Permission to Love

Chapter Eight

The hotel lobby was modeled after a Roman Empire with beautiful high ceilings and gorgeous art work, the hotel room was no different and gives Kathryn an unsettling feeling that her parents are close by. This is their life, this is their taste and their choice vacation spot, but it held no joy for Kathryn, or Alexander for that matter. She makes her way towards the back bedroom which is sealed off from the other part of the large room by two double doors, bordered with bright gold paint and matching door knobs. She leans down to lift her luggage after opening the double doors but finds a hand already grasping onto the handle of her Gucci luggage. 

"I got it." Alexander says before flashing Kathryn a small smile and carrying her luggage inside the bedroom. He sets it down on the bed before turning back to Kathryn who is still standing motionless in the doorway. "You can have the bedroom, I'll sleep on the couch or call the front desk to send up more blankets and make a bed on the floor."

She crosses her arms and nods slowly, still feeling as if she is inside her head and this is all some horrible nightmare that she is bound to wake up from at any moment. Alexander nods and walks back over to Kathryn in order to exit the room but stops beside her. "I'll be downstairs and let you take a breather for a while." He continues walking towards their hotel door but her voice stops him midway.

"Did they really think locking us up in a hotel room for our so called 'honeymoon' was going to make this any less of a responsibility instead of what is supposed to be a decision made of free will and choice?" 

"I'm sorry, Kathryn." He says softly once more with a sigh of exhaustion before stepping out of the hotel room and leaving Kathryn with eyes glistening from tears.

"Yeah...you keep saying that." She whispers before wiping a few tears away and walking off towards the bathroom to take a shower and hopefully wash the horrible day from her body.

~~~

"Shit." Kathryn exclaims as she's searching through the bag on her bed and realizes that her pajamas were in the other bag that was lying on the couch in the other room. She tightens the towel around her wet body and slowly opens the double doors to make sure that Alexander hasn't returned before exiting the bedroom and making her way to the stack of suitcases sitting by the living room couch. She fumbles through a few of Alexander's bags before spotting her second Gucci suitcase and smiling briefly at her success. She turns to walk back to her bedroom with the suitcase but instead gets a rather big surprise when the sound of the hotel door swinging open stuns her motionless in the middle of the hotel room. Alexander can't help but see the half naked woman standing directly in his field of vision and stands in shock for a moment until his senses return and he quickly covers his eyes with his hands that are already holding two bags from the gift shop downstairs. 

"Sorry!" He exclaims but only hears the small patter of feet as Kathryn quickly makes her way back into the bedroom. He makes a small slit between two of his fingers to make sure she is out of sight before stepping farther into the hotel room and grimacing in embarrassment. 

Kathryn leans her back against the closed bedroom door and lets out a sigh before thoughts of what the future may hold cloud her mind. "You keep saying that."

~~~

The sound of the bedroom door creaking open causes Alexander to jump from his seat and stare back at Kathryn as she timidly steps out of the bedroom. "I'm really sorry about before." Alexander says with bright cheeks as proof of what happened earlier.

"Don't worry about it." She says immediately, trying to brush off the awkwardness of being seen half naked by a man she barely knows. "We are married, after all."

"Only in the eyes of the court." He says with a simple smile before grabbing a bag that is sitting on the table and pulling out a deck of Old Maid cards. "There wasn't much of a game selection in the gift shop but I figured we would need something to pass the time this weekend." He waits for a response but instead takes her brief smile as a sign and continues. "Do you know how to play?"

She steps closer to him before taking the deck of cards from his grasp and sitting down in front of the couch. "Who doesn't know how to play Old Maid?"

He laughs softly and sits down in front of her while she deals out the deck of cards. "Uh...me?"

Kathryn rolls her eyes before smiling back at him. "Poor little rich boy."