38. Sarah
Had she been too harsh on Theo?
Now that she was away from the situation and had cooled down, she could kind of see his point. When Theo came back from having his little tantrum, Sarah had paid more attention to what was happening on set. Yu-jin was definitely taking advantage of the director’s instructions. And if the situation was reversed, the words ‘sexual’ and ‘harassment’ might be bandied about.
Sarah regretted her hasty decision to ditch Theo for the night. She’d done it in a fit of anger—okay, yes, she’d had a tantrum too—and now all she wanted was to go back to the hotel and clear things up with him. Instead, she was sitting in a teppanyaki restaurant with Bodie.
It was nothing like the teppanyaki she’d experienced in Brisbane. It was more fine dining than the entertainment driven bars she’d been to back home. They didn’t throw food in this establishment, for one thing.
‘You okay?’ Bodie asked, frowning across the table as he poured her a cup of sake.
‘Yeah,’ she replied with a long sigh. She picked up the cup and drained it, making Bodie raise his brow in surprise.
‘You sure about that?’
‘Bad day,’ she replied, shaking herself and forcing a smile. ‘How about you? How was your day?’
‘Good,’ he replied, thoughtfully.
‘Scoring points and kicking goals?’
Bodie laughed. ‘Something like that.’ He refilled her cup before taking a sip of his own. ‘So… you wanna talk about your bad day?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘Trouble in paradise?’
Sarah groaned. ‘Let’s just say that coming to Japan wasn’t a great idea. For either of us.’
Bodie hesitated before speaking again. ‘I saw the articles.’
Sarah picked up her cup and drank again without replying.
‘As much as I don’t like Theo, I don’t think he would cheat on you.’
‘I know. He didn’t. It was publicity.’
‘So… the bad day…?’
‘I think we were both just in crappy moods. His shoot wasn’t going well. The other model—the one in the article—was taking advantage, and when Theo complained… I disregarded his concerns. Looking back though… maybe I was wrong?’
Sarah picked up the sake bottle and poured her own drink, swallowing it before pouring another.
‘Hey, you might want to slow down there, buddy,’ Bodie said.
Sarah lifted her cup in a cheers motion before downing it again.
‘At least wait and have something to eat.’
The alcohol was warming her pleasantly and making the edges of her mind soft and fuzzy. It wasn’t erasing the bad, terrible, awful day she’d had, but it gave her distance from it. Looking at it through a fog of alcohol actually made things clearer. She and Theo just weren’t meant to be. She would hold him back in his career, and following him all over the globe would ruin hers. Whatever way she looked at it, they just couldn’t be together. Surely a relationship shouldn’t feel like one fight after the next.
‘Eat,’ Bodie said, sliding a plate in front of her.
She looked down at the rice and… she actually couldn’t identify what else was on her plate. Meat, maybe? Possibly fish, but she couldn’t be sure without tasting it.
She tried the chopsticks but gave up when her fingers refused to cooperate. She reached for a spoon. The rice was warm and light and fluffy and possibly the best thing she’d ever tasted in her life. Or she could just be hungry and drunk.
‘Slow down,’ Bodie hissed.
Sarah straightened. She’d been bent over her plate like an animal, shovelling the rice into her face. Trying for some modicum of decorum, she lifted a napkin to her lips and dabbed delicately. Or at least, she hoped it was delicately. The world was a little out of focus right now.
Bodie sniggered and shook his head. ‘I think you’ve had enough sake for now. How about drinking some water?’
Sarah smiled politely and did what he said. Her brain synapses were failing her, so it was best to just follow Bodie’s lead. She couldn’t trust herself right then.
‘What hotel are you staying at?’ he asked, spooning more food onto her plate.
Sarah frowned. She couldn’t remember the name, but it didn’t matter anyway. She’d told Theo she would stay somewhere else. Where that somewhere else was, she hadn’t decided.
‘I don’t currently have a place to stay,’ she replied before reaching for her phone. She would find an alternative hotel right now.
‘I’m sorry, what?’ Bodie looked concerned, so she smiled to allay his fears.
‘’S’okay. I told Theo I wouldn’t be going back to his hotel tonight. I just have to find a place to stay.’
She jabbed at her phone screen, but the words all blurred together. Just exactly how much had she had to drink? Surely a couple of cups of sake wasn’t strong enough to make her this loopy.
