A Summer of Discovery

Chapter Thirteen

My head was pounding and my heart beat was throbbing in the back of my head, I stretched my arms above me and yawned, my skin was wet with sweat. Opening my eyes slowly I had to take a moment to scan the room wondering where the hell I was, Lucy was by the window packing her bag, she had a white towel wrapped around her head. I sat up in the bed holding the sheets to my chest.

"Baby are you okay" I asked her, my voice croaky from a mixture of alcohol and sleep, she turned surprised and smiled. "You're finally awake. Em you slept so deeply I've been banging about the room all morning, having room service, showering, and not a peep." She said as she turned back to the mirror above the desk, she whipped the towel off and began to dry off the ends of her lilac hair. She looked lovely in her denim jeans and little white vest.

I watched her busy herself around the room, I felt unable to move from the bed. I felt like the walking dead.

"I'm not drinking ever again" I stated as I hid my head under the sheets. I heard Lucy cross the room, the bed creaked as she sat down beside me, she pulled the sheet down over my head and looked down at me with a grin.

"I would love that statement to be true but we both know it's not going to happen" She said brushing my loose hair behind my ears and kissing my forehead. "This room completely went to waste last night" she said standing and heading back to do her makeup in the mirror. "I had a choreographed dance all at the ready to sex you up with" she continued with a grin.

I swung my legs from the bed and stood slowly as the throb in my head intensified, I followed her over to the mirror, my legs trailing behind me. "I'm sorry about last night, we have tonight I'll make it up to you" I said placing my hand on her shoulders and leaning in to kiss the nape of her neck. She looked at my reflection in the mirror and made a face. "What?" I asked. She applied her eye shadow in the mirror. "I have to go in an hour" She replied sheepishly.

"What do you mean you're going in an hour" I asked. "We have two more days left here" I continued.

"The office called and I'm needed back today" She replied. I let go of her shoulders and paced besides her realising what this meant for our trip. "So you're leaving me here with the cast of Jerry Springer... alone" I replied panicked. She spun in her chair and reached out for my hand, pulled me into her and kissed my shoulder. I looked down at her blue eyes pleading with me to not be mad. "Please honey I feel terrible, I was looking forward to seeing your family today and really getting to know them. I'm so upset. They are calling in all of the senior staff to pull the magazine back from print for another day, we have to pull it apart. You know Margo she's the boss from hell, if she's not happy with the fucking font even she will have us all in to redo the entire damn thing. Please don't be mad" She begged. "It's got to be back to print by midnight"

I hesitated but looked down and met her gaze. "You owe me" I said nudging her. Lucy worked for a popular fashion magazine in New York, she wrote about Traveling fashions, show casing fashion in different parts of the world and inclusive of different parts of the USA, it was a good job with a great salary but it took her away from me all too often.

"I'm going to have to drive your rental back to the airport too baby" She said breaking away and busying herself.

I threw the towel back into the bathroom from her desk and stripped off my underwear. "Well that's just peachy" I said. "How am I meant to get around now?" I asked. I went into the bathroom and turned on the bath water, I sat on the edge and watched the warm water begin to fill the tub. Lucy came in and sat herself on the closed toilet seat, I reached for the free bubble bath by the sink and pulled off the cap, it turned the water pink as I emptied the entire thing beneath me.