Page 18 of Lost in the Current of You

“No you don’t,” he sang.

“Goodnight, Reece.”

He turned to me, continuing to walk backward as he saluted me.

“So, you came back late,” were the first words that came out of Avery’s mouth during breakfast the morning after. I sat there still half asleep as the observation rolled from her lips as nonchalantly as she could muster.

I had about three hours of restless sleep before Avery was impatiently shaking me awake after her morning run. Surprisingly, Alex was already bright and awake right next to Avery as I blinked the sleep from my eyes, innocently smiling at me with a bag of food in his arms. I should have known Avery would have been impatient to get answers to what happened when I parted ways with them.

Half-lidded and blurry-eyed, I stuffed a mouthful of the breakfast burger in my mouth to avoid the question for as long as I could. But they both sat patiently across from me on the bed, waiting with bated breaths for my answers.

“It wasn’t that late,” I mumbled into my breakfast burger.

“I was almost falling asleep when I heard you open the door. And you know how long it takes me to fall asleep,” Avery stated, an eyebrow raised.

I narrowed my eyes. “I came home just over an hour after you.”

She shrugged. “Still.”

Alex shoved a forkful of food in his mouth before pointing it towards me. “You’re deflecting. Give us the details.”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” I shrugged. “We talked. He walked me back to the hotel. Then he left. That’s it.”

“Did he say why he suddenly disappeared?”

“No,” I half-lied. He told me it was a tough day for him and that he took a phone call with his dad before disappearing which felt too vulnerable to tell Avery and Alex. But then it also sounded very vague when I thought about it. I didn’t know anything about what was going on with him.

He lifted a brow. “That’s it?” I nodded and he slumped into his chair. “You’re no fun.”

I chuckled. “What do you mean? I’m loads of fun.”

He pouted, shoving another forkful into his mouth. “You could have kissed him. Give me something juicy at least.”

I sobered, dropping my burger to take a sip of my coffee. Or more like gulped it down. “That won’t ever be happening.”

He frowned. “Are you okay?”

Yes. No.

I had no clue if anything was okay. God, my life was such a mess. But it didn’t feel as lonely, not after the night before. Reece had his own mess and I wanted so badly to know what was going on with him so I could be there for him and understand him. But he would not have that. A brick wall about ten feet high stopped me from that.

I put on a smile to hide all the thoughts swirling in my head and picked my burger back up. “We hung out, talked, and then he walked me back here. Nothing juicy happened. Sorry to disappoint.”

Alex huffed as he slouched back in his chair. “That’s not exactly what I asked but I’ll let it slide,” he muttered.

That pulled a real smile out of me, but I could still feel Avery burning holes through the side of my head letting me know she had definitely not let it go. I knew later on she would corner me to pry.

“So, I’m thinking we do something together. Just the three of us. Something relaxing.” She flipped her phone towards me, showing me a booking confirmation. “So I booked us a spa day.” Then she narrowed her eyes on Alex beside her. “Don’t even give me that eye roll Alex, I think you will like it. I have been dying to do this all week. I’ve already covered the cost so you have to come. No excuses.”

His hand did a little ‘gimme’ gesture towards Avery’s phone. She handed it over and he scrolled through with a narrowed gaze.

He finally hummed. “Okay, fine. I’ll go. As long as I get a little nap beforehand. You woke me way too early for no reason. This isn’t even until ten o’clock.”

Both Avery and I laughed but agreed to let him have his nap, even though we explained he could nap during the massage included in our package. But he didn’t care, saying two naps in a day was an ideal day for him.

It rolled over to ten o’clock quickly, and our day from then on consisted of saunas, facials, hot stone and head massages, body scrubs, and manicures and pedicures. We thought Alex would grumble about the mani-pedis but he was way too relaxed to even speak a word. He just laid there the whole five hours, letting the therapist pull him every which way.

We were on the beds side by side, with Alex snoozing on my left and Avery on my right, when she decided to interrogate me again.

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