Page 110 of Debugging Love

I spin around and dry off with my back facing him, my focus shifting from the empty hot tub to the floor and then back again.

“Morgan and Drew already went up,” I say.

I hear the flapping of terry cloth as Chance dries his hair. When he’s done, I veer around him with my eyes fixed on the floor, and quickly slide on my clothes. We toss our towels into the receptacle and then Chance opens the door for me.

The lobby is frigid, which is just what I need. It cools my face and my adrenaline as we head to the elevator. We rideup in silence, Chance leaning against the back wall, while I wait impatiently for the door to open. I reach my door first and knock. Morgan took our key card down. I left mine on the dresser.

A few seconds later I stick my eye on the peephole and knock again. Beside me, Chance is having better luck. It helps that he brought his key card.

“Night, Danni,” he says before disappearing into his hotel room.

“No!” a voice calls from the darkness, curiously similar to Drew’s when someone questions his code.

Chance reappears in the hallway looking two shades lighter. He looks at me wide-eyed and gaping, and then turns back toward his room. “I need my–”

His bag flies out of the room and hits him in the stomach. Seconds later, a suitcase rolls into the hallway. And then another. The door slams in his face, and Chance, still lighter than usual, flits his eyes from me to his luggage and then back at me again.

A shuffling noise directs both of our eyes to the bottom of the door. My room key slides through the crack.

Chance

“What now?” Danni asks.

“We leave them alone.”

Danni peers down the long hallway that’s carpeted with a muted geometric pattern. Her eyes travel back to me. “I mean,theyhave the room with two beds.”

Of course I know this. It was the first thing I thought of when Drew slammed the door in my face. And I don’t have a solution. I just know sharing a bed with Danni seems improper. “I could sleep in the van.”

“You’d wake up with whiplash and have to wear sweatpants around your neck.”

“I could sleep on the floor?”

Danni thinks a moment and then squeezes her eyes shut.

“Intrusive thoughts?”

She nods. “I can see everything that’s happened on that floor, including, but not limited to vomit, toddler accidents, and adult things that leave a sticky mark. Mostly that last one.”

“Luckily it’s fake wood so they can sanitize it.”

“But do they, though?”

“I’m willing to risk it.”

Danni looks uncertain, but she nods. I guess we’re sharing a room. She grabs one of my suitcases. I grab the other and we roll them to her door. I hover the card in front of the scanner until I hear the click and then we reluctantly enter.

The rumors are true. There’s only one bed. And a table and two chairs next to the window and all the other standard amenities. I roll over to the window and stare at a chair because I don’t know what to do with my body.

“Um. I’m going to shower,” Danni says behind me.

I spin around to take her in. The wet hair, water-stained joggers, the clear complexion. It all comes flooding back. The way she looked in that two-piece, her abs slightly defined. Her weight on my shoulders, her soft legs pressing against my chest, begging me to run my hands down them.

I was a gentleman. I held on to her only to keep her from falling. But then my foot slipped, which gave me an excuse to grab her tight waist and pull her out of the water, the two of us face-to-face, dripping wet and out of breath.

“Okay, then,” she says, waking me up from my Danni daydream.

How long was I staring at her? The two of us are sharing a room and I’m acting like a creeper. Not a good way to start this off. “Enjoy,” I say, trying to stay casual even though she has me feeling anything but.

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