Waking Up with Joseph Quinn

Morning

    "Good morning, beautiful. How you feelin'?"

You glance over in his direction and smile. "Well, I feel like I made a bit of a fool of myself yesterday. So, I kinda feel like an idiot. I mean, I was so nervous and -"

Joe turned toward you and propped himself up on his elbow. "Hey, it's fine. It wasn't as bad as you made it seem in your head." He gently made a fist and 'knocked' on your head, and smirked. 

You inhaled deeply, closed your eyes, and exhaled even longer. You shook your head and allowed yourself to consider making your way to the bathroom. You felt the bed sink back down a bit on the side opposite to you. 

As you lifted the covers, and swung your legs off the bed, you recalled that Joe probably saw you mostly naked. You felt heat rise to your cheeks and swallowed deeply. As you stood, you gazed toward Joe. Like the gentleman he was, he was peering the other direction out the window.

You shuffled your feet across the scratchy, barely there carpet, which eventually morphed into smooth marble tile. You didn't bother to turn on the light, and you were almost afraid to look in the mirror. 

You felt like your head had a heartbeat of its own, but the cold porcelain seat almost made it seem to appear duller. You'd decided that turning on the light was your best bet because you probably looked a little raccoon-like after that amount of alcohol. You reached your hand to push the switch up; buzzing from the fluorescent bulbs lining the top of the mirror to be a little louder than you'd prefer. 

You combed your fingers through your hair and gently swiped your ring finger from tear duct to the outer eye in one swift motion. It wasn't as bad as you'd thought it'd be, but showering was necessary today. 

You grabbed the cold door handle and swung until it was almost shut. "I'm gonna jump in the shower really quickly!" 

You tugged the shower handle toward yourself and allowed the steam to slowly fill the small room. The warm water trickled down the entirety of your body, sending chills from head to toe. After you finished, you swung the glass door open and stepped onto the icy marble. You slipped the oversized white shirt of Joe's over your body and stepped into your nude panties, one leg at a time. 

You pulled the large black door toward yourself, to find Joeseph standing in his boxers with your phone in his hand. 

"It's been going off." He reached his arm out toward you, as your phone continued to buzz.

    "Hello?"

    "Y/n! Are you okay? No one could get ahold of your last night after you left, and I have your key card. Where are you?" 

    "Oh," you winched. "I'm so sorry! I so didn't mean to scare you all. I'm...I'm at Joe's hotel room." You pulled your face into a grimace, and hung your head; waiting for Natalia's response. 

    "Oh. My. God. No way! Really? I knew he had a thing for you!" She shouted, more than loud enough for Joe to hear.

You flashed a look in Joe's direction, to see him leaning on the entrance door. His head hung slightly, swaying side to side, as the smile lines on either side of his mouth appeared. You felt red-hot heat fill your cheeks for the second time this morning, as your eyes widened; now focused fully on the marble floor once again. 

    "Um, it's not... it's not like that. I don't know if you could tell but I was totally shitfaced last night and he saved me from making a massive fool of myself."

    "Uh-huh. Whatever you wanna tell yourself." She said with a giggle. "Well, you want to meet up and I can give you back your key?"

    "That'd be good, but I only have my dress from last night. Could you bring me --"

Joe waved a hand in front of your face and shook his head from side to side. He held up his pointer finger and walked to his open suitcase overflowing with wrinkled garments. He pulled out a pair of gray sweatpants and raised his eyebrows.

    "Uh yeah, never mind. I'll just borrow something of Joe's. Could you meet me at my room?"

    "Yeah, see you there in what, like 10?"

    "Yup. Sure." You peeled the phone from your ear and set it on the black marble counter in the bathroom. Joe was already standing in front of you, arm out, holding the sweatpants. 

You grasped the elastic waist with your thumbs and allowed each leg to fully slide through until your foot had exited the elastic on the opposite end. You grabbed your phone and allowed it to fall into the pocket, making the hem of the pants slightly sag on that side.

Joe was still leaning against the door, with arms folded over each other this time. 

    "So, I feel like we probably need to talk." He took a step toward you. "Can I take you out for brunch maybe? What else have you got going on today?"

    "Um yeah. Yeah. That'd be good actually. I - " You let out a sigh. "I kinda feel like things are awkward right now." Your eyes wandered the room, looking anywhere but Joe's eyes, until finally you were caught and simply couldn't peel away from them. "And I don't want them to be."

    "Absolutely, and neither do I." He gathered your dress and draped it over the crook of his arm, and held the back straps of your shoes wrung around each of his two fingers. "Meet me in an hour in the lobby?"

You grabbed the shoes and dress, aligning them in the same fashion he'd done but on your own body. You nodded your head, as your lips curved into a smile. 

    "See you then." Joe slowly opened the door, allowing you to slip through.