Page 40 of A Lot to Unpack
I let out a long, slow breath. It’s bizarrely relaxing, watching the world go by through the glass – sort of like the chilled-out feeling you get when you visit an aquarium. So much to see, somuch beauty, but nothing really happening. Just the slow and varied passage of time. Something different to see wherever you look, but nothing notable to pay too much attention to.
This really is the holiday of my dreams – except it’s not a holiday, is it? There’s so much I want to do, so many places I want to go, and so much I want to eat. But I can’t, I have to stay hot on Jordan’s heels, hanging around him like a bad smell, to be ready to make the swap whenever the opportunity arises.
I hear a knock. Not on the door, though. On the wall.
‘Hello,’ Jordan says, poking his head through our shared door.
‘Hello,’ I reply, making my way over to him, casually, like I own the place.
‘I’m sorry about… this.’ He nods towards the doorway between us. ‘It must’ve been booked by mistake. Paige wouldn’t put you in such an awkward position on purpose.’
Except she absolutely would. In fact, she’s counting on it.
Still, I smile, like I don’t know any better.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I insist.
‘It locks on both sides,’ he says, fiddling with the latch to demonstrate. ‘So there’s no way either of us can open it without the other person unlocking their door too. It’s basically two separate rooms, in practice. If we keep it shut.’
‘Great,’ I reply. ‘Unless of course you need me for anything…’
He raises an eyebrow.
‘For working in the middle of the night?’ He laughs. ‘I think I’ll manage – but thank you. If we had an employee of the month, you would be well on your way.’
He’s definitely mocking me.
‘I’ll leave you to settle in then,’ he says, backing away.
‘Okay,’ I reply. ‘See you later.’
He closes the door between us. Then I hear the distinct, purposeful sound of it locking on his side. He really doesn’t want this door opening.
I’m coming across as too keen. Too eager to please. I’m probably giving him the ick, by seeming so try-hard.
If Paige thought an adjoining door was going to make this easier – help me to get closer to him, to worm my way into his trust and then his room – she is seriously mistaken.
I lean against the door. Oh, yeah, that is solid. That’s not opening for anyone, unless they open it for me. It’s sort of like… vampires, I guess? They can’t come in on their own, you have to invite them in. Only then can they cross the threshold and bite your neck. Not that I’m planning on biting Jordan’s neck, although I’m not exactly opposed to the idea, in concept. I need to confess something, but we have to keep this between us, because I’m ever so slightly embarrassed by it. I haven’t had sex with anyone since Ben – I haven’t had a date go well enough – and it’s building itself up to be a big deal in my head.
You can’t forget how to have sex, can you? Or, like, your body can’t shut up shop, because it thinks you went sexually bankrupt? I’d say I was asking for a friend but at this point we both know I’m talking about myself. I’m starting to worry I might be allergic to doing the deed, because I seem to find any reason to be put off from going to bed with anyone, and because sometimes I’m so uncomfortable about it I use phrases like ‘doing the deed’. If my ick alarm could go off for myself, I’d probably be deaf by now.
Anyway, I think it’s affecting my brain, firing off signals when I’m around attractive men like Jordan for too long, like my body is asking: why aren’t we pouncing on him? Oh, the audacity of my body, to think it can simply demand whoever it wants.
I’m only here to screw Jordan in one way: sneaking into his room, swapping out the contract, restoring balance, making sure he has no leverage over Paige.
This is going to be so, so much harder than I thought.
15
I’m not sure room service counts as experiencing the local cuisine, I don’t know, maybe it does, but either way, my first taste of New York was exceptional.
The plan was to take it easy after we landed. Get cleaned up, get some rest, try to adjust our body clocks to the new time. I say ‘we’ like we were doing it together. No, that’s what Jordan said he was doing, so that’s what I did too.
So I had some food delivered to my room. I am not exaggerating when I say this: best cheeseburger and fries I’ve ever had in my life, and the hot fudge sundae I had to top it off was perfection too.
And then I laid there, drumming my hands on my bloated stomach, racking my brains for ideas, until I fell asleep. I didn’t have much luck, to be honest with you.
Here’s my thinking… The adjoining door is pretty much a nonstarter. Jordan locked it from his side, loudly and deliberately, after once again reminding me that he didn’t want or need my help. Even if I could get him to open it temporarily, he isn’t going to invite me in, and he definitely isn’t going to sayhe’ll nip out to give me a bit of alone time to rifle through his baggage, is he?
