Returning Red

#23: Room 710.

my touch does something to you

Isabella

I knock three times on the door again and I wait. I watch room number 710 bring back an array of memories in my head but I term it all aside. I wait for him to open the door, drumming my fingers on my phone as I look around. I already got stared at by the housekeeping lady who helped me open this door once, I am starting to get really nervous standing outside for so long now. 

I had plans of going to the spa with May today but just as I finished my swimming and brunch, Austin calls me and tells me he has a work-related problem and summons me to his room. He also warned to me reach here before five minutes and that he was starting his stop clock. I had to run from the grill to the 7th floor because the elevator wasn't my friend today. 

My phone buzzed and I frowned at the called ID reading Austin's name. I answered it, tapping my feet. 

"Open the--"

"Door's open, get in." 

And the call just ended. I looked at my phone's blank screen and I scoffed. He could have mentioned that before but okay. I turned the doorknob and the door opened. I looked around at the housekeeping lady who glanced at me, I flashed her a grin and she only smiled back. I entered the room and closed the door. 

Sighing, I walked inside his suite. Familiarly, the scent of the room was filled with Austin's perfume. I glanced around to see the things exactly the way they were when I entered the other day. The extra bed was gone, the couch was gone, and there were no extra quilts or pillows. It was exactly the way it was when I broke into their suite in search of my pills and my car keys the other day. 

Speaking of car keys, I made a mental note to ask him to return it back to me. I stepped in slowly when I couldn't spot him anywhere. As I neared the peripheral point where the entire room was visible, I saw him seated on a chair in front of the coffee table where his laptop was placed. 

He was wearing a dark grey suit and a black tie. His laptop bag was on the study table, but his grey MacBook was in front of him. His black shoes were as shiny as Edgar West's bald head. He put his right ankle on his left knee and I creased my eyebrows. His hands went up to his tie and he adjusted it, showing off his Tommy Hilfiger on his wrist. 

"Mr. Grey will see you now," he smirked gesturing to the chair perpendicular to him. 

I rolled my eyes, walking to the chair adjacent to him, "Funny," I smiled. 

He held his hand out and I stopped in my steps. "Strike two. Don't roll your eyes at me again." 

I was so tempted to do it at the next moment but I gulped and walked ahead. 

I pulled the chair and sat down, wondering why it was not placed opposite to him. His smirk only widened and I can bet a hundred dollars that he'd thought about saying this at least for ten minutes. 

"How long did you wait to say that?" I scoffed, placing my phone on the table and drumming my fingers beside it. 

His placid smile proved my thought. He turned the laptop towards me and pushed it in front of me for me to get a better view. It's an edit of a woman wearing all black and in front of a red poster. She looks confident and emotionless, but the words behind her readout: 

WHY SHOULD THE RAPE STORY BE SHUSHED?
unleashing every story of every woman in VOGUE
"It's time we kill the king and throne the queen" — Alicia Knight

"It looks radiating," I say as I recall Alicia Knight as the woman whose book launch party I missed. I didn't know she worked in the VOGUE too. "The words, the photography, the graphics, it's gorgeous."