Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
She stops abruptly in front of a door on the right and inserts the key card. I have to run to keep the door from slamming on my face, but I manage to get my hand in the crack just in time. I push the door open to reveal, of course, a suite. My sister wouldn’t have booked anything less for her guests. She got a large chunk of money when our dad died, and she also has shares in the company. While she invested most of it into other ventures, she’s not tight with the funds she kept out for herself. She’s actually generous to a fault. And yes. She booked the best of the best for her wedding party.
“Holy shit.” Sutton stalks through the room ahead of me. “This is crazy.”
She’s right. It’s overkill. The thing is probably easily three times the size of her grandma’s house. The room drips with gold accents, marble floors, a huge king-sized bed with upholstered wood pillars. There’s a kitchen area with a full-sized fridge, which is probably stocked with all sorts of expensive treats and twenty-dollar mini bottles of alcohol.
“There is a Jacuzzi,” she groans. “Of course, there’s a freaking Jacuzzi.” She stops right in front of it. It’s round, and even though it’s above ground, it looks more like a swimming pool than an actual Jacuzzi. It’s already full. Of course, it would be.
There are floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city, which is all lit up and twinkling. It actually looks kind of pretty right now.
“The way I see it, there’s only one option now. You call your grandma, we drink all the wine and whatever’s in the fridge over there, make good use of the Jacuzzi, and break in the bed.”
“What?” Sutton walks over to the huge bed and drops the wine and her clutch unceremoniously on it. “Are you crazy? That was not part of the deal.”
“It worked for us before.”
“What worked? I thought we weren’t talking about that! Ever!”
“Right.” I roll my shoulders and walk over to the windows. “I just wanted to see what you’d say. I think the real game plan is we pile half those pillows into the middle of the bed like a giant, plush wall and go to sleep on separate sides.”
“I thought you said you were taking the floor?”
There’s a flashing red light in the distance at the top of some building. I wonder what it is. The rest of the city rises up below and around us. The hotel is right downtown, so we’re at the heart of all the urban glory.
“You’d make me sleep on marble flooring when there’s a bed that big? There is no way we could ever touch each other, especially with a pillow wall in place.”
“Oh yeah? What about your problem from earlier? Hmm? And the thing that didn’t happen before at your house. I think I should go and lock myself in the bathroom and make myself a bed in the tub.”
Now I am actually surprised. I turn to find Sutton standing at the same spot by the bed with her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. “You think I’d do anything to make you feel unsafe? I swear to you, I might be a dickhead, or at least you probably think so, but I would never, ever, do something that someone else didn’t want to do. Especially not that.”
She sighs forcefully and drops her arms before walking over to start plumping up one of the giant pillows. The pillows are probably two feet thick or more—each one of them—and there are about sixteen hundred on the bed.
“No.” She punches her fist into the pillow. Hard. Like she wishes that it was my face instead. “It’s not that.”
“Not what?”
“It’s not…It’s not you I don’t trust.”
“Hmm.”
“What’s hmm?” Her eyes narrow like she expected me to be surprised. I am shocked, but I’m obviously doing a good job of hiding it by feigning boredom.
“You trust me, even after my problem from earlier today.”
“I—yes. Obviously. It’s not like you could help it. It’s just basic biology. And—uh—you went and hid. You didn’t attack me with it.”
“Very true.”
Sutton shakes her head. She quickly whirls to hide the scarlet on her cheeks, but of course, I still see it. She grabs her clutch, rips out her phone, and punches at the screen. Probably dialing her grandma’s number.
Sure enough, she leaves a halting message. “Hey, Granny, it’s me. I’m actually staying here at the hotel tonight. There was a—uh—room booked for me I didn’t know about. I thought it would be too rude to turn it down because it was already paid for. I’ll be back around noon tomorrow. Please don’t worry about me. I’m fine, and yes, I do know you think this is how babies are made, but I can guarantee there aren’t going to be any made tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you. Bye.”