Chapter 16
Mari
I am a husk of my former self.
Car sickness has truly taken any remaining life I had from me. I do a silent prayer of thanks when Kas parks the car next to Bill’s van in the hotel parking lot.
“Thank god,” I groan.
“You good?” Kas asks for what might be the hundredth time today.
I tilt my head back against the headrest and squeeze my eyes shut. “Yeah, I’ll live.”
My stomach aches with a combination of nerves from being so close to Kas for the past five hours and strain from heaving so much.
Puking in front of him was disgustingly intimate. It was like getting too drunk at the club and being looked after by other drunken partygoers in the bathroom after ranting to them about how badly your boyfriend treats you.
Only this isn’t a club bathroom, it’s a fancy car. And Kas isn’t a drunken partygoer, he’s someone I work with who has been privy to my relationship woes.
“Mari, are you doing okay?” Davina asks, her voice muffled as she taps on the window with her long nails.
Kas winds down the passenger and driver windows.
“Yeah, my motion sickness was bad .”
Kas opens his mouth to speak to me, just as Bill sticks his head inside the open window.
“Nice car. Not only is it slower than my van, it also makes women violently ill,” Bill says, chortling loudly at his joke.
It’s the second time I’ve seen Bill this happy. The first was about an hour ago when he honked his horn and laughed so loud, I could hear him from my hunched-over position at the side of the road as he overtook us in the van.
“Funny,” Kas says, rolling the window up to block out Bill.
I exhale a large breath and exit the car. A yawn creeps its way up my throat as I walk through the parking lot. The setting sun paints an orange glow over the asphalt and stepping into the chilled hotel lobby encourages me to rub my arms.
Kas squeezes my shoulder, a reassuring touch that chases away the chill from my skin for just a moment. When I pat his hand back with similar reassurance, he removes it. He’s in conversation with Davina, completely unaware that I can still feel the anchoring imprint of his hand on my skin and the fluttering it’s ignited in my stomach.
“Sin City, baby!” Dash booms no more than two minutes later through the revolving hotel doors. He plants a wet kiss on top of Bill’s bald head, earning himself a light backhand to the face. “I’m surprised your ancient relic with wheels made it,” he says to Bill, who responds with a middle finger.
“She’s done me well. When your car breaks down after two years, don’t come crawling for help.”
“Crawling would still be faster than your giant hunk of shi—”
“Alright, pack it in, guys,” Davina warns, holding four room keys. “Dash, did you manage to check out the gym we’ll be training at considering you’ve checked into your fancy suite already?”
“No, I’m out of working hours right now, Dav. I’m having some leisure time with old friends.” He humps the air and earns himself another smack on the head from Bill.
“Have shame,” Davina says.
“Oi,” Bill calls to Dash, throwing his huge cluster of keys at him. “Our gym equipment is in the van, go drop it at the gym we’re training at so it doesn’t get nicked overnight.”
Dash looks at me with a forlorn expression. “Punished for being on time. Can you believe it?”
“I can believe it. You’re too loud,” Kas says.
Dash mutters something about Kas being an old man like Bill and disappears out of the hotel.
“Okay, guys, we’re all on floor twenty-five. Rooms 1501, 1503, 1512, and 1513.” Davina dishes the keys out randomly in the elevator. “Dash is staying a couple of floors above us.”
Upon reaching our floor, we find that Davina’s and Bill’s rooms are next to the elevator—mine and Kas’s are farther down the hall.
“Ah, look. Neighbors,” I say when we’re in front of our rooms.
The gold-plated numbers shine against the dark wood of the doors as I wait for Kas to say something.
“So—”
“I was just—”
“No, you go,” he says.
“I wanted to say thanks for being there for me with my food stuff yesterday and for being nice about my puke.”
“Anytime,” he says, smiling softly.
My cheeks pool with heat, and I dart into my room. I feel a lot more relieved than I have been this whole week and part of me feels like it’s because Kas is kind of my friend now. I know it’s the bare minimum considering we work together and all.
After a quick bedbug check, I dive onto the bed and close my eyes before I muster up my remaining energy to fetch my luggage. A smile grows across my face and excitement bubbles inside of me. Maybe Vegas won’t be so bad after all.
