Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
I sent Callie back to wherever she goes when she’s not in our mess to retrieve her laptop. It’s funny how I hadn’t really thought about the fact that she has another life somewhere else. She’s become so embedded in my world, I forgot she wasn’t a part of it until two days ago.
She has a story too. Dreams, trauma. Family? I don’t even know. She learned more about me in one conversation than I’ve learned in the entire time I’ve known her. I need to do a better job focusing on her and not getting so wrapped up in my own drama.
I’ve just finished putting in a lunch order when Luke makes his way down the hall.
“I heard the door. She leave?” he asks.
There’s a hint of panic in his tone I know well.
“Just to get her laptop. She’ll be back. Hey, what do you know about her, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“What’s her story? She just drops her life and moves into ours? Who does that? ”
He frowns. “You say that like you don’t trust her. She’s not after anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not. It’s just everything since she’s been here is about us. Don’t you want to know her story as well?”
He shrugs and leans on the counter. “She’s shared some stuff. My honest opinion? I think she’s just as lost as we are. Helping us with our shit is giving her meaning. You see how she is. She needs someone to fix as much as we need to be fixed.”
I stare at my phone as if it’s a sudden link to her. So she was searching for broken souls at the same time we needed an angel. Serendipitous or a cosmic joke? Guess it depends which side of the disaster you’re on.
“You ordering food?” Luke asks, nodding toward my phone.
“Already did. I got you green curry. That okay?”
He lifts a shoulder in agreement.
“What about for Callie?” he asks.
“I got a few things. Figured we could share.”
He nods and moves to the fridge for a sports drink. I feel his gaze on me as he twists off the cap, but pretend to watch my screen. I’m not sure I’m ready for whatever he’s thinking.
“Case?” There’s a crack in his voice that sends a chill through me.
“Yeah?” I say as casually as possible.
I look up and squirm at the way he scans my face, like he’s struggling to say something, and my fingers tighten around the phone.
“You know it’s not your fault, right? If anything ever happened to me… there’s nothing you could have done to stop it.”
I go ice cold.
His haunted eyes slice into me, stripping all words from my head.
He rips his gaze away. “Anyway, I just need you to know that,” he mumbles on his way to the hall .
“Hang on,” I call after him. “Dude, you can’t just say something like that and walk away.”
He turns back, regret all over his face. I hate that it’s probably for opening up to me, not any of the million other things it should be about.
“I know. Forget I said anything.”
Anger rises in me. “Not gonna happen. That’s not something you can take back.”
God, I can’t breathe.
“Luke. Look at me.”
He doesn’t. Only the floor gets his attention.
Rage like I’ve never felt burns through me. “No! You’re gonna listen for once. I don’t know what asinine plan you have in your head, but after all we’ve been through, don’t you dare do that to me,” I seethe. “Don’t you dare leave me alone with that kind of loss! Luke! ”
His gaze lifts for a fleeting brush of mine before landing back on the laminate tiles.
“Say something!” My voice cracks.
He just shakes his head.
Because he doesn’t want to lie to me again.
Because he knows he can’t promise his mind isn’t where I’m terrified it is.
Tears pound the backs of my eyes. My throat closes as my thoughts spiral into chaos. I don’t know what to do, what to say. He needs help, but I don’t know how to help. All I know is that he won’t open himself up to the people who would.
A bang on our door interrupts the suffocating tension.
Relief flashes across Luke’s face when housekeeping calls out, and he flees down the hall, back into hiding.
I remain motionless in the kitchen, staring into the shadows, shaking and lost.
“Housekeeping!” the hotel employee shouts again.
I hear the whir of the lock when the person assumes the place is empty. The door opens, and the woman gasps when she sees me.
“Apologies, sir! I’ll come back.”
“No, it’s fine. Perfect timing,” I mumble.
She gives me a curious look, then scans the mess of the room.
“Yeah, um, sorry about this,” I say.
Her weak smile is somehow the exact response I needed. “It’s okay. My supervisor warned me. She said there was an… event… last night.”
“Ha. Yeah. It was definitely that. Hey, I’m Casey. What’s your name?”
Her surprise transforms into another smile. “Cameron.”
I nod. “Nice to meet you, Cameron. Mind if I help?”
“Oh no! You don’t have to do that. It’s literally my job.”
“This disaster?” I wave over the mess with a smirk. “This is no one’s job. This is a hazardous waste site.”
