Part 17 (1/2)
”Then make do.”
He hands me a keycard, and then walks off toward the lobby where Chance and his mother are waiting.
d.a.m.n it!
Stuck in a room with Chance, my new surprise stepbrother. Dad's words echo through my mind: A family.
How am I ever going to get through this?
I know him, and I know he'll do everything he can to make this situation more awkward than it already is. He'll torment me.
What's worse... is that I know if I spend that much time with him, we're just going to get closer.
We're going to get closer, and then I'm going to go to university in a different country to him.
I don't want to have to go through that goodbye.
I watch as he gets up from the armchair in the lobby, and starts walking toward me. He clears enormous s.p.a.ce with each step, closes the distance fast.
He towers over everybody else in the hotel lobby. Tall, broad, muscular... he's a total hunk. Everybody's eyes are on him.
He's wearing this c.o.c.ky grin, like he just can't wait to unload whatever snide quip or remark he's got waiting on the tip of his tongue.
”Well,” he says, approaching me, standing close. ”Looks like it'll just be you and me, alone in a room. Naked.”
”Stop it,” I whisper at him, looking behind him. ”What if my Dad heard that?”
”He didn't.”
”I already said that we can't do anything anymore.”
”Why not?”
”I don't want Dad to find out. I don't want it to be awkward. I don't want your mother to find out, either. She scares me.”
”Is there any other reason?”
I glare at Chance. ”I'm leaving to university, soon.”
”So you're scared.”
”I'm not scared.”
”You are,” he tells me. He takes the keycard from my hand, and then approaches the concierge.
”Excuse me, could you tell me if this room has twin beds, or a double?”
The lady pecks away at her keyboard for a moment before returning a polite smile.
”Twin beds, sir.”
”d.a.m.n,” Chance says, grinning at me. He returns his attention to the lady at the desk who is now looking him up and down.
I shoot her a death stare.
”Any chance you could switch us to a room with a double?”
”I'm sorry, Mr. Hudson,” she says. ”We're fully booked.”
”d.a.m.n, again.” Chance turns to me, flashes his eyes. ”Well, maybe we can push our beds together.”
”Oh G.o.d,” I groan, walking away.
We ride up the elevator in silence, enter our hotel room. It's pretty nice a decidedly four-star-ish a and indeed there are two twins separated by a small coffee table against the wall.
”This is a nightmare,” I say, setting down my stuff. I'm in a rotten mood. I know it's because I'm tired from the plane ride, too, but this whole thing really is a nightmare.
I mean, a family vacation? What was Dad thinking...?
I throw the top layers off the bed and onto the floor, knowing that housekeeping likely never bothers to clean it.
I inspect the pillows, then grunt, and open my suitcase, and pull out my own pillow case.
”Really?”
”Didn't you see that show where they s.h.i.+ned a black light in a hotel room?” I ask him.
I take shampoo and conditioner I packed from my suitcase, and then go and inspect the bathroom next, but everything seems clean by the look of it. I run the shower, rinse the large, ovular tub.
”I'm taking a shower,” I say. ”Dad said we're meeting downstairs in a bit, that we'll all go out for afternoon tea.”
”Thrilling,” Chance says. His voice is close, and I turn around from rinsing the tub to see him in the bathroom, leaning against the doorway, peering at me.
”What are you looking at?”
”You.”
”Why?”
”Why not?”
He steps closer to me, wraps an arm around my waist.
”Not... now,” I tell him. ”I'm... I'm in a really bad mood.”