In His Arms

Chapter 34

It was almost midnight once Eugene had finished taking me around some of the late-night spots of Taiwan so it did not take the car long to reach the hotel as most of the streets were barren of people and other cars. By the time we reached, however, I was already lightly dozing on his shoulder, the combination of the pre-dinner anxiety and the warm delicious bites of the soup dumplings, late-night feasting and touring had set me in a post-Thanksgiving meal kind of food coma. Not to mention the amount of alcohol Eugene tempted me to taste but I believed it had added more to my floaty state.

"I'll send you up to your room," Eugene says as he guides me out of the car. "The state you are in makes me worry about your ability to get to your room in one piece."

My mind is too clouded for his words to measure fully as he gently takes me into the lobby and to the elevators where he takes my key card to get access to the level my room is on. Leaning against him for support, I smile tiredly as I struggle to keep my eyes open.

The beeping sound of the electronic key card reader goes off and the smell of the pristine hotel room fills my lungs. I don't bother to take off my shoes as I flump into the bed fully dressed, immediately going to sleep, not caring that Eugene is still in the room

So, I sleep.

By the time morning rolls around, the contents in my stomach are churning and before I know it I'm bolting out of bed, bent over the rim of the toilet and puking the undigested remains of everything I ate from the night before. My body heaves strongly as I purge my system of what nutrients I should be absorbing.

I groan softly in distress as I finish up inside the bathroom, flushing down the mushy greyish-white stuff as I peer into the mirror above the sink to see a red-faced woman with disarrayed brown hair pointing in all directions and a string of stomach fluid dripping out of the corner of her mouth dressed in a pair of blue plaid button-down pyjamas and shorts.

Ew.

Washing the foul taste of vomit from my mouth, I begin to question how something that tasted so good going down could taste so bad when coming back up and then it hits me. I never get sick from eating food. 

"Oh god," I moan out as my stomach growls. "Could it be food poisoning?"

The memories of Eugene and I prowling the Taiwan nightlife, drinking and eating things from questionable vendors make my head hurt. I am not even sure if this nausea is a result of the drinking or if I got food poisoning. The last thing I remember doing last night was dozing off and Eugene taking me into my hotel room before I chose to fall asleep on the bed without changing clothes.

My head snaps to look at my reflection in the mirror in sudden realisation, I'm not wearing the dress from last night. The minimal makeup I had on is gone too. The first emotion to run through my body is fear. The clothes I'm wearing are one of the clothes Mrs Denise packed for me but who changed my clothes is a mystery to me. Mrs Denise isn't here so there are only two people that could have changed me.

Eugene or Alexander.

If It was Eugene, I think I could get past that embarrassment of him seeing me naked but if it were Alexander, it changes everything. Not only would he be wondering about where I got the dress, coat and clutch, but he also might or might not have seen the gun in the clutch and the scars on my back.

First of all, if he saw the weapon he knew Todd gave it to me since he was the one whom Alexander must have passed the weapon to if it was he who found it in the first place and that also places Todd in an awkward position. The scars will be something he'd question me about and I am not ready to explain my past just yet.