The One That Got Away.

At The Hotel

The next morning Kelly wakes up before Jared. She grabs her phone to look at the time. She has to hold the phone close to her face as her glasses were out of reach. 8:30 AM. She groans; she only got about three hours of sleep. Then she notices 2 missed calls from her mom. She's confused, her mom's ring tone should have woken her up. Then she notices her ringer has been shut off. She glares at Jared, still peacefully sleeping next to her. At least he kept his promise to behave himself but she was annoyed to have missed her mom's calls. She takes the phone into the bathroom to call her mom back so Jared couldn't hear her, and so her mom didn't accidentally hear Jared. She also checks her text messages. Several unread messages from Erica, Patrick, and Kris. She figures she'll deal with them later. 

She goes back and checks on Jared. He's still fast asleep. She inserts her contacts, gets dressed, pulling on a pair of jeans, a sports bra, and a tank top. She smokes the remainder of her cone from last night and then packs another. Even with all the racket of her getting dressed and opening the front door to smoke, Jared is still asleep. She thinks it's rather rude of him to sleep in considering he's at someone else's place. She sits down at her desktop computer and opens her video editing app. She'd been playing around with starting a Youtube channel to showcase her cooking. Not because she thought she could be an influencer or even make any money, just so she could have something else to do to pass the time during the long stretches Josh had to be out of town.

After at least an hour, Jared finally stirs. He quietly walks up behind her.

"You edit video, too?"

She jumps, slightly startled. 

"Uh, kinda. I'm not that good. Just Youtube stuff."

"I bet you're better than you think," he says. 

"Jared, did you turn off my ringer last night?" she asks angrily. 

Jared says nothing.

"If you pull any shit like that again, I swear, I'll never talk to you again. And I am not kidding. So help me God, Jared, I am not kidding."

He knows she's serious. He felt bad he did it. He just felt like he needed a little control and her undivided attention. He knew it wasn't right. He liked that she called him out on it. Her inability to put up with his horse shit turned him on. Among many other things about her.

"Ok," he says quietly. "So, I was hoping you'd take me to my hotel to find out if my stuff is there."

Kelly's shoulders slump. She thought she'd be rid of him after he woke up.

Before she can open her mouth he gets on his knees and looks into her green eyes, "Please?" he says.

"I can drop you off," she says.

"Uh-huh," he shakes his head, "You're staying for breakfast. Pot isn't a proper breakfast," he says knowingly. "And I won't take no for an answer, so don't bother arguing with me," he states definitively.

"What if someone like... recognizes you and takes pictures of us?"

"So?"

"Jared."

"Where ever your husband actually is and whoever he is, I get the feeling he isn't reading tabloids. He'll never know."

"He'll know because I will tell him," Kelly says shutting down her computer.

"I'm sure you will." 

As they approach the Hilton Hotel, Jared starts complaining.

"I hate this place, it's such trash but it's the only thing my assistant could get me on short notice. Or so she says. Sometimes I think that woman just wants to torture me. At least we've got the Penthouse."