the shoes I see are the black stilettos that made the top of her head reach my nose and let me smell her soft, beautiful hair all night at the roulette table.Strawberries with just a hint of vanilla.And that intoxicatingly sharp bouquet of flowers that’s all her.
It takes two huge bouncers to drag me out of the restroom.The lobby is packed now as they drag me across it to the exit.At least half of the people in here now are here to see the show.The crazy guy who lost his woman in the ladies’ room.
But she was never mine to begin with.
And I was an idiot to get drunk.An idiot for thinking I could find her if she ran.
“I’m good now.Let me go.”I tell the bouncers as we clear the revolving doors and the sharp sent of the sea mixed with exhaust hits me.It’s a cool night, the wind almost winterly.
They drag me a good ten yards from the hotel door before releasing me.
