Page 94 of The King of Halloween
In his most determined voice, Adam said, “Knock, knock.” Then he walked around the corner.
Raj sat up. There weren’t any comical bandages around his head, though he held an ice pack to the back of his skull while wincing. His narrowed, pain-filled eyes drifted up to Adam.
Panic set in. “I just… I wanted to stop by and see if you were okay. And you seem to be, so I should let you heal. Or do you need me to call your partner to pick you up? No. You can do that. It’s fine.” With that, he spun in place, ready to bolt.
“Adam.” Raj grunted, and he swung his legs off the bed. “Wait.”
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be up? Should you be up?” Dear lord, he was acting more flustered than a newborn father.
Raj clenched his jaw as he put his weight down, but he got to his feet without tumbling backward. “It’s fine.”
“You passed out. You hit your head.”
“I know. I was there.” He lifted the ice pack, then returned it to his head. It was hard to make out the goose egg under his thick hair, but the wince from Raj told him enough.
“Do you need to go to a hospital?”
“No. I’m good. Sore, but a few Advil will help.”
“You passed out,” Adam repeated. “They need to figure out why, so it doesn’t happen again.”
“I didn’t pass out.” Raj fiddled with the top of the ice pack, his breathing heavy. “I fell asleep.”
“You fell asleep mid-berating me?” Adam scoffed. To his shock, Raj winced.
“I knew I’d been working myself ragged to get the hotel working, the haunt running, the dance…dancing. I thought a few missed nights here and there were normal. I’d done it before. I could do it again.”
Raj took a shuddering breath, and it took everything in Adam to not run over and take him in his arms. “The crunch is different when you’re sharing the stress of failure.”
“I’m sorry,” Adam said.
“No. I…I shouldn’t have yelled at you. Certainly not in the middle of the parade.” Raj pulled a face. “Your big moment.”
“It’s fine. We have them all the time. It’s like Disney World but with literal instead of economic vampires.”
Raj’s triumphant rise to his feet ended in him swaying, then buckling right back down to the cot. “I thought I could do this. On my own. Prove myself, make something of myself that a random exec in a C-suite couldn’t destroy with a slice of his pen.”
“But you did,” Adam exclaimed.
Raj swung his head up and stared at him. “We’re booked through March. We’re getting summer weddings out of nowhere. That’s not me. It’s you.”
“No, it isn’t. Raj, all I did was show a couple of people your website. Mention the ballroom, talk about the haunt, your props.”
“You’re telling me none of those people expect a fifty percent discount on costumes because they stayed at my hotel?” he damn near scoffed.
“Okay, maybe ten percent, but only on masks and wigs. They have some of the highest markups.”
Raj chuckled to Adam’s bewilderment. Uncertain where to go, and feeling more awkward the longer he stood, Adam perched on the cot near Raj but not close. “I didn’t even think it worked.” He’d spent days traveling not just across Anoka but down to the Twin Cities, using all the people he’d worked with over the years to gas the place up. Raj glanced over at him, and Adam shrugged. “You never texted to thank or yell at me.”
“I was so busy…” he muttered, massaging his forehead.
“I guess, maybe I hoped that if I took enough pressure off, you might…want to see me again. That if your hotel survived, you wouldn’t leave. If I got enough people to go and see how wonderful it was, I… Anoka wouldn’t lose you.” Adam gritted his teeth and turned to face the wall. “That was so fucking pathetic.”
“Adam…”
Warmth glanced across his fingers, but he couldn’t face the man touching him. Though he did curl his pinkie around the touch being offered. Those damn tears rose, and he started to shake.
“It’s fine.” He swallowed, fairly certain he could keep himself from crumbling to ash until this was over. “You wanted casual. I don’t expect anything more. Just two guys touching…base whenever they get a second. Easy. Nothing more.”
