Room 212 (14 page)

“I am an idiot. I am a total idiot for going along with this whole thing.”

“Laura, get off the freaking bank and get back into this tube now!”

“Oh, well, when you put it like that, no!”

He threw the tube on the bank and climbed up to face me. Water was dripping from his chest down his ripped torso and I was instantly turned on, but did my damndest not to show it.

“She uses her brain and doesn’t make mountains out of mole hills. Yes, she is educated and beautiful and polite and doesn’t make scenes in public.”

“Well, then GO GET HER!”

“Maybe I will. Maybe I should do just that, Laura. You’re acting like a damn child. I haven’t asked you one damn question about your ex. I haven’t put you in the difficult position to defend yourself for your past or the person you used to date. She wants me back now and I say no. I say no because I want you, and I want you because you are not her!”

I grabbed the tube and threw it back in the water and jumped in. I waited on him to join me. We didn’t say a word as we floated the rest of the way down. When we finally caught up with Krista and Dave at a barbeque restaurant, they were on the patio laughing and toasting as we approached their table. I ordered two beers and chased a whiskey shot down. Dave and Krista could tell Seth and I were far from okay and mused at us like older parents who knew this would soon pass.

They held their own conversation as Seth and I downed our beers and picked at our food. It was our first fight and it was ruining me. I braved a look in his direction and he shot me one right back, but quickly broke it with a shake of his head. I felt a sharp pain in my chest and burning all over me as I looked at my skin. It was beet red and I quickly surveyed Seth to see him the same shade. The pain was becoming unbearable as the night wore on. Seth hadn’t said a word to me since we got to the restaurant, the sun was setting and we were starting to sink in our seats.

“You guys are really, really red and don’t look so hot,” Krista said, studying our grimaces and looking at our color.

“I’m fine,” I said, downing another shot and beer.

“Me too,” Seth said taking a swig of his, sweat building on his forehead.

“Laurs, you’re about to puke.” Dave smiled at me and I threw a steak fry at him, smacking him in the face.

“I have some Noxzema in the room. I hear it’s good for sunburns. Do you guys want to go back and try some?” She looked to Dave when neither of us answered and shrugged her shoulders.

I finished my beer and looked to Seth who was still holding steady. If he was feeling even remotely as bad as I was, it wasn’t showing. My flesh was on fire. I felt the heat radiating from my skin. I felt the nausea finally make its way from my bubbling stomach to my throat. I quickly made my way to the patio rail and emptied my stomach.

“And that’s dinner,” Dave chuckled as I heaved all of my insides out on the porch. I heard the waitress come inquire about my wellbeing as Seth grabbed my hair away from my face.

“It’s bad, Seth, so bad. Oh God.” I knew I was green underneath my sunburn and saw small blisters on the underside of his arms as he cradled me.

“I know, baby. I’m fucking dying.”

“You two have sun poising,” Krista said concerned, but watching from a distance. Seth joined me for a second round of puking while Dave and Krista laughed and quickly paid the bill. When we were finally stable enough to get into the car, Seth got us back in neck breaking speed. I opened the door to his Mercedes and fell out, a little drunk and feeling worse than I ever have in my life.

“I’ve got you, baby.”

“Oh dear, God.” I heard myself slur and walked into our room, noticing for the first time our room number was 212, just like it was at the hotel. I looked at Seth with a question in my eyes.

“It seemed to bring us a good night last time.” Only, Seth would think of something that romantic, but I didn’t have time to appreciate it.

I cranked up the air conditioning and stripped every single piece of clothing off and sat straight up in the bed so nothing could touch my screaming skin. Seth ran to the bathroom and emptied his stomach again.

“Seth, what can I do?”

“Nothing, baby, nothing. Oh shit.” He threw up again and I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. I grabbed a water bottle and chugged it and felt sick instantly. Naked, I had no choice but to join Seth in the bathroom. I threw up in the tub while he hogged the toilet. I ran the water to rinse it out and threw up again. I let the cold water run and sat down next to him, putting a towel down on the floor under me.

“Not what I had planned for tonight,” Seth chuckled, bringing his hand up to knuckle my chin.

“Me neither. Sun poisoning can make you sick like this?”

“I don’t know, I guess so. I’ve never had it.”

“I’m sorry, Seth. If we wouldn’t have lost Dave and Krista we would have had sun block for the last hour.”

“You are an idiot.” He smiled sweetly. This time I didn’t take offense, I just sat there naked as a jaybird staring at the man I loved who looked to be green underneath his bright red face.

“You are also worth it, Laura.”

“Don’t be nice to me.”

“I can’t help it, baby.” He pulled me to him as we sat on the cold floor. We stayed in bed the entire next day shivering and covering ourselves with Noxzema. We were miserable and hadn’t managed to touch each other longer than a few seconds. I watched Seth sleep and was thankful he could get some rest. He opened his eyes to see me staring at him and frowned.

“You can’t sleep, baby?”

“No, I’m in too much pain. This has to subside by tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling better now. It will let up soon.”

“I will never go tubing again.”

“Yes you will.”

“No I won’t.”

The next morning I was still a bright shade of cherry and winced as we made our way to the car under the sun. Krista and Dave left the day before and we prayed that the cover of his windows would be enough to get us the three hours back home. As soon as we took off we found cloud cover and it began to rain.

“Thank you, God,” I muttered at the passenger window.

“Amen.”

I looked at Seth and he grinned at me, it was finally funny. We laughed the entire way home.

I had finally gotten my apartment exactly how I had pictured it. It was a haven. I felt safe. Seth had left a few things there when he stayed over and we did our best to see each other as often as possible. I was making the best money I ever had and had managed to actually start a savings account at Seth’s urging. He was going to teach me how to invest. He had a knack for all things money and was actually in the process of buying his home.

