Page 37 of Business or Pleasure

This is practice.

“That’s probably good for today,” I say, the suddenness of that realization shocking me back to reality. Because it’s not me that Finn’s here with—I’m just a stand-in for a future mystery woman. Waiting for someone real to take over the role.

Finn stops right away as I move off him. “Yeah?” he says.

“I think you’ve got this down. Top marks. Eleven out of ten.”

His gaze lingers on me, but I focus instead on the rise and fall of his chest, and when even that makes my skin heat, I drag my eyes to the plain white duvet. I blink away the stars at the edges of my vision, trying not to think about how another minute of rubbing against him, and I probably would have come apart.

“Thank you,” he says. “If that isn’t weird to say?”

“I think all of this is weird,” I manage. “But—you’re welcome.”

A few more strained seconds of silence. “I might go for a run,” he finally says. “I think it’s cooled off enough.”

After he leaves, I lie there for moments, minutes, waiting for my breathing to return to normal. Distantly, I hear the AC kick back on, but my body refuses to cool down.

Lesson one was far more thrilling than I thought it would be. There’s no doubt I’m attracted to him, given I went back to his hotel that first night. Maybe we should have kept going, finished everything in one day so we could focus on the real reason we’re stuck in this Airbnb outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

But we’re here to work.

So I open my laptop, pull up The Nocturnals, and hit play on episode two.

THE NOCTURNALS REUNION SET FOR DECEMBER

Entertainment Weekly

The werewolves are back.

After ten years, The Nocturnals, the fan-favorite TBA Studios show, will return for a two-hour reunion special filmed in front of a studio audience. All principal cast members have been confirmed: Ethan Underwood, Juliana Guo, Finn Walsh, Hallie Hendricks, Bree Espinoza, and Cooper Jones.

For a list of our top ten best Nocturnals episodes, click here.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Underwood, who played Caleb Rhodes in the series, from the set of his new movie, Deathrace. “Can’t wait to have the whole gang back together.”

The reunion will be available to stream beginning December 10 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time.

chapter

ten

ST. PAUL, MN

Hell is baggage claim and the endless, dizzying loop of suitcases that does not include one’s own. Or, more specifically, one’s mother’s.

“It’s not here,” I tell Finn. “I’ve seen that one wrapped in caution tape go around at least twenty times. Mine’s not coming.”

“It’s got to be here.” He frowns, sliding his phone into his pocket. The reunion announcement went live this morning, and his socials have been chaos. He did a couple interviews in the Airbnb this morning before we left for the airport. “It has all those stickers on it, right? The hippie ones?”

I nod. My voice cracks as I gesture to the screen above the belt. “It says they’re about to unload bags for the next flight.”

Finn must be able to tell I’m about to start panicking, because when he speaks again, his voice is level. Soothing. “We’ll figure this out. It’s happened to me dozens of times, and the airline’s always been able to find it. Almost all bags eventually get returned to their owners.”

I’m not sure if he’s right and I don’t love the eventually, but at least I don’t have to deal with this alone. First, we check the other carousels to see if my bag somehow wound up there—no luck. Then we make our way to the airline desk, where I present my luggage ticket and a woman dressed in a bright blue skirt suit looks it up on her computer.

“Hmm,” she says, typing away. “It says it left Phoenix, but I’m not seeing it show up in our system here yet. Might have been a scanning error...” A sheet of paper is shoved toward me. “You’ll have to fill out this report.”

I scribble down the bag’s details.

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