I stare at the door from on top of the tightly made bed.
Adjoining hotel rooms.
I’ve tried to rationalize it. Maybe there was never a lock on the door to begin with. Maybe Kas won’t barge in and see me butt naked at any given moment; it’s one thing to catch me in the gym’s shower room in my underwear, it’s another to see, well, everything else.
He doesn’t seem the type to walk in unannounced, though. Right? But who’s to say he wouldn’t accidentally do so if we’re here for over a month? He could get blindingly drunk one night and just barge through.
“Relax,” I mutter to myself. “Stop getting anxious about what-ifs and just communicate with him.”
I step over my packed luggage to knock a tune on his—our—door. It pushes ajar into my room and Kas snakes his head around it.
“Hello, Kacper,” I say with unnecessary formality.
He quirks a neat brow. “Hi?”
I step back to allow him to open the door wider. His room is a mirrored version of mine, and a couple of gaming controllers are tangled within a mass of wires sitting on his bed.
“Just wanted to ask how you’re settling in. Pretty well by the looks of it.”
I nod to his gaming stuff and let out a hollow chuckle.
Kas raises an eyebrow at my strained conversation. “You’re being awkward,” he says.
My shoulders drop. “Yeah, dude, listen, I just wanted to set some boundaries regarding our living situation.” I slap my hand twice against the door.
“What boundaries? I’m not going to just walk into your room if that’s what you’re stressing about ... dude.”
“Right, it’d be stupid to assume that you’d just waltz in and catch me naked or something. I’m overreacting, right?”
“You’re overreacting,” he confirms, moistening his rosy bottom lip. “But if you’re uncomfortable about the rooms, I can ask to move.”
“No, we’d have to do some back and forth with the SFL and Davina has enough on her plate.”
“Okay.”
There’s another bout of silence, filled partly by the sound of giggles out in the hall.
“I was going to just suggest that we keep it shut and pretend it’s not there so we don’t see or hear anything we’re not meant to,” I say.
“You’re being weird,” he accuses.
“I’m not being weird.”
He pushes a hand through his messy brown hair. “You think I’m going to perv on you, or have a revolving door of women going directly through your room?”
“Obviously, I don’t think that,” I lie. “Now, do you know if our rooms are soundproof?”
I offer Kas a demure smile and he mirrors it, just before slamming the door in my face.
“What the hell?” I snap.
“I just heard you, and I know you can hear me right now.” Kas’s voice is only a little muffled. “I also heard you talking to yourself before you knocked. Not very soundproof.” He whips open the door. “ Stop getting anxious about what-ifs ,” he repeats from my little pep talk.
Fantastic.
“Okay, well, I’m a light sleeper,” I sputter.
“I wasn’t planning on fucking anyone, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t have time to be interacting with anyone that isn’t part of the fight. Are you?” he asks.
I cock my head and scrunch my nose at him. “The way you immediately jump to assuming I’m talking about doing the deed is fascinating. That’s twice now.” Kas skims his hand over the upper edge of the door so that his fingers sit on my side of it. “Based on the bad soundproofing, you might hear me,” I bluff, shrugging lazily.
Kas looks disgusted, and it’s the most I’ve ever seen his face move.
“I can’t allow that,” he says firmly.
“Oh,” I say through a laugh. “Silly me. I forgot that you disallow me to have autonomy.”
“It’s not professional. You’re here for business.”
Damn it. Maybe I’ve taken the joke too far. I forget that Kas could probably just fire me.
Panic surges up my throat and lands on my tongue. “Right, yeah, sorry. I was joking, by the way.” I motion over my crotch. “The cobwebs shall remain.” Shut up, Mari.
“Have a good night, Mari.” Kas looks seconds away from laughing directly in my face.
“Good night, Kas,” I squeak.
He shuts the door softly between us, and the second he’s out of sight, I shriek into my palm.
I don’t know what’s worse, losing all cool trying to set the most basic boundaries with him, or both of us outing ourselves as the most boring people in Vegas.
It’s probably both. I know it’s both. Or maybe it’s just the first one.
Fuck.