She chuckles and rolls her cart into the room.
“Seriously. You’d be doing me a favor. I need something to do.”
She casts a nervous look at the door. “I…”
“If your supervisor sees us, I’ll tell them I’m making the mess while you’re following me around cleaning it up.”
Her laugh eases some of the weight from my shoulders.
She shakes her head and sighs. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
I gather an armload of empty bottles off the counter by the fridge. “Where do you want these?”
She points to the bag, and I go back for another load.
For the next hour, I help Cameron erase last night and give us a fresh start.
Lunch arrives shortly after Cameron leaves. I’m still opening the takeout containers when Luke ventures out.
I know better than to approach the volatile subject from earlier. Instead of words, I pass him a plate.
He takes a seat at the table and reaches for one of the boxes.
“Food’s good,” I say through a bite of drunken noodles.
He looks almost guilty as he scoops rice onto his plate.
“The room looks clean,” he says, glancing around. “Guess housekeeping was here?”
“Yeah. Cameron. Did you know her daughter plays cello?”
“No. Is she the one with the long brown hair?”
“No, she had short red hair.”
“Oh. Yeah. I know who you mean. Hold on, she has a daughter old enough to play the cello?”
“Right? I thought she was about sixteen when she came in. But no, she’s twenty-nine.”
“Dang.”
I don’t know how much longer we can drag this conversation out, but we’re certainly going to try.
We’re halfway through the roll call of every employee on site, when the door lock hisses with another visitor. Who just walks into his room without knocking?
We shoot our attention to the entrance, and Luke seems relieved when Callie tentatively pokes her head in. I’m glad to see her too, just… confused.
She shuts the door, and Luke waves toward the table.
“Thai,” he says by way of a greeting.
She squints at his plate. “With your hangover?”
“Burns away the alcohol?” His grin is so out of place. It makes no sense with the rest of the morning. He’s a completely different person when Callie’s around. It’s bizarre and…
She has a key.
He gave her a fucking key !
A cold sick feeling sinks through me .
God, I’m such an idiot.
“What, so she has a key now?” I blurt out.
Their intimate smiles for each other fade as they direct their attention to me.
“She’s here all the time anyway. I gave her the guest room,” Luke says in a casual tone that makes me want to throw things.
She’s living here now?!
I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been! All this time, he’s pushing me toward her and she’s flirting back and…
Was it all in my head? Some twisted game? What exactly is happening right now?
She lowers her bag to the floor and takes a seat across from me. Her gaze brushes mine before scanning the containers. So glad I was able to provide a lunch date for the two of them.
“It’s more convenient, that’s all,” she explains in a further gut-punch.
Convenient? Convenient for what? There are very few things that require immediate access to a hotel room. None of them are things that aren’t tearing at my stomach.
But it’s not them I’m mad at. It’s myself. For being so na?ve and ridiculous. I barely know Callie. Just because I warned her about falling for Luke at breakfast a week ago, doesn’t mean I own the playbook to their lives.
They’re adults. Free to make their own choices.
And mistakes.
I’ve been watching Luke steal every person in the room since we first started playing together, including my own sister. Just because I finally convinced myself this time would be different doesn’t mean it is.
She loves him. Of course she does. That’s her choice.
But this changes everything.
My feelings for Callie aside, I don’t think I can stick around to watch Luke destroy another sweet, trusting, beautiful person.
I just… can’t .
I’ll get what I need to keep working on the song, then leave them to their nightmare fairytale.
“Did you bring your laptop?” I ask Callie. My tone is colder than I intended but I don’t know how to fake this.
She shoots a look at me but quickly averts her gaze. Guess she knows I’m onto them.
“Got it,” she says.
“Okay, good.”
“Heard you working on something. Sounded pretty good,” Luke says in an attempt to lighten the mood. I almost bark a bitter laugh at the irony. So he’s going to keep the peace now?
Whatever. I’m over it.
“Yeah. Got a call from TJ today…”
Luke’s expression fills with understanding, and I’m just glad I don’t have to explain more, because I don’t feel like discussing anything right now.
“I’m surprised they weren’t on your case sooner.”
I grind my teeth. He has no clue what this last year has been like for me. Hit after hit after hit meant for him, but I was the one present to take the blows.
“They’ve been bugging me, but this was the first ‘do or die’ call.”
“What do they want?”