Miss Pen

Chapter Twenty-three

The lump in the back of my throat was impossible to ignore, feeling as if it was growing bigger every time I swallowed. I was stuck between running after the man I cared deeply about, and the one I cared about as a friend. It took the one next to me a minute to straighten up, and it took the second after Rhode turned his back for me to realize that my feelings for him had developed out of my control.

Like Rhode, I also wanted to get a good hit on Gage’s jaw. If he had never forced his way into my room and slept on my bed, Rhode and I would’ve actually gotten to use it.

“Wow, I knew the guy was strong, but damn...” He trailed off, laughing and moving his chin from side to side.

Was he seriously laughing? I was on the verge of tears with a painful aching in my chest – a feeling that was extremely uncomfortable to me – and he thought the whole situation was a joke.

“What did you say to him?”

My tone was bitter, anger replacing my sadness and wanting to take out all my emotions on Gage. He looked down at me while cocking an eyebrow, his face wearing an expression that said, “Are you serious?”  

“What makes you think I did something to antagonize him? Forgive me for not knowing that asking if someone was okay is a sign that you wanted to fight them.”

No matter how bad a situation was, Rhode never resulted in violence. He was bigger than that, and this was bad. Really bad.

“Why were you even out here?”

“Oh, so I’m not allowed out of my room while your steroidal boyfriend is around?” Gage was getting annoyed, and I didn’t blame him. I was being unreasonable but just trying to understand what happened from the time Rhode left my room to him groaning on the ground. He sighed, massaging his jaw, a look of sympathy in his dark brown eyes. Shouldn’t I have been the one feeling sorry for him? “I was getting ice.”

My eyes landed on the small gold bucket laid on its side across the hallway. “Well, looks like you’ll need it after all.”

“I’m fine.” His shoulders squared, face hardening to show how much of a “man” he was. I gave him a stern look to show not to mess with me at the moment while opening my door to motion him inside.

“I’ll be right back.”

Gage followed my silent order without any objections. On my way to the ice machine, I gripped the bucket in my hands, wanting to throw it at a wall as hard as I could. That would get some of my frustrations out, but that wouldn’t bring Rhode back. When, or if, I came face to face with him again, I promised myself that I would swallow my pride and tell him how I really felt. All I was doing was fooling myself. My boss already knew and hadn’t done anything about our relationship, so what was I waiting for?

I slammed the ice on the counter in front of Gage when I entered back into my room. The question of what I was waiting for, kept replaying in my mind, and the answer was nothing. I wasn’t going to wait for Rhode to come to me. I was going to go to him.

“Here.” He looked surprised as I threw a dish rag at his chest. “You don’t need me to ice it for you. I’m going to go down to the front desk for a minute.”

Not waiting to hear his response, I dashed from the room on my way to the elevator. I would get Rhode’s room number from the front desk and… and, well, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but at least it was a start. Whoever was down there had given him mine, so there shouldn’t have been a problem, or so I thought.

“I’m sorry, but we’re not permitted to give out that kind of information to just anyone.”

Shrewd blue eyes traveled down, then back up the length of my body. In my mind, there was a flashing neon sign with the word ‘Bitch!’ above the woman’s head. I didn’t exactly look presentable, but there was no need for her to make any judgments about me. At least my hair wasn’t dull and flat.