Page 168 of Five Mountain Daddies

15

Cora

When I get back to the room with Kristi, I fall asleep almost immediately. I can’t believe how tired I am, but it comes on me like a wave. Kristi’s still snoring away soundly, so I don’t worry aboutthat.

In the morning, I wake up to the sound of someone in the bathroom. It takes me a second before I figure out that it’s Kristi, and she doesn’t sound good. I sigh and stretch, trying to recall the dream I was having: something about Wyatt, his hands on mybody.

I climb out of bed, get dressed, and go to the door of the bathroom. I knock softly. “Are you okay?” I callout.

More retching. I realize she’s getting sick. It takes a second before she can respond. “Fucking fine,” shesnaps.

I stand there and wait. I hear the toilet flush, some coughing, and finally the sink water runs. After another couple minutes, she emerges, looking likeshit.

She grimaces at me. “Good morning,” she says. “Fuckingasshole.”

She stumbles past me and over to her bed. She collapses and groans a little bit, but at least she seemssober.

“Are you okay?” I ask heragain.

“I’m fine.” She rolls over and looks at me. “This is what happens when I don’t getit.”

It takes me a second to realize she mean heroin. She’s coming down and starting to detox, which is prettybad.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll be functional for the next day. Tonight though…” She justshrugs.

I look at the floor awkwardly. “Do you, uh, needanything?”

“Yeah, my fucking drugs.” She glares at me. “But we both know that’s not happening. Your cop boyfriend is really fucking me, youknow?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I saystupidly.

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay. Whatever. Are we almost done withthis?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Let me shower. I’ll go get him when I’mdone.”

“Fine.” She rolls over and pulls the covers over herhead.

I go into the bathroom. It smells faintly of antiseptic and vomit, which is pretty unpleasant. I brush my teeth and take a quick shower before putting back on my same wrinkled clothes from the daybefore.

When I get out of the bathroom, Wyatt’s sitting on my bed. He turns and grins at me. “Morning,” hesays.

“Morning,” Isay.

Kristi glares at me but doesn’t sayanything.

“We’re getting breakfast.” Wyatt stands up. “Youhungry?”

“Sure.”

“Good.” He turns to Kristi. “Come on, get up,” hesays.

She groans but does as he says. He winks at me as he goes to the door and Kristi follows. I can’t help but notice that she doesn’t bother showering or anything, and she’s starting to smell a little bit ripe. I guess she doesn’tcare.

I follow them out the door. We head down to the main floor of the casino and toward the back where we find this diner-style restaurant tucked in behind some slots. The casino itself is already busy, and I’m betting a lot of those people haven’t gone to sleep yet from the night before, but I don’t really care. I’m too busy watchingWyatt.

He seems energized today. Maybe I can’t blame him. Last night was… incredible. I don’t have another word for it. That just happened, intense and passionate, and it felt so perfect in the moment, even if it was probably pretty wrong. But it was inevitable, I realize suddenly. We’ve been trying to avoid this tension between us, but we can’t just ignore it entirely forever. Sooner or later, it’s going to bubble over and claim us, and last night was just thestart.

There’s more to come, I just know it. I don’t know how, and I know I shouldn’t, but I know I can’t stop it. I can’t stopmyself.

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