Page 145 of Hayden's Stalker

“Oh, it’s just there.” Tati points to her left, where the room sits empty since she stopped sleeping in it.

“Do you mind if I have a peek inside? I’m so curious what it’s like!” Heather takes a sip of her drink.

“Tatiana might not want you looking through her room, angel,” Harrison laughs as he comes back from handing a drink to Sebastian.

Tati shrugs. “I don’t mind.”

She opens the door nearby, and Heather peers inside at the barren room before she laughs, “Wow, Tati. You must be as big a neat freak as Harrison is.” She doesn’t wait for a response from Tati before she turns to me. “Are you going to show me this fancy bath of yours?”

Tati’s eyes go wide behind Heather at the same time as I realize that my room is full of Tati’s stuff. There was no issue with Heather looking into Tati’s ‘room’ because there was literally nothing of hers in there to see. I can’t believe we both fell for this casual request, especially me.

“Oh, sure. Just give me a minute. I actually need to make use of the bathroom.” I laugh as I say it.

“Make use of the bathroom, or clean your dirty underwear off the floor?” Heather teases me.

“No comment,” I grin at her, then turn and quickly head toward my bedroom.

“Bottle of water for you, Tati?” Harrison asks.

“Yes, please,” she says, and thanks him as I walk away.

As I’m entering my room, Heather calls out, “April, can you come here, please?”

Shit.

Tati did fine with being around April earlier, but I know she’ll be on edge with everyone being in our space. Adding talkingto April into the mix will make that worse, no doubt. I close the bedroom door and assess the room. I snatch up some of Tati’s clothes and shove them into a drawer, smoothing out the bedclothes because we didn’t make the bed, and it’s obvious that two people were in it earlier.

When I head into the bathroom, the first thing I see is Tati’s toiletries bag on the vanity. I stuff all of her things into it, then do the same with her makeup bag. I grab the shower gel she uses and put everything in one of the highest cupboards and push it all the way to the back so Heather won’t be able to see it on the off chance she decides to open it and look inside.

I leave all my stuff out but neaten it up, so it looks like that’s what I came in here to do before I head back out of the room. I find Tati looking stressed and standing with Harrison, Heather, and April, who indeed joined them after I left.

I smile at the group and say, “Okay, you want the grand tour?”

“I’ll just head to my room if you’re okay with your friends, Hayden?” Tati asks me.

I dislike this, though I’m sure she’ll be more comfortable. It feels strange not to have my partner hanging out with friends. I also know that unlike when Blake used to avoid them, this will be because she’s worried about trying to keep our relationship a secret.

I frown at her as I nod. “Of course you can.”

She says goodnight to everyone, then turns and walks into her old room, closing the door behind her.

We all watch her leave before Heather turns to me. “I hope we didn’t offend her or something.”

“No, it’s fine. Tati gets on edge during the concerts, so she probably just wants to relax without having to socialize.”

“Makes sense. Can we see the bath now? April wants to look at it, too,” Heather says.

April smiles at me. “I’msocurious what it’s like. I’m thinking about getting one on my bus.”

“You won’t regret it,” I assure her. “It’s absolutely amazing to get into a hot bath after a concert.”

“I can imagine.”

I lead the three of them through my room, running my eyes around it as we pass through, grateful that I didn’t miss a pair of Tati’s panties or anything. We enter the bathroom, and all three of them gasp.

“Holy fuck, this is awesome,” Harrison says.

“No kidding,” April agrees.

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