Page 74 of Tumbling Hearts

He stares at himself in the bathroom mirror, applying a generous amount of powder to his neck. The skin is very red, and is only going to get darker as the day goes on. Thankfully he has his own make-up, but even that isn’t as good as he thought it’d be. Three layers on, it’s obvious that this doesn’t look natural.

Fuck.

If it looks bad now, it’s going to get much worse later. Unfortunately he doesn’t have any turtleneck sweaters in his suitcase—he didn’t think he’d want to wear any during this tour—but he does have a few scarves. He just has to make sure that tonight Carol won’t want to get him naked for any reason. Because it’s not just the one on his neck he has to worry about—there’s also the one Gene gave him on his inner thigh. He needs to make up an excuse as to why he’d be too tired for sex with her. He’s done it before.

But isn’t the discovery of a hickey exactly why Harriet broke up with me back then?

This time doesn’t have to be like the last. He can be more careful. He can hide it. He was the one who let Gene bite him anyway, despite the risks. I wanted him to do it so fucking badly.

Now all dressed with a scarf wrapped around his neck, all Ray can do is wait for Carol. He sits on the bed, watching TV and eating a snack from his bag in the meantime.

It feels like no time passes at all before she’s opening the door.

“Ray.” She doesn’t smile. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

She shuts the door behind herself, setting her suitcase down by the shoes. But she doesn’t take her own off just yet. Instead, she walks closer to him, mouth tight in a flat line.

“Carrie!” Ray says as he stands from the bed, setting a hand on her shoulder. “I missed you. Glad you’re back.”

She raises an eyebrow, not returning his touch, leaving her hands at her sides. “Well, that’s good. I want to ask you something before I forget, since it’s been bothering me.”

Sweat drips down his cheek. “Oh, what’s the matter?”

“Do you know what happened to that lingerie set I had in my suitcase?”

His heart skips a beat.

But before he can say anything, she continues⁠—

“It’s my own fucking fault for not putting a lock on my suitcase, and my best guess is one of the other girls from the gig stole it from me. But I realized you also have access to my suitcase too, so I was wondering maybe you had just taken it…? What for, I have no idea. But I still wanted to ask.”

This is his chance. He didn’t even think of the possibility of someone else stealing it from her. Yes, he could simply tell the truth and tell her he has it, but then he’d have to explain why, which he definitely does not want to fucking do.

His heart slaps against his chest. He gulps, taking his hand off Carol’s shoulder, hoping she didn’t notice how sweaty it’d gotten.

“I have no idea,” he says. “I didn’t even know you had a lingerie set, since you’ve never told me about it. So I’m just as confused as you are. It very likely could’ve been stolen by one of those other girls.”

Carol scoffs. “Figures. Maybe you’re right, I should lay off the Quaaludes. Makes me too ditsy to even pay attention to what’s happening around me.”

His shoulders sag in relief. “Well, I mean, if you think that’s the right call, then yeah, you should.”

Carol looks at him, up and down, crossing her arms over her chest—wearing a sleek form-fitting sweater. “I’m paying attention now, though. You seem tense. Like you were worried I was gonna ask about something else.”

“What? Oh, no, I’m fine!” He chuckles a nervous laugh, rubbing his elbow.

“Did you sleep in here last night?”

He blinks. “Um, yeah! ’Course I did. It’s our room, after all.”

“Then how come the sheets are still perfectly made? I don’t think housekeeping does it until after we check out, since we’re only here for one night.”

Shit.

That’s something that completely slipped his mind.

He was worrying so much about the lingerie and the hickeys that he didn’t even think to make it look like someone had slept in the bed here last night.

“I—I just woke up early and had some free time, so I fixed it up. It was just me in the bed, so I didn’t mess it up that much.”