Chapter Thirteen
“I have to go away,” I tapped into our chat. “It’s for work. Just let yourself in and use the pool whenever while I’m gone.”
It’d been another “fun” day at the office, punctuated today with news that I was going to a conference.
Not something I’d normally look forward to, frankly, and this time was no exception.
The thought of standing in a room full of people, probably wearing a name-badge and feeling awkward.
.. well, it was near to my idea of hell.
If there was a saving grace, it was that everything was so sudden I hadn’t been able to agonize over it on my calendar for weeks. Instead I was looking at last-minute flights and trying to figure out whether I could change a hotel reservation from my sick colleague’s name into my own.
Messaging Kai had been procrastination from that, albeit tinged with actual disappointment that I wouldn’t get to see him for a couple of days. I kept half an eye on my phone as I scrolled through reams of booking Terms and Conditions.
“Why don’t I come with you?”
I stared at his suggestion, surprised. Before I could figure out what to reply, a second message from Kai popped up to follow the first.
“Only if you want, I mean. Just an idea.”
I thumbed the phone unlocked. “I don’t know how much fun it would be for you, I’d be at the conference most of the time.”
He sent back an eye-roll emoji. “You over-estimate how much fun it is living with your parents.”
I smiled. I’d still yet to properly meet Kai’s mom and dad since he and I had started... well, whatever the official term was for what we were doing. It had been a few weeks, of swimming and screwing, and I was no closer to a name for it than that.
“Well okay,” I replied, “but don’t blame me if you get bored.”
The row of grinning faces I got in return implied he didn’t think that was likely.
Claiming the idea of Kai coming with me wasn’t exciting would be a lie.
And, frankly, it was a little nerve-wracking, too.
Aside from that one restaurant, we’d only ever properly interacted while at my place.
That lent all of our time together an odd sense of being divorced from time and space.
A bubble, where I was gradually learning to accept a different type of reality.
Stretching that bubble was a matter of booking him a flight with my airline miles, and if the idea of a 5am pickup for the airport the next morning disgusted him, that wasn’t evident in his texts.
I sent him a link to the hotel’s site, just so he could see where we were staying, and told him I’d see him first thing.
#
To give Kai his due, one minute to the hour he was walking down the side path of his parents’ place, a duffle bag over one shoulder.
“Morning,” he said, yawning.
I found myself leaning in slightly, as though to kiss him, then stopped to glance over his shoulder. There were no lights on in his parents’ house, but that didn’t mean nobody was watching.
“Morning,” I settled on, deflated. Suddenly this whole trip together started to feel like a terrible idea.
Two, nearly three days in each other’s company, sharing a room.
.. it would be the longest we’d been in each other’s presence for, at least in an uninterrupted stretch.
I wasn’t sure whether we were ready to break through our self-imposed isolation and take whatever this was public.
I was just starting to properly spiral when the lights of the cab arced around the corner of the street.
Cool halogen casting a glow down the side of his face.
Every time I felt like I’d seen him at his most handsome, something brought me up short and taught me Kai’s looks could still make the breath catch in my throat.
If I was going to have a terrible, awkward few days, I told myself, it may as well be in the company of the hottest guy to have ever shown an interest in me.
That latter fact kept repeating on me, as we made our way through the airport, through security, and on our way to the gate.
Kai’s easy-going charm almost managing to thaw the TSA agents, or at least as much as you could ever expect from them.
I, meanwhile, was content to watch him being watched by others, and his apparently carefree ignorance at that happening.
I couldn’t really blame them. Gray sweatpants and a pale blue hoodie shouldn’t have been a stand-out outfit, but Kai was the exception to the rule.
“You look really good,” I told him, leaning in close to his ear. I could see a group of girls eyeing us - well, him - from across the concourse.
Kai blinked at me, then pointedly checked his watch. “It’s not even 7:30 in the morning and you’re already horny?” he asked, disbelievingly.
I shrugged, then allowed my gaze to slowly track down his body. Not too tight, not too loose... those sweatpants really did fit in all the right places.
“I was hoping you’d get strip-searched so I could watch,” I muttered, keeping my voice low.
Kai chuckled. “I’m not sure they do it in the middle of the terminal, out in the open.”
“Special request,” I explained, grinning. “Genuine security theater.”
He shook his head. “Oh, well then, in that case,” he agreed, playing along.
“So, what are you going to do while I’m at the conference?” I asked him. I’d checked the schedule and, while it looked like there was a decent amount I could skip out on, I still needed to have at least something to show for my time out of the office.
Kai nudged his bag with his foot. “There’s a pool, and a gym,” he said. “I brought my stuff. Or I could just sit in bed and order room service. Your company is paying, right?”
“Sure, yeah, caviar and champagne,” I agreed, rolling my eyes.
He snorted. “Okay, nachos and soda, maybe.”
“There’s some sort of gala dinner tomorrow night.” I grimaced at the idea of it. “I thought I’d just skip it.”
He glanced over at me. “Or... I could come along too.”
Well, shit. “I don’t think it’s something you’d really want to be dragged to,” I started.
“Are you embarrassed of me?” Kai asked, with a smile.
I shook my head. “More like I’m embarrassed that you’ll see what an incredibly boring industry I work in, and fall asleep at the thought of it whenever we’re together.”
He pulled a face, nodding slowly. “Yeah, I could see how that could be inconvenient.” A pause. “But even so, I think I’ll risk it. I’d like to go.”
It seemed improbable, even with him insisting. “I mean, if you’re sure...” One last opportunity for him to change his mind.
Kai chuckled. “It’s a date.”