Our kids.
I slip from the covers and sit up with that thought, rubbing my puffy eyes. Fantasies like that will doom me. I can’t get carried away. I’ve gotten too deep as it is. This was indulgent. A culmination of years of repressed feelings. Yearning can make a person act crazy. That’s all this was.
I snag my bra and panties from the floor along with my shirt and pants, my head pounding from my heavy pulse that’s being fueled by my conscience. I’m not sure if I’m toiling with what I’ve done, or what I’m about to do—leave.
After slipping out of Jayden’s bedroom, I sneak into the spare bathroom so I can get dressed and splash some much-needed cold water on my face. I realize too late that there isn’t even a hand towel in here, so I blot my face dry on my shirt.
The room is lit by the streetlights outside. A dusty yellow haze paints the walls. Jayden’s apartment is not much different from my hotel room. Everything in our world is so temporary. Both of us could be sent somewhere else at a moment’s notice. Yet one more reason this tryst is foolish.
I shove my feet into my sneakers by the door, not bothering to slip my knee-high socks back on. I smirk briefly as I roll them up and stuff them in my pockets. Jayden actually liked me in these. Of course, it wasonlythese I was wearing. My mind wanders to other things I could wear for him, ways I could seduce him. I quickly rattle my thoughts away from that mental trail. I slip out the main door and pull it shut behind me, bracing its weight so I don’t make a sound.
The hum of the building’s air unit is the only sound in the hallway. I pause when I reach the elevator, remembering what Jayden told me about the stairs, but as a dozen or so seconds pass while I wait for the elevator to reach this floor, I decide I’d rather be moving than sitting here out in the open, and break for the stairs.
Regret hits me right in the face about half a flight down. Coach Bastion is leaning against the banister, his head propped against one of the emergency fire boxes. My heart stops when I see him, but as I get closer, I realize his eyes are barely open, and he reeks of alcohol.
“Sugar,” he says, the word lingering on his tongue way too long. I’d find it offensive and borderline harassing if he didn’t look so pathetic.
“Coach Kessler,” I correct. I might as well stand my ground since we’re both clearly in a position we shouldn’t be. And my memory of this encounter is bound to be a lot clearer.
“Ha, yeah. Coach,” he says through a sloppy snicker. A chain of drool crawls down his dry, fat lower lip.
“I should say the same thing,” I say, slipping my shoulder under his arm about a half second before he falls.
“Oopsie,” he says, chuckling.
“You out celebrating tonight?” I ask, steadying my legs and urging him up the steps with me.
“Meh, no! What’s to celebrate?” he grumbles.
I roll my eyes and turn my head as his breath hits my nostrils.
“Fair enough.” I don’t indulge his curmudgeonly behavior, but instead focus on getting him to the next landing by the door I just slipped through.
“This is me,” he grunts, and my eyes blink a few times.
“You’re on the third floor? You’re sure?”
He mumbles something about knowing where he lives, then pushes the security bar to open the door. I help him maintain his balance as we enter the hallway, and I finally exhale when he guides me in the other direction from Jayden’s unit.
We putter our way about five units down before he lunges at the door handle for unit three-sixteen.
“This is me,” he slurs, fumbling his keys and wallet from his pocket. He ends up spilling the contents on the floor, includinga small prescription bottle that rolls across the hallway. I snag it and read the label.
“It’s fucking heart pills. Don’t be nosy,” he says, snatching the medication from me.
“I wasn’t.”
I was.
“Where’s the fucking key card?” He’s morphing from sloppy drunk to hostile, so I give him a little space while he spreads his wallet and contents around the wood floor.
“Do you know your code?” I ask.
“Yes, I know my fucking code. But I’m not telling you. You’d probably break in and steal my blender.”
I chuckle, but cover my mouth when he glares at me.
“I can guarantee you there is nothing in that apartment I want.”
