Hit and Run

Chapter 4

I woke up naked on Jerome's couch, the giant window blasting me with light. I blinked a few times before being able to fully open my eyes. My head hurt again. I reached up and rubbed my forehead on the left side where I felt a dull aching pain. I noticed that there was a blanket over me which hadn't been there the night before. Jerome must have covered me with it at some point in the night. I pulled the soft white blanket over my eyes to try to block out the light, but it didn't work. My body never let me sleep after I woke up. I groaned and forced myself to sit up, rubbing my eyes. Jerome wasn't in the room. 

I reached down to grab his button down shirt which was still on the floor from the night before. I put the shirt on and buttoned it down. I reached for my hair, which was a bit of a mess from all the grabbing last night, and pulled it up into a tall pony tail at the back of my head. I noticed our empty wine glasses sitting on the table, but the wine bottle was missing. The room looked different in the daytime than it had last night. Light bounced off the grey walls and filled the place with warmth. I stood up slowly, making sure to not loose my balance. The shirt was big enough to cover everything down to my upper thigh. I remembered how Jerome had been more muscular under his clothes than a simple suit let on. 

I walked barefoot into the kitchen where I noticed a half finished mug of coffee sitting on the counter and white bagel with a bite out of it on a small square plate. Jerome was nowhere to be seen. I wondered why he had just left me in his house alone, trusting that I wouldn't take anything. The truth was, I didn't really care if he was here or not. I walked over to the kitchen cabinets next to the stove and began opening them. I went through three until I found a bottle of Advil. I popped open the lid and poured two into my hand, using what was left of the now cold coffee to swallow the pills. 

Unlike me, Jerome had a job that required him to be in an office daily. I assumed he had to leave for work, but I also knew it was Saturday, so that didn't quite make sense. Our office didn't operate on Saturdays. I shrugged it off and leaned my back up against the cabinets. I rarely ever slept with someone in their house. I always preferred my own, because I wasn't too fond of the walk of shame. And in my case, coming out of a random building early in the morning that wasn't my own mean another tabloid article about my newest one night stand. It also occurred to me that someone might know this was Jerome's house and I didn't need a scandal about a pop star sleeping with her marketing director.

I made my way over to the window and looked down onto the street in front of the building. No paparazzi. Good. That meant I could try to make a break for it. My apartment was too far from from here to walk or run without being noticed and I didn't want to call a car because I knew that was one of the easiest ways to leak my location. Margaret's office, however, was just a few blocks down from here. If I could make it there unnoticed, I could grab a change of clothes and fix myself up and call a car from there. No one would question me leaving my manager's office. Fortunately, it was Saturday, so the office would be empty for me to have my privacy. 

I gathered up my clothes and changed back into my red dress. I slipped on my boots and found my leather jacket in the coat closet by the door. I felt my phone still in one of the jacket pockets and my sunglasses in another. I could never go anywhere without them. I put the shades on over my eyes and pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and zipped it up. This would be my pathetic attempt at inconspicuousness. 

I walked out the front door which locked itself automatically and made my way down the stairs, so that I didn't risk running into someone who might recognize me in the elevator. It was a lot of stairs. I'm definitely doing this at my place from now on. 

Once I made it to the ground floor, I took a deep breath and stepped into the lobby, speed walking past anyone who might be there. The doorman opened the door for me and I made a sharp right turn. I kept my head down and stared at the feet of people walking by to make sure I didn't crash into anyone.