The other woman

Opening up

Alex's head throbbed as she opened her eyes and groaned. What the hell had happened last night? She remembered nothing beyond sharing a pitcher with Seb, Chris and Michael. At least she'd woken up in her own room and was alone in her bed. Looking to her left she noticed something really strange; painkillers with a note next to them saying 'eat me' and a glass of water with another note that simply read 'drink me'. She tried not to freak out, this meant that she was not alone when she'd returned to room last night. She sat up slowly, giving her body time to adjust to being upright. Then she got a fright and gasped loudly. Seb was sat in the chair in the corner of room, staring intensely at her, he did not look happy. "What are you.....how....." She stuttered as her head banged even more with the rise in her heart rate.

"How are you feeling Aleksandra?" He asked, starting to drum his fingers on the wooden arms of the chair.

"Like shit. How long have you been here? How did you even get in?" She asked, pulling the duvet higher up and becoming aware that she still had her dress on.

"Take those." He pointed to the pain killers on the nightstand next to her. "You've got less than an hour to check out and meet me in the lobby."

She watched mutely as he got up and stalked over to the door, he didn't even look back as he left and let it swing shut behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was early evening when they got into his Porsche Cayenne in the car park of Zürich airport. Seb had barely uttered a word to her since she'd met up with him in the lobby back at the hotel in Bahrain but she'd seen his mind working overtime as he'd occasionally thrown brooding stares her way. Stuck in the confines of the car with him, things felt strained and like they were seconds away from an argument. In an unusual move, she decided make the first move in an attempt to smooth things over. "I'm sorry. Is that you're waiting to hear?"

He kept her waiting until they'd left the airport behind and joined the motorway before he replied.

By this time Alex had resigned herself to the fact that she must have done or said something really terrible last night for him to be ignoring her. It looked like she'd be heading back to Almere a lot quicker than she'd thought.

"You don't remember a thing about last night, do you?"

"What did I do?" She asked, thinking that she'd taken her drinking last night way too far.

"You're surprisingly chatty when you're drunk." He remarked. "Very open. Very personal."

"Shit." She whispered to herself before looking his way.

"You've been worried about being on social media and you said that I don't understand the repercussions it could have for you, you don't remember saying that at all?"

"No." She noticed him smirk as he thought of something else.

"You told me that I'm really hot when we were in the lift."

"That's the drink talking." She replied quickly, not wanting him to think that she fancied him.

"Who broke you?" He asked, glancing at her and seeing how uncomfortable she was now looking.

"What?" She frowned, pretending to be completely ignorant while inside she was starting to worry about how much she'd told him.

"I asked you what these repercussions of being seen on social media could be and if I could help you deal with them and you said 'the man who broke me', what do you mean by that? Were you referring to an ex?"

She straightened her posture in her seat in an effort to look confident and composed. It looked as though she hadn't told him everything so at least she could talk herself out of the situation she now found herself in. "I talk crap when I'm drunk, just forget it."