“Who’s Memphis?”
I blinked at him. “Sorry?”
“That man asked about Memphis. Who is she?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I think it’s his girlfriend.”
He screwed up his face. “Weird.”
“What’s weird?”
“He’s the second man to ask for Memphis.”
My jaw actually dropped, and I turned around to hide my shock. “Really? That is weird.” Two men asking for Memphis? My brain spun as I tried to picture who the second man could be.
“I’m wondering if she’s that hooker I’ve seen lurking about.”
I moved closer to the rubbish bin, certain I was about to throw up the yogurt I’d had about three hours ago. And that was when I noticed the condom packet on the floor again.Holy shit, can this morning get any worse?
“Have you seen her?” Needledick opened the drawer to toss his car keys in it, and I used the moment to pick up the offending packet and conceal it in my hand.
“I don’t think so. No.” I reached for my handbag, desperate to get out of there.
“You’ll know what I mean when you see her. She has this rude, untouchable attitude.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. Anyway, I’m off now.”
“Okay, sorry I was late.”
Yeah, yeah.I raced to the elevator, and as I stepped in, adrenaline pumped through my veins, making my head spin and my knees weak. The elevator was so slow I wondered if it had stopped. Finally, it pinged open on my floor, and I made it to my room. My legs were a quivering mess by the time I flopped onto my bed.
“Bloody hell!”
As the waves crashed into the shore below, I debated whether or not Cowboy Billy knew who I really was. The way he’d looked at me was as if he was trying to work out a piece of a puzzle. Maybe my voice gave me away. I should have disguised it somehow. I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of that earlier.
I reached for my phone and dialed Lolita. For the first time ever, it rang out, and I left a message after her perky little voicemail response. Three seconds later, my phone beeped. It was Lolita with a text message. ‘Sorry, I’m in parent/teacher interviews. Are you okay?’
I texted her back. ‘Yes, I’m fine; I’ll tell you later. Have fun.’
‘Fun?’ she replied in a flash. ‘I’d rather pull my pubes out one by one.’
‘Haha. You love it. Bye.’
‘I don’t.’ She ended the conversation with a vomiting emoji.
I sat up and finger-combed my hair. The last thing Billy had said indicated that he didn’t actually think I was Memphis. Then again, if he had put two and two together, he still told me to go to room fifteen. Could that be it? Even though he knew Jane and Memphis were both me, did he really still want me to visit?
My heart did little summersaults at that thought.
I had to find out. My brain skipped over the possibilities as I showered and applied my Memphis makeup. As I layered my mascara, I realized I had a problem.
Billy had really looked into my eyes this morning. But as he’d been with Memphis twice, he may remember my green eyes. So, once again, I couldn’t wear my colored contact lenses.
No matter which way I looked at it, I was playing with fire.
And yet, I had this crazy, uncontrollable desire to still go to him. The times with him had been amazing. I wanted that again, and according to the last words he’d said to me downstairs, he wanted Memphis, too.
With that decision made, I put on my black wig again and went to my closet. After my last wardrobe disaster with him, I needed a dress that was easy to remove.