Lastly (L.T.)

Chapter 66

Just wanted to take a moment to say Thank You guys so much for 1K. This story has been lots of fun to write and I appreciate your continued readership and support.

Love you all 3000!!!

Did a little cover update because it was starting to get boring around here!

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I arrived back at the hotel in the same foggy haze that I had been in during the funeral.

Everything felt surreal, and although I wasn't having a panic attack, this felt painful too.

It felt like my ability to feel emotions other than grief had been wiped completely off my brains radar. I wanted to be able to be present and help Louis with the investigation, but the only thing I was able to manage was falling straight into the hotel bed and into a deep sleep.

I needed several hours to put my mind back together. I had cleaned everything of mine and Andrea's past life out of our apartment and then kept my shit mostly together through her funeral. My mind couldn't take any more.

I slept for a good eight hours in the same clothes I had worn too the funeral, with just the covers that Louis had placed up over my unmoving form. I didn't even have any sort of dreams that interrupted my sleep, my mind was just completely blank.

I woke up groggily and slowly. My muscles were tense and sore from the fetal-esque position that I had fallen asleep in.

There was a fast little clicking sound nearby that had me blinking my eyes in confusion to clear the fog from them.

I knew my hair was going to look like a rat's nest even before I sat up. My mouth tasted sour and my body felt like lead. It was something akin to the feeling of waking up with a bad hangover...a grief-induced hangover.

When I was finally awake enough to register my surroundings I realized that the clicking sound was coming from Louis typing next to me. My laptop was sitting on a little lapdesk that he had gotten from somewhere and he was still in bed next to me, shirtless, with a cigarette perched between his lips while he was pecking away at the computer.

His eyebrows were pinched together in a cute concentrated pout while he worked and I took a moment to admire the beautiful mess that he was at the moment.

The sheets were tangled over and between his legs so I could see that he was just wearing his boxers and his hair was sticking up in every direction.

"Morning, love"

The cigarette danced between his lips when he spoke without removing it and his morning voice tied my insides into knots.

"Did you have any luck finding anything out yet?" I croaked, trying not to stare at him.

Now is not the time for that you dumb bitch.

I had to mentally reign myself in and remember what I needed to be doing.

"Nothing crazy useful other than the address of that ball we crashed. If we can figure out who was there it might give us some names, which is a start."

"Okay, I'll leave you to it for now, I need to shower and then maybe we can head to that building where they threw the ball to see if they have some kind of records system."

He nodded, "that seems like a good place to start. I need to have a shower too. I didn't last night."

I nodded in understanding, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise, I knew last night had taken a lot out of both of us.