Chapter Sixteen #2
Fuck Roger’s favor, bitch. My tongue itches to bite back with that, but Roger doesn’t deserve my harsh words. He seemed to be a good man. Kelly’s probably a good woman too. But I don’t take kindly to people disrespecting my family.
“How about I take you up to your rooms and get you settled?” Slater urges us to the stairs and I look back at Kelly, who’s watching us closely.
He continues, “So, you missed breakfast obviously, but it’s served at 9:00 a.m. every morning.
Dinner is served at 6:00 p.m. each night and tonight we’re having lasagna.
It’s family-style, so we all sit at the table together, but no pressure to join.
I know you didn’t get the warmest welcome. ”
“That’s not your fault,” Micah excuses.
“No, but still. Um, okay, Dani, this is your room. And Micah, your room is just down the hall. I’ll walk you there next.”
“Thank you.” I’m ready to get inside and decompress for a bit.
“Just so you know,” Slater says before I can step into my room. “I always liked Tanya. She was really nice to me. Uncle Roger would be glad you’re here.”
Once I’ve showered off my attitude, I’m debating if I want to look for a snack and risk running into Kelly, when there’s a knock on my door.
Without a doubt, I know I’ll find Micah on the other side.
“How did I know you’d come find me?”
“I expected you’d have some sort of plane odor you wanted to wash off, so I gave you some time, but do you wanna go out with me?”
“Go where?” I was in the middle of applying lotion to my legs so I go back to doing just that, but now the simple task feels far too intimate with him here.
His eyes follow every swipe of my hand hungrily.
It’s not an obvious hunger. If I didn’t already know what Micah looks like when he’s trying to control himself, I might’ve missed it.
But I do know, and the desire to tease him into action keeps growing stronger.
“I know we should be visiting that house or looking for our next clue, but you said you’ve never really been to Chicago before, right?” he asks once I’ve broken the trance by putting my lotion back on the nightstand.
“I did.”
“How’d you like to be a proper tourist?”
Absolutely, yes. I don’t even care where we’re going. If I’m going to keep resisting the temptation that is Micah, then we need to get far away from places with doors and beds.
“Thank you for today. I do feel like a proper tourist,” I say, carrying the bear Micah made me at the Build-A-Bear at Navy Pier. He’s decked out in all Chicago gear, which means absolutely nothing to me, but he’s adorable and I’ve named him Chauncey.
Micah chuckles beside me as we climb the stairs to our rooms to change. “You should. You’ve done every touristy thing imaginable.”
I tip my imaginary hat to him. “I hope ol’ Kelly’s lasagna is good because we could’ve had dinner at the John Hancock.” Having dinner with that view would’ve been unreal, but I didn’t want to let Slater down.
Micah licks his lips, leaning against my door and giving me his rapt attention. “Did you smell all those spices when we walked in? That lasagna gonna be bussin’. So you think you’d wanna come back here?”
“To Chicago? Yes. To the Lennox? Mmm, jury’s still out.” It depends on the treatment we get from Kelly tonight.
“Noted,” he affirms.
I probably will always associate Chicago with Micah now, but I find that I don’t mind that so much. We are friends, after all.
Dinner with Slater, Kelly, and the rest of the guests is enjoyable. Kelly gives us a wide berth, while Slater naturally commands the attention of everyone with his charm.
After dinner, some of the guests decide to watch TV while others go back to their rooms. I pull Slater aside before I lose track of him. “Hey, would you be free tonight?”
“Oh? What’d you have in mind?” His eyes trail my body for far too long.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s definitely attractive, but I’ve got too much on my plate right now. “Sorry, I meant to meet up with me and Micah.” That didn’t come out right either.
“I could be into that,” he says.
“God help me.” I tell him about the documentary for Tanya before any more images of having Slater and Micah at the same time can cloud my mind and my judgment.
He accepts my offer to be part of the documentary but agrees it’s for the best that Kelly not know about it.
The three of us meet by the fire pit once most of the guests have gone to bed. The light from the fire adds an old-school camp aesthetic to the video that I think Tanya would love.
“Did you and Tanya keep in touch?” I ask once the camera is rolling.
“Oh, yeah. She even came to my college graduation. She sat in the way, way back because she knew my mom would be upset about her being there, but she didn’t wanna miss it. She was good people.”
“And what about the house? You didn’t want it for yourself?” Tanya never used it. At the very least, I’m surprised Kelly didn’t demand she release it to the family.
