Tangling the Knot

Chapter Ten

- Oaklyn -

Last night, I hooked up with a man, and I still don't know his name.

I woke up with a throbbing headache, an upset stomach, and whatever shred of dignity I had left. Unfortunately, after that horrid night, I believe I might've had none.

The man next to me looked oddly different in the hotel light. He looked as if he had a rougher night than I did. The disheveled strands of his hair suctioned to the bone of his forehead, while the silky white skin now had a tint of pink and red. And right around the corner of his lips, I swore you could see a grate of sick and it only added to my nausea.

Wobbly, I managed to sit up and pry his muscular arms off of my tiny waist. The white comforter that had cocooned us remained muddled and disoriented—much like my life choices in the last twenty-four hours. I found it strange how loose the duvets were considering how tightly they were tucked to the bed. It must've been one hell of a night. Or a nightmare, more accurately.

It was dark outside. Through the blackout curtains, just a bit of the sky peeked through. I panted and rose to my feet. The second the bottom of my feet hit the carpet, I truly accepted that my legs were made out of jelly. The side effects of being drunk never had been this bad for me. It was brutal—worse than I'd experienced, which was saying something.

Once I gather myself, I quietly slip on last night's clothes. I try not to puke as I bend over.

Guess I'm going barefoot.

Everything is a blur. I look around to collect the rest of my belongings. Then, I noticed my phone on the floor near the desk. After the night we had, I tried my best to puzzle together the events that happened moments before we did the deed.

I recalled blundering into the hotel lobby and, rather embarrassingly, trampling into a family of four in the elevator.

A mother and a father with two young children. One boy and one girl. Once they realized we were drunk off our asses., the dad practically got off the nearest floor and dragged his kids out. Now, as goes for the wife. . . she'd stay her welcome long past overdue, it even creeped us out as she watched us make out. I assume she was into that freaky shit. Possibly? But anyway, no clue why the parents had their children up at one o'clock in the morning beats me. It's their fault that those poor children had witnessed their first crash course in PDA 101.

The rest of the night speaks for itself.

My cell phone is dead, and I can't call for a lift. I glare at the hotel line but decide against it. Ever since I got my first phone, my mom to this day yelled at me for being irresponsible with important things. But I can't help it. My phone never makes it to a full charge. It's always eighty percent, max. Some days I'm lucky if I even get to charge it at all.

I eye one of those complementary notepads the hotel provides you and, thankfully, I see a convention pass. I just killed two birds with one stone.

I'm at the Luxe Hotel.

With a man named Kody Redd.

Kody's snoring mists the air. I look back and compensate for the pros and cons of ditching him and heading home. I've done it before, and unfortunately, I'd do it again. This isn't my first rodeo—fulfilling these fleeting, one-night stand fantasies. It's not a recurring habit, but I feel like I'll never find stability in a relationship. And this is the next best thing.

Simply intimacy between me and some stranger—nothing else.

No commitments. No hard feelings. And no broken hearts.

The notepad sits underneath my palms. A pen rolls to my left. I try to flashback to my night with Kody. He seemed like a nice guy, but if I were to ever break out from this adult cycle of ding-dong ditch, I don't see myself pursuing anything special with him.