Page 114 of One Life to Loathe

“You can’t just let yourself into a guest’s room,” I croaked. I’d been crying all night and sounded as if I was close to dying.

Daisy eyed me with an emotion I couldn’t quite identify—was that pity or annoyance?—and then moved to the side of the bed. There, she had to move one of Leo’s shirts because he’d left it behind and I’d spent the night sniffing it like a big loser to get comfortable.

“I’m not in the mood to be lectured,” I grumbled as I tugged the covers over my head again.

“I know you’re not, but that’s exactly why I’m here.”

She managed to catch me off guard with her response. “Are you seriously here to lecture me?” I pinned her with a hopeless glare when I jerked down the covers. “Aren’t friends supposed to coddle other friends when they have to deal with broken hearts?”

“Do you have a broken heart?” She got comfortable on the side of the bed Leo had been using to sleep. It bothered me to see someone else there, although I couldn’t exactly boot her from the room since the hotel belonged to her fiancé.

“What do you think?” I was sullen and looking forward to feeling sorry for myself for the foreseeable future.

“I think you’re being a bit of a baby actually.”

The rebuke hurt. “Well … thank you for that. I can’t tell you how good that makes me feel.”

“You’re not going to feel better if you stay in bed for the rest of your life.”

“It hasn’t even been a full day.”

“And it’s time to get up.” Daisy was firm. “You need to shower—you smell like a moldy jockstrap—and you have to get to set in two hours.”

“I’m thinking about calling in sick.”

“No you’re not.”

“Um … yes I am. Look at me.” Even risking a glance at myself in the mirror across from the bed was torture. My eyes were red rimmed and puffy. My hair looked as if rats were using it as a nest. Leo had essentially run me over with a truck, and I was roadkill.

“Stop it.” Daisy got up from the bed and moved toward the bathroom. “You need to shower.”

I glared at her. “You’re not nearly as sympathetic as I was expecting you to be.”

“If you shower, I’ll be sympathetic when you’re done.”

Even though I wanted to continue feeling sorry for myself, she was right. I wasn’t going to call in sick—that’s not who I was—and I needed to get it together. “Fine.” I stomped into the bathroom with as much dignity as I could muster and slammed the door. “No need to hang around,” I called back to her through the wood.

She didn’t respond, so I had no idea if she was still in the room when I finished with my shower. I stayed under the pulsing hot water for longer than normal, and I was feeling halfway human when I emerged. There I found Daisy had tidied everything up and even stripped the bed.

“Where’s the bedding?” I asked dumbly.

“I threw it in the hallway and had housekeeping pick it up,” she replied. “I figured it was better to get rid of anything that smelled like Leo.”

I was taken aback. “How did you know?”

“Because we’re not that different.” She sat at the small table against the wall and eyed me. “You look better. Your eyes are still a little puffy.”

I instinctively reached up to touch them. “I don’t know what to do about that. I’m going to look awful for filming.”

“I’m having cucumber slices sent up.” As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it.” She was all smiles as shebounced to the door and accepted the plate that was handed to her. “Get comfortable.”

I looked around. “Where?”

“You still have the bed. They’ll put new bedding on as soon as you leave.”

I flopped down on the mattress pad and was still as Daisy placed cucumber slices over my eyes. I wasn’t surprised when she sat next to me again.

“So, I saw Leo,” she started.

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