Page 49 of A Toast for Laurent

“I got you coffee.” She motioned to the large coffee on the table in front of her.

“What the fuck?” I all but barked.

Her head tilted in a show of innocence, but there was nothing innocent about this. “Why are you cursing? It’s barely seven am.”

“I don’t know, maybe because I woke up to an empty fucking bed. I thought you ran off on me again.”

“I didn’t.”

“Then why can’t you look at me when you say it?”

She bit her lip, but quickly released the plump flesh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She met my gaze. “It’s early, and we have a long drive back. Sit, drink some coffee.”

I plopped into the chair across from her, urging my body to calm the hell down, even if I didn’t believe a word coming out of her mouth. She was being far too cordial.

“It looks like there isn’t much traffic yet, so if we get on the road soon, we can be home by early afternoon.”

“Then let’s go.” I swiped the coffee off the table and headed over to check out, handing in my key.

Despite what Phoebe’s app had said, we hit traffic. A shit ton of traffic. It was the longest car ride of my life. Every time I tried to talk, Phoebe hit me with her niceties, making me want to jump out on the highway to escape the nightmare.

I gave up on talking, and we fell into an uncomfortable silence that felt as if it would suffocate me. Unable to stand another second, I’d put music on, but it didn’t help. My eye kept catching on Phoebe fidgeting, which she did a lot of. It was almost as if she too had thought about jumping out of the car, and was trying to keep herself from following through.

We arrived at the resort after two, and I pulled into a spot. I unclipped my belt.

“You don’t have to walk me in,” she said, clearly wanting to get rid of me.

I ignored her and got out of the car. I adjusted the cuffs on my sleeves and met her at the trunk, where I retrieved her luggage.

“You can leave that here. I’ll send the bellhop out to grab them with a cart.”

“I can manage a few bags.”

“It’s fine.”

I grabbed her wrist as she went to wave me off. “What’s going on? And don’t tell me nothing or try to change the fucking subject.”

She snapped her hand out of my grasp. “Can you stop being so paranoid? There’s nothing wrong. We had a late night. I was up early. I’m tired.”

“You could have slept in. You didn’t have to take off the way you did.”

“Oh, so that is what this is about. You’re mad I wasn’t there to suck your cock this morning.”

“What the—?” I closed the gap between us. “Actually no. Because apparently every time you go near my cock, I lose you.”

“Look, Laurent. We’ve had a long weekend. We’re both tired. Why don’t we go our separate ways and reconvene after we’ve had some rest and time apart?”

“Time apart is the last thing we fucking need.” She was just trying to get rid of me, so she didn’t have to tell me whatever was bothering her.

“Please.” The word was a plea, and never being able to deny her, I backed down. “I’ll call you.”

“Will you?”

“I will. Promise.” She kissed my cheek, hesitated, then hurried off into the resort. I waited until the bellhop came for her bags, then I got in my car and headed to see a friend.

I needed a drink, something stronger than wine, and there was only one place where I could get that. I pulled into Three Barrell Distillery and threw my car in park.

Jack, Brady’s two-year-old Australian Shepard mix he adopted from the local animal shelter greeted me at the door. The brown, white, and black pup went everywhere with Brady.

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