Raising her head to look at Bodie, who was watching her like a hawk, she had the sudden thought that maybe he’d put something in her drink. Had Bodie roofied her?
No.
Not Bodie.
He wouldn’t do that.
He was her brother’s friend.
He was her friend.
But as the darkness gathered around her vision, Sarah wondered just how well she knew Bodie. Why exactly was he in Tokyo? And how was it that he was here at the same time as she was? It was all very suspicious.
It was the last thought she had before blackness closed in.
Sarah wokewith a start and then groaned as her head felt like it was going to split open and spill her brains all over the ground. The thought of her brains and blood turned her stomach, and she retched, but thankfully there was no vomit. Her stomach rolled over again, and she realised that there was no vomit yet, but there would be.
She flung the covers off, not caring about where exactly she was. Her only thought was to find a bathroom and throw up.
The first door she tried yielded the bathroom, and she beelined for the toilet. Last night’s excesses disgorged themselves from her stomach, and tears streamed down her face. Why did she always cry when she threw up?
Her stomach empty and the nausea abated, she sat on the bathroom floor and leaned against the cabinet. She felt awful. She barely remembered anything from the night before, only that she had been at a restaurant with Bodie, and she’d been upset about Theo and…
Shit.
Bodie.
Did Bodie do something to her?
Sarah looked around the unfamiliar bathroom. Where the hell was she? It was unlike her to black out. Okay, she’d maybe experienced it a few times when she was younger, but she hadn’t gotten black-out drunk for a decade… at least.
She cocked an ear to listen. There was no sound coming from the other room. No sense of anyone else being in the room with her. She crept forward on all fours and peered around the half-closed door. Beyond the bathroom was a single room with a small double bed, a chair, and a desk. This was not a suite. This was just a standard hotel room… one on the lower end of the budget if the state of the carpet and furnishings was anything to go by.
But, more importantly, it was empty. She was alone.
Sarah fell back on her haunches and breathed a sigh of relief. She might not know where she was, but at least she was alone. She looked down at herself and noted that all her clothing was in place. Had she ended up booking this room online the night before? Had she come here of her own free will?
A key in the lock of the front door startled her.
Okay. She hadn’t come here alone.
‘Sarah?’ Bodie called softly into the room. ‘Are you awake? I bought coffee.’
Sarah bit her lip. What should she do? Pretend she had left? Except he would find her in the bathroom in no time. There was nowhere to hide in this small space. She cleared her throat. She had to face him. She had to know what happened.
‘In the bathroom,’ she replied, her voice scratchy.
Slowly getting to her feet, she swayed alarmingly as her head pounded. She rinsed her mouth out in the sink and then stepped back into the room, not looking at Bodie. She didn’t know what to say to him.
‘Here,’ he said, pressing a cup into her hand.
‘Thanks,’ she murmured before raising it to her lips and taking a sip.
Ah. Coffee. It was her lifeblood.
‘Are you feeling okay? You were pretty drunk last night.’
She looked at him then. ‘What exactly happened last night? And… where are we?’
‘We are in my hotel room. I slept on the floor.’ He pointed to the pillow and blanket she hadn’t seen. ‘And you were too drunk to tell me where you were staying. I would have called Theo, but you told me not to. I had no other option than to bring you here.’
Sarah sipped her coffee again. His explanation sounded plausible. And honestly, if she couldn’t trust Bodie then…
Except something still didn’t feel right. She felt awkward around him now. She took another sip and then smiled at him.
‘Thanks for last night, and I’m sorry. I was a mess. You didn’t deserve to witness that.’
She looked around for her phone and saw it on the bedside. She crossed to it and picked it up.
‘Shit.’
‘What’s up?’
‘My flight. I’m going to be late.’
‘Let me give you a lift?—’
‘No, no, it’s okay. I’ll just get a taxi. I have to go. Thanks, Bodie. See ya around.’
Sarah escaped the room and headed for the elevator. When the doors didn’t open immediately, she used the stairs. She had been lying about being late—her flight wasn’t until the evening—but it was a convenient excuse. And she still had to go back to Theo’s hotel and get her stuff.
Would he be there?
He would definitely be on the plane in the seat next to her.
Ugh. That was going to be one long, uncomfortable flight.