Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ATHENA
My head throbbed. I fluttered my eyes open and placed my palm flat against my forehead in hopes that the pain would go away and I could sink back under the blankets with Charlie and waste the day away before we took a red-eye home tonight.
Sunlight blared into the room, only making my headache worse.
Why did I drink so much last night? And how’d we make it back up here?
The last thing I remembered was promising Charlie that we’d have one more drink last night while dancing at that club. After that, I must’ve blacked out or something because I couldn’t remember shit.
Someone knocked on the door. “Room service.”
Room service?
I glanced at Charlie, who was still fast asleep, mouth half open and snoring. I hadn’t ordered anything, and from what I could tell, Charlie hadn’t either. Unless he had forgotten about it and gone back to sleep.
“Mr. and Mrs. Easton?” a female voice said from outside, giving another knock.
Mrs. Easton?
Warm, fuzzy feelings exploded through me, and I slipped out of the bed and grabbed my robe that I had thrown across my suitcase yesterday morning. After tying it around my waist, I padded to the door and looked through the peephole.
A maid stood outside with a cart of trays and coffee.
I unlocked the door and peeked my head out. “Yes?”
“Mrs. Easton, we have the room service that you ordered.”
“Oh, um …” I glanced over my shoulder at Charlie, who stirred on the bed, his body shifting underneath the blankets. “We didn’t order anything.”
“You and your husband ordered late last night at the front desk,” she said. “I was told that you wanted it delivered at nine a.m.” She opened a notebook and flipped to a page. “Chocolate milk, coffee, a platter of fruit, blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, and eggs.”
“Wow,” I whispered. “We must’ve been hungry.”
Or really, really, really drunk.
“Will it be charged to the room?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, I guess we’ll take it then.”
She moved the cart toward the door, and I took the hint to open it wider. I really didn’t want anyone in the room with us, especially with Charlie half naked on the bed. But this should be quick, right?
After placing all the trays and containers onto the dresser, she pushed the cart back toward the door.
“The hotel would like to provide you with a complimentary bottle of champagne as well,” she said, reaching to the bottom of the cart and pulling out champagne at nine o’clock in the morning. “Congratulations.”
“Huh?” I asked, brows furrowed.
Instead of answering, she wheeled out the cart and started down the hallway. I peered out of the room and stared at her in complete confusion while clutching the bottle.
What the heck is this for?
“Athie?” Charlie mumbled from the bed. “Who was that?”
I twirled around and shut the door behind me, placing the champagne on the dresser. “One of the maids delivering room service that we apparently ordered last night. She also gave us a bottle of champagne. Do you remember ordering anything?”
“I don’t remember anything from last night,” he murmured against the pillow.
My phone buzzed.
Heather: WHY ARENF’T YOU ANSWERRING!!!!!
Heather: WE NEEF TO KNOW THE DEETS ASAP!!!
My eyes widened at the many, many, many messages that I had received from the group chat. There were at least a hundred of them—half from Heather, misspelling words, and none of them clear about what was going on.
Another message from Sierra.
Sierra: AND THE VIDEO?!
Evelyn: Not sure if you meant to upload it, but it was hooooot.
Oh fuck.
“Hey, Charlie,” I whispered, heart pounding so loudly that I could hear it in my ears.
Charlie turned over in the bed, facing me, fluttering open his pretty blue eyes.
My mouth dried. “We didn’t happen to record a video last night, did we?”
Charlie shot up straight, eyes wide, and grabbed his phone. “God, I don’t remember.”
I opened all my social media and thankfully didn’t see anything, but I could barely see anything with how many more messages kept coming in. One after another after another. Heather. Heather. Heather. Sierra. Heather. Evelyn. Sun. Heather.
More and more group chat notifications popped up, then a direct message from Sun.
Sun: Is it true???
Me: I’m so confused. What happened? I just woke up.
Sun: You don’t know?!
Gosh, someone please tell me what’s going on!
Me: No!
Sun: Charlie—or someone—posted a video of you guys last night.
Me: Where???
I needed to know so we could get that down ASAP if it was on his social media. I was fine if we were streaming live, but I didn’t remember shit about what had happened in whatever video that we must’ve posted.
“Athena,” Charlie said.
As soon as my full name left his mouth, I snapped my gaze to him. He always called me by a nickname unless it was something serious, and by the wide-eyed look he was giving me right now, something had happened.
“What?” I asked, crawling onto the bed next to him to look at his phone.
Oh God, if we uploaded a video when we were both drunk off our asses last night …
The most I could do was hope that it didn’t show either of our faces.
When I looked over his shoulder, there wasn’t any video on his screen. I could only see his reflection on the black screen. But Sierra had mentioned a video, and by the way the girls kept blasting up my phone all morning … there had to be something, right?
“What’s going on?” I asked again.
“Do you remember anything about last night?”
“No,” I said, grabbing my head. “I drank way too much.”
Charlie dropped his gaze to my lap. “Your hand.”
“My hand?” I asked, glancing down at them. My eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
A diamond sparkled on my left ring finger.