Page 100 of The Plus One Professional
It was a gift, and I was happy to be the lucky recipient of it.
My eyes fluttered open, and he stared down at me as his forehead rested against mine.
“Thank you,” I breathed as my hands roamed up and down the muscled plains of his back and broad shoulders.
“For what?” He asked as he kissed my nose once more.
“For taking care of me when I passed out. For staying with me.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that.” He kissed me once more before he pushed off of me, and I immediately missed the feeling of his body on me and in me.
As I watched him walk to the bathroom to clean up and dispose of the condom, all I could think about was Simon. Not because I missed him; it was the opposite. The second time I’d had hiccups and gotten drunk was at his family’s Christmas party ten years ago. We’d been seeing each other for months that go round, and I thought we were going to make it official. He showed up to the party with a date, and when I asked him why I was there, he said his parents invited me, not him. I got drunk and woke up on the floor right outside my apartment. When I asked him what happened, he told me he’d made sure I got home “safe.”
For all intents and purposes, Cole and I had had a one-night stand over two nights. We’d not been in touch for a month. When he had shown up to my house where there were flowers from another man, and I was drunk; he stayed and took care of me.
Cole crawled back into bed, laid on his back, and pulled me against him.
My head rested on his chest as his hand grazed up and down my back. “Yes, I do need to thank you. You stayed with me. You cooked for me. You took care of me.”
“If you let me, I’ll always be here to take care of you,” he promised as he kissed the top of my head and pulled me closer to him.
As I snuggled against him, tears pricked my eyes. His promise wasn’t an empty one. I truly believed that he meant it. I just wasn’t sure what that meant for the future. Did we have one? Could this actually be more than a rebound? Were his feelings for me real, or was this just a honeymoon period?
I felt something furry against my leg and opened my eyes to see that Whiskey was joining the party. I expected her to come and cuddle up next to me, but instead, she walked right past me and curled up beside Cole. Even Whiskey loved him. My eyes were heavy as I tried to answer all the questions that had been running through my mind.
When I felt Cole’s chest begin to rise and fall in a steady rhythm, I was slowly able to shut my brain off, maybe for the first time in my entire life. I decided just to be present. At this moment, lying in Cole’s arms, with Whiskey snuggled up against him, my life was perfect. I wasn’t going to miss it by trying to figure out the future or re-examining the past. This was all that mattered.
42
COLE
As I drifted into consciousness,before my eyes even opened, I felt something on my chest. There was pressure and vibrations. There was also a weird buzzing sound in my ear, almost like a quiet motor.
Was I having a stroke?
Were these symptoms of a heart attack?
Had something fallen on me?
I managed to force my lids up, and the mystery of the strange sensation and sound was solved.
Lady Whiskerdown, whom Bailey called Whiskey during her Taylor Swift performance, was kneading her paws into my chest and purring loudly.
“Good morning.” I scratched her behind the ear, and she rubbed her face into my palm.
I turned my head and saw that the bed was empty. Bailey was already awake. Keeping one hand on Whiskey to hold her against me, I sat up and grabbed my phone, which I’d gone and gotten after I woke up at six o’clock, and we’d had round two.
It was nine a.m. now. There were no missed calls or texts from Sara or Carly, and I exhaled the breath I always held any time I was away from my phone or sleeping when I wasn’t in the house with them. I felt like I was always on alert, bracing myself for the next emergency. It was exhausting. I set Whiskey on the bed, and she meowed in protest.
“Hold on,” I told her as I got dressed in my boxers, shirt, and sweats.
When I picked her up again, she curled into a ball against my chest and purred loudly.
I walked down the short hall and made a quick stop at the bathroom. I set Whiskey on the floor before I went in, and when I stepped out, she was still there looking up at me, so I picked her back up.
The front room was empty, leaving only one place that Bailey could be. I walked into the kitchen and found her sitting at the table.
“Hey!” She sat up straight when she saw me.