It was unbelievable what he had done for himself. He came from nothing; his father, the only prominent figure in his life, was a mechanic. Seth claimed to get his strong work ethic from him. He had raised Seth alone when his mother had left him when Seth was three years old. He didn’t have much of a relationship with her from what he told me. It was always a card for his birthday, or a dinner once in a while. It didn’t seem to bother him when he spoke about it. His face lit up when he spoke about his dad. I envied their relationship. I had practically been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and had spit it out. I’d felt guilty when I saw all he did for himself when he didn’t have the advantages I did. He paid for school with his three jobs and student loans. All I had to do was attend and my parents would happily foot the bill.

We were crazy for each other. We never made it through movies or dinner without a small bout of public display. We barely contained the discipline to stay dressed in the car. He had gone to great lengths to make me a part of his busy world, giving me an hour of his time even if it was all he had. We had attended two more of Paul’s shows and saw other bands as often as we could. Music was our common ground, but I quickly realized we had more in common than I had originally given us credit for. His sense of humor was often dark and sarcastic like mine. I loved everything about him. I loathed being away from him. I was happy and he was a big part of the reason. Okay, he was the reason. Tonight we were at another show at Trees, our hands clasped tightly as we swayed to the music.

I went to the bar to get us a beer when Chris, who I hadn’t seen in months, approached me.

“Laurs.” His arms were around me and I quickly backed away from him.

“Sorry, Chris, it’s still over.”

“Maybe, and maybe you miss me.” He was groping me, his hands on my ass.

“Look, asshole, I’m here with someone—”

I saw Seth’s fist completely disfigure Chris’s smug grin and screamed out. He was on the ground and Seth was on top of him, throwing punch after punch.

“Seth, STOP IT! SETH, STOP IT!”

He completely ignored me as the bouncer ripped him off, pinning one of his arms and took him outside.

I was furious as I followed them out and pounded on his chest. “I had that under control! Why would you flip out like that?”

His stare was cold and dead and he looked past me. “Seth, look at me.”

He kept his stare away from me as I stood there still furious, trying to confront him. He would not look at me or talk to me and I walked off, leaving him standing in front of the club.

Too far, he had gone too far. It was one thing to protect your girl, it was another to beat the living shit out of the guy you had already gotten the best of.

I hailed a cab and went home. I woke to the sound of knocking on my door. I looked at the clock. It had been three hours since I’d left him downtown.

I opened the door to find Seth, drunk, face twisted in pain.

“You are going home lunatic. I’ll drive you.”

“I am home.”

“Not tonight, asshole.”

“You are home.” He wrapped his arms around me and it was all I could do to keep from giving in.

“Maybe, and maybe you’re a nut case who almost killed my ex.”

“You love him?” It came out in a drunken slur.

“What a stupid question.”

“You can never love anybody but me ever again, Laura. It’s me.”

“Seriously, what the hell has gotten into you? Aren’t you in love with Ms. Day Planner?”

“You know that’s not true.”

“I know that your fists are still bleeding from smashing that poor guy’s face in and your drunk and talking stupid.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

“Why? Why did you that Seth?”

“He treated you badly. He cheated. I hate that. I hated him already and I saw him grab you, like you don’t know why, Laura!” Boy, he was a sloppy drunk. I couldn’t help but laugh at his attempt to scold me.

“I told you he never hurt me. I didn’t love him and I don’t think he cheated. Look, are you crazy? Seriously, is this where the other shoe drops? Because I know crazy and that was crazy.”

“Take me to bed, I feel bad.” He eyes couldn’t keep focus. Great I am in love with a total crazy person.

I woke the next morning to Seth trying to kiss and make it all better. He had me naked and legs open beneath him. I was so tempted to let him have his way, but as he moved his tongue filled kiss from my chest to my mouth, I stopped him.

“Okay, you’re lucky you’re in my bed. Tell me where that raging ass came from.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” He was stroking between my thighs and completely caught up in the sex he was sure he was about to have. His eyes were filled with lust for me and I was having a horrible time resisting him.

I managed to push his hand away from me and quickly closed my legs.

“Don’t, don’t make me stay away. Please, Laura.” He was covering me with wet kisses and I instantly melted. “I will talk to you, just let me love you.” I sank into the bed and grabbed his hair. “You will talk to me, Seth.” I opened myself to him as he drew me in with his beautiful body and washed my anger away.

I saw him dressing for work and put a quick stop to his sneaky retreat.

“Spill it, what’s with captain crazy who came out last night?”

“Just my temper, Laura. He had his hands all over you. I saw you trying to get away and he wouldn’t stop. I kicked his ass.”

“That was not an ass kicking. That was a brutal beating.”

“He didn’t go to the hospital, he was okay. I stayed behind and made sure of it.”

“Good to know, but still, that was going too far, don’t you think?”

He paused at the edge of the bed, one sneaker in his hand, his back turned from me. I lifted up on my elbow and peered over to get a better look at him. I could only read the side of his face and saw regret.

“I have never been so angry. I have never done anything like that. Not to that extent.”

“Great.”

“I didn’t think. I just went after him.”

“Seth, I was scared, really, really scared.”

He turned to me, his eyes glazed over. He was definitely in pain. His hangover was showing in his face and bloodshot eyes.

“I’m sorry, but you know better than to be afraid of me. You know.”

He leaned over and kissed me and left for work. I scraped myself from bed and got into the shower. I was having lunch with my brother and I was excited to see him. Seth said I could never love anyone but him, did that mean he loved me? Of course he loved me, why wouldn’t he tell me? I would wait until Seth told me, then finally we could erase my doubt about Mrs. Barbie and I would finally have my Ken.