Rest today. Hydrate. Meals with protein and healthy fats. No working. I’ll call you soon.
I’d already forgotten about the other texts. This text shone from my phone like a message from Gabriel, like gospel from on high. At least to my subconscious.
My conscious mind read theno workingand greeted it with a huff and an eye roll. This was coming from a man who could afford a fifteen-thousand-dollar sex party ticket.
I had an editing job to finish, VidWave content to post, and readers to let down by writing a book they were going to hate.
With that lovely internal pep talk, I sprang from the bed. Inara let out one long, impressively loud meow as she ran to the door, which did nothing to help my burgeoning headache.
As I sped through my morning routine, I realized with great irritation that my body protested both thinking and moving.
Ugh. Maybe Wes was right.
Thehorror.
I turned my ringer on. Then, I turned it off, to be more nonchalant. Halfway through my second cup of coffee, I turned it back on, because I decided it was more nonchalant not to care about appearing nonchalant.
“What the hell!” were Hudson’s first words to me when he joined me in the living area.
I sipped my coffee. Inara trilled and rubbed against Hudson’s legs.
“Okay. I know. That was horrible of me. I had a lot on my mind?—”
“A. Lot. On. Your. Mind.” Hudson’s nostrils flared. He crossed his arms, truly embodying an angry mother in a way that unsettled me. “You want to know what was onmymind?”
I winced. “No, not really,” I said. “But I can imagine. And I’m really sorry, Hudson. I fell asleep on the way home. I should’ve texted you immediately like I promised.”
Hudson huffed dramatically before turning toward the coffee machine. After the comforting screech of the machine had halted, he asked, “Well?Did she listen to reason?”
“Who?”
Hudson stared at me in utter bewilderment.“Who?”A vein in his forehead pulsed.“Who?” he repeated, louder this time.
Before he could continue his angry owl impression, I sheepishly set down my coffee. “Oh, yes, Lorelei.” I nodded. “She wasn’t there. It would seem I was led on a wild goose chase, for reasons I have yet to understand.”
Hudson sat down on the couch with his coffee, practicing his deep breathing. “Or,Lorelei got too wasted at the pregame to even make it to the party, as she is famously known to do.”
Fuck. Occam’s razor struck again. “Yeah, that sounds plausible.”
He raised his brows, his cunty expression slowly fading into reluctant eagerness. “Okay, well, what the hell happened then?”
Delilah burst from her room with a raised finger. “How dare you!”
A shirtless man with a six pack and no body hair trailed her, his expression that of an excited golden retriever. He shook out his luscious brown hair before he slipped his hands in his pockets and wordlessly stood next to Delilah at the front of the room. He nodded to us with an easygoing grin.
“You would debriefwithout me?”Delilah accused, still in makeup from the night before. Glitter and black smudges circled her eyes.
I pointed at Hudson. “He is the betrayer. I wasn’t going to answer his traitorous question.”
Hudson narrowed his eyes at me. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure.”
“Guess we’ll never know,” I sighed.
“Nova, spill!” Hudson and Delilah said at the same time.
The state school’s Phi Tau alumni gave up waiting for Delilah to introduce him. “Hi, I’m Bradley. I’m going to make omelets.”
“Thank you, Bradley,” I said, meeting the expectant eyes of my roommates. “Where to begin. Um. Okay. So yes, there were notable figures there, but you all know how bad I am with faces. Oh, but I did overhear people saying that female rapper you both love was hooking up with a girl there, I forget her name, uhhh…”
