What does it mean? What happens when he wakes up? My eyes found a clock on the nightstand. Shit. It was almosttime for my kids to wake up for school. I’d never stayed out all night before. Would they notice I hadn’t been home? I needed to get out before I went into full panic mode. I scrambled to find my dress, slipping it on as quickly as I could.
Shoes. Shoes. Shoes.
Shit-fuck. Where did they go?
My mind was going a hundred miles an hour, but my body felt heavy as if resisting every step toward the door, a pull stronger than my freak-outs wanting to drag me back into bed, into those insane arms, so my skin would find home in the warmth of his.
Behind me, I hear movement. I froze as his groggy voice broke through the quiet.
“Morning…”
Caught halfway between staying and running, I turned to him, trying to keep my cool.
“Morning.”
His damn ocean-blue eyes had this way of settling my nerves, pulling me in when my brain was scrambling for me to leave. I stepped toward him, drawn by that magic pull, the memory of last night flooding my mind. The images came so hard that it made my thighs clench instinctively.
My fingertips could still feel the soft hair of his chest, tracing every line of all those tattoos. I wondered what they meant. If they even meant anything. In my daydreams, he’d had fewer. I was about to give in and let myself fall back into bed with him when—click. I spun around in time to see Vanessa march in like she owned the place. Her eyes locked on me with pure disdain.
“What are you doing here?” Chris seemed both surprised and irritated. And well, same.
She didn’t even blink. She bent down, picked up a pieceof his clothing as it offended her, and then tossed it onto the bed.
“It’s almost eight. I assumed she’d be long gone by now.”
I stood there, torn between laughing at how absurd this was and wishing I could disappear. Chris looked at me, half-dressed, close to the door, and I saw that little light bulb go off. Yeah, he realized I was trying to sneak out.
“I’m sure five more minutes, and she would’ve been.” He muttered, brushing past Vanessa, completely naked, holding his clothes in one hand, and disappearing into the bathroom without a second look.
This motherfucker… Was that it?
My cheeks burned as I stared at the bathroom door. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from yelling. I should have known better than falling for some sweet talk from a Hollywood actor. I wasn’t twenty anymore. I’d met enough of these types to know better. And yet, here I was, letting myself believe it had actually meant something.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Vanessa turned to me with that smug little smirk. “Can I help you with anything else?”
I forced my fakest of smiles, because if the strength went anywhere else, it would go into finding new curse words to call out all her family members, descendants, and ancestors.
“Just looking for my shoes,” I said as I scanned the floor.
I wanted nothing more than to get out of there, but I wasn’t’ about to make this more embarrassing by leaving barefoot. I tried to retrace our moves from last night to guess where the shoes might’ve ended up, but it took a lot to ignore the reactions my body had to those memories. So instead, I decided to pace around every corner of the room, no thoughts allowed, even if it took a little longer.
After a few minutes, she reached into her bag, pulled outa document, a glossy magazine, a pen, and laid them on the table between us.
“Since you’re still here,” she began, “I think it would be best for all of us if you could sign this N.D.A.”
I stopped mid-search, staring at her, trying to piece together if this was real.The mother fucking nerve.My anxiety was already at its limit, and she was throwing gasoline on the fire. My eyes drifted to the heavy vase sitting on the dresser, and for a fleeting,beautifulmoment, I imagined what it might look like shattered over her perfect, smug head.
“I’m sure you have no interest in selling the story of yet another meaningless hookup, but I would appreciate it if you could sign it.”
Meaningless. Hookup.
I let out a dry, humorless laugh as I found one of my shoes peeking out from under the bed. I grabbed it, my mind racing between making a scene or walking out as gracefully as I could.
Chris stepped out of the bathroom, his hair damp and a towel slung low around his hips. Apparently, Vanessa wasn’t done humiliating me, so she added.
“I see… I’ll understand if you think compensation is in order.”
