8 Samantha
8
SAMANTHA
I AM SO , so, so sorry.”
The manager had been apologizing to us for a solid five minutes. “Please, let me give you some gift certificates or…”
I grabbed my phone from the locker while Xavier told her in his scary calm but definitely disappointed in you voice that this could have had serious repercussions had one of us had medical issues.
My phone had thirty missed calls. I texted Jeneva I’m alive, I’m fine, I got locked in an escape room.
Then I looked at the time. It was almost 5:00 a.m. My flight was in two hours.
“We have to go,” I said, looking up. “Now. I can still make it.”
The manager followed us out, pleading with us to let her make it right.
“Train your staff,” Xavier said flatly. “And fix the door, you shouldn’t be able to lock it.”
“Yes. Absolutely,” she said, nodding while she ran after us. “Is there anything else I can do?”
He stopped and looked at her. “Actually there is.”
I held the lava lamp he made her give me in my lap the whole way back to my apartment.
When we got there I ran in, Xavier on my heels.
“I have to take a quick shower,” I said, already pulling his hoodie over my head while he stood in my living room looking around in bewilderment.
“Where is your furniture?” he asked.
“I don’t have any.”
Pooter came running out of my room and he picked her up.
“Her gabapentin is in the kitchen,” I said, darting to the bathroom. I closed the door, finished stripping, and started brushing my teeth while the water heated up. Then I jumped in and took the fastest shower I’d ever had in my life while I swished mouthwash. I didn’t really have time for any of this, but I’d rather miss my flight than wear the dirt from the floor of the escape room to California.
I came out a few minutes later with my only towel wrapped around me. Xavier was in my room.
“Your bed is an air mattress,” he said.
“I know. Can you deflate it for me while I get dressed?”
I didn’t wait for his reply. I shoved my dirty clothes into the suitcase I’d been living out of, I grabbed a clean outfit, and sprinted back to the bathroom.
When I was done I took everything on the sink and put it in my luggage, including the wet towel. I dumped out my water bottle and put the succulent he gave me inside it, pot and all, and I screwed on the lid. By the time I was done with this, the air mattress was almost flat. I threw myself on top of it to press out the last of the air, beating it down and folding it in half and then in half again while Xavier held my cat and watched me like I’d lost it.
When it was compressed I put it in the empty luggage next to my open one. I shoved in my pillow and blankets, grabbed the charger from the wall and put it in my purse, zipped everything, and I was ready to go. The only thing left in the whole apartment was Pooter’s litter box, two paper bowls I was using to feed and water her, and some iced coffee in the fridge. The cleaning lady would take care of that stuff. My whole life was packed into two bags.
I panted, standing next to my luggage. “Ready.”
He blinked at me. “Are you moving?”
“Yes.”
He paused. “To where?”
It was a long moment before I replied. “California.”