Somewhere in the Middle

Properly Pissed Off

Evie rolled her suitcase out of the room, cell phone and key card in hand. Pete had already texted her the boys' room numbers, and it was time to get them up.

Room 742. Lucas.

With a few quick knocks, Evie waited, cracking her knuckles in anticipation, remembering the night before with a nervous quiver in her stomach. The door swung open, and that quiver sharpened, took flight, and Lucas stood shirtless, clad in only his boxers. His curls were a mess on top of his head, and he brought a hand up to rub his eyes.

"Morning," he said through a growing smile, his voice low and thick with sleep.

Evie gasped inadvertently, working hard to keep her eyes on his face. But she'd seen how toned his chest was—not overly so, but certainly well-defined. She'd also noticed the small patches of dark hair scattered across it, and the one thicker patch leading from his belly button down into his shorts, framed by the defined "V" she had seen many times before, on many other guys, on many other tours—this one was somehow more enticing than the others.

It took her too long to realize Lucas was smirking. And that she hadn't yet said a word.

"It's, uh -" she glanced down at her phone, "7:12. Bus leaves in less than an hour."

She didn't wait for his response, only moved down the hallway to Greg's room just two doors over. Still feeling flustered and warm, Evie glanced back to find that Lucas was no longer at the door and breathed a sigh of relief, willing herself to calm down, to stop picturing the half naked part of his body.

Mere seconds after she had knocked, Greg appeared at the door fully dressed, blonde hair wet and tangled, jaw freshly shaven. A toothbrush poked out of his mouth.

"Oh," Evie said, eyes widening. "Good morning. I didn't think you'd be up."

"Neither did I," he said, his voice and laugh muffled by the amount of toothpaste in his mouth. "Hold on."

He ran from the door into the bathroom on his left, and when he came back less than a minute later sans toothbrush and foam around the mouth, he smiled.

"Sorry about that." He laughed. "You can come in for a minute. I was just finishing packing up."

Still feeling frazzled, Evie stepped into the room warily, as if more shirtless men might appear from out of nowhere. But she glanced around only to see that he really was nearly done packing. With her eyes on his zipped-up suitcase, she asked, "What time did you wake up?"

Greg entered the room from the bathroom with a smaller bag. "Around six. Don't really know why. Believe me, you're not going to have it this easy in the future. This is completely a fluke. Sorry in advance." He smiled before proceeding to stuff the smaller bag into a backpack sitting on the unmade bed.

Evie grinned. "Well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts then. I get to wake Jamie up a whole minute earlier than planned, so thank you."

"I think I have to apologize again. I didn't prepare you for what you're about to go through at all."

Evie looked back at him, her hand on the doorknob, the shit-eating grin on his face taunting her. "It can't be that bad."

Eyes wide, Greg shrugged and held up his hands, as if in surrender. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Evie just smiled. She'd never had any real issues waking anyone up. It was one of the minor parts of her job. If she couldn't do that, what was she good for, really?

Greg's warning was clearly meant in jest, anyway. Maybe a way to get into the head of the new employee. A way to psych her out. But, Evie knew better than that.