Page 31 of Falling for Grace

How. Dare. They.

I bat them away with my hand. “No. NO, I love the toilet,” I grumble.

“Jesus, Ben, come and help me, she’s hugging it like it’s a teddy bear.”

I hear a snort and then Ben’s shadow falls over me. I’m assuming it’s Ben’s shadow. I’m not that well acquainted with it.

“Come on, sleeping beauty, let’s get you tucked up into bed.”

“No, you’re the secret man. You try to make people tell their secrets. I don’t want to tell you my number one secret. My number one secret is for Brandon and me.”

Oh God, Brandon.

“Phone…phone,” I mutter as Ben picks me up. “You’re strong.” I’ve forgotten entirely about my phone. I’m too busy squeezing Ben’s arm muscles. He’s solid. And very attractive.

Why do I not give men chances? Brandon has totally ruined me.

Stupid Brandon.

“If it wasn’t for my number one secret, Ben, you and I could totes do the dirty.” I waggle my eyebrows at him. He looks down at me and smiles, his soft chuckle making my body move in his arms.

His strong arms.

“I’d love to do the dirty with you, but--and don’t take this personally—you have vomit in your hair and I’m fairly sure you may pass out and that could be considered inappropriate.”

“Ahhhh, that’s such a shame,” I say, smacking his chest.

“Hello.” Theresa's voice draws my attention and I peer over Ben’s shoulder and see Theresa holding the phone.

“This is her roommate, Theresa. No, she’s pretty smashed. Yup. Ya-huh. I’m sorry, who am I talking to? Caller ID has you as B.”

If I could vomit again I would. Has he been on the phone the whole time? I know I connected with him when I was sick (classy) but I thought I hung up again.

Oh God.

This is mortifying.

Did I ramble? I’ve been rambling. What if I rambled and he was listening?

“Yeah, I’ll get her to call you. Okay, not tomorrow, but the next day. Yeah, sure. Okay, thanks for talking her through her vomming session… Ha ha. You’re funny... Sounds like you and I need to chat so you can tell me some of her stories.”

Ben places me softly on the bed and shuts the door.

“Where are your PJs?” he asks, watching me as I attempt to pull off one of my boots.

“Anything to see me naked… You should be ashamed of yourself, Ben the Secret Keeper.”

He laughs again, and I point to the drawer. He pulls out a blue top and pastel striped shorts.

“Here you go, drunken one.” He turns around like the perfect gentleman, and I lie back on the bed to try to undo the buttons of my jeans to pull them down.

Ah, my bed, it’s so comfortable…it’s so warm…and my button is so hard to undo… I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute…

Sunlight, I can feel sunlight.

It’s warming me. No. No, it's not, it’s burning my skin. It's like I’m a vampire and I want to hiss at the very thing that could end me… Except I’m not a vampire.

I’m human, and I’m just horrendously hung over.

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