“No.” He waves me off. “Uncle Roger got that house for her. It could only ever be hers. I did offer to maintain it for her, though, in case she came back.”
“Meaning?”
“All the least fun parts about homeownership. I made sure it stayed clean, got repairs when things started to wear down from age, kept the grass cut. Stuff like that.”
“Just because she was nice to you back when you were in college?” At this point, I’ve forgotten about the documentary; I’m genuinely intrigued by the depth of his generosity.
He chuckles. “When you say it like that, it sounds crazy, but yeah. My uncle was the best man I knew, and he loved Tanya with everything in him. Even after she left, he still said her name on his deathbed. And even though she couldn’t give him her heart, she continued to handle his with care, and that’s enough for me. She’ll always be good in my book.”
Once we’re finished recording, Slater bids us a goodnight, the twinkle in his eyes letting me know he’d still be up for what he thought I proposed earlier. I won’t be taking him up on that, but my thoughts keep drifting back to Micah as I lie in my bed.
I’m confident that he’d be better off finding someone else to satisfy his emotional needs, but I can’t help but remember how good we are together sexually.
Why shouldn’t we be able to re-explore each other’s bodies and leave it at that?
What’s the harm in proposing that to him tonight?
What’s the worst that could happen? I mean, I was already humiliated in front of Kelly, so if he rejects my offer, maybe I’ll be able to finally let go of the idea.
I throw on my socks and tiptoe out of my room—avoiding the creaky floorboard I noticed earlier—toward Micah’s door.
I knock as softly as possible, hoping it’s loud enough for him to hear me.
He opens the door in just his briefs.
Yeah. I’m going to fuck the shit out of this man.
“You need something, Dani?” His voice is sinfully scratchy. A voice I have vivid memories of waking up to.
“I do, actually.”
“Wanna come in and tell me what it is?” He rests his hand on the door above his head. He knows what he’s doing.
“Yes.”
As I move to step around him, he lowers his arm to block my entrance. “Be really sure you want to come in here before you do, Storm.”
I’m so fucking sure. I reach for his waist when a loud siren pierces my ears. We both duck and cover our ears.
A fire alarm? At this time of night? That can’t be a random test.
Other guests come trailing out of their rooms in various stages of sleepiness, not paying us a lick of attention as they file down the stairs.
“We should go,” Micah instructs.
How bad do we think the fire really is? No. No. Pull it together.
As we file outside quickly, I catch a glimpse of flames coming from the kitchen. We hear the sound of fire extinguishers well before the fire truck arrives.
One of the guests tells another that someone tried to heat up the leftover lasagna in the microwave without taking it out of its metal tin.
While the firefighters head inside, I see Micah shiver slightly. “Aww, you cold? That’s what you get for coming to your door like a whore,” I mock.
He squeezes my arm. “Mhm, I’ll remember that.”
And I’ll forever remember being clitblocked by a lasagna.
It doesn’t take long for everyone to be allowed back into the house, but Kelly and Slater are waiting for us when we do with solemn faces.
“Sorry for the inconvenience, everyone,” Kelly announces. “The fire is out, but it damaged the kitchen and dining room pretty badly. We won’t have use of the kitchen until repairs are done.”
“Because of that, we’ll be issuing refunds to everyone who wants one. We’re also happy to help you find other accommodations if you’d like. We understand not wanting to sleep with the smell of smoke,” Slater offers in apology.
The crowd takes the news rather well and a couple of the guests even opt to stay.
Before Kelly gets to work with the guests looking for new accommodations, she excuses herself into the kitchen, while Slater starts helping those who need a refund.
I am not a Kelly fan by any means, but the look in her eyes has me following her. I motion for Micah to stay.
What were once beautiful white cabinets are now completely charred.
The microwave is lying face down on top of the melted stove.
The damage stretches across the entire back wall of the kitchen and the dining room as if they had put the fire out and then it caught them off guard and came back with a vengeance.
Kelly is bent forward with her hands on her knees, her cries sounding like dry heaves.
I lift my shirt over my nose and mouth and move closer to her, tapping her on the shoulder. “What can I do?”
She looks stunned to see me. Her lips remind me of a fish the way she opens and closes them multiple times. “I don’t know.” Before I realize what’s happening, she wraps me up in a tight hug, resting her head on my shoulder as the sobs take over her body.