"It doesn't matter," I said. "I'm not going back there."
He stared at me. I stared at him. In the background, the shower was still running. The frugal part of me wanted to march in and turn it off.
The less-than-frugal part wanted to set fire to the whole room and laugh while it burned.
Maybe I'd start with the photos.
Yeah, right.I didn't even have a lighter. And besides, as crazy as I felt, I'd never take things that far.
In the end, I simply said, "All right. If you won't leave, I'll just get a room of my own."
Good thing I'd brought my purse.
I clutched it tighter and turned away, only to stop when he said, "Becka, wait."
I stopped and turned around. "For what?"
For a long moment, he said nothing as he stared across the short distance. From the look on his face, he wasn't any happier than I was.
And that was saying something.
Still, like a total sap, I felt a twinge of hope. Maybe he'dfinallytell me what was going on.
But he didn't.
Instead he said something that made me want to scream. "Go to the front desk. By the time you get there, they'll know where to put you."
Chapter 65
Becka
True to Jack's word, the nice lady at the front desk was expecting me when I arrived. With a mouthful of apologies, she informed me that a "lovely room" was available, but that she'd need another fifteen minutes to get me settled.
Settled?I wasn't even sure what that meant. But I was in no mood to argue. Already I'd argued more than enough for one single night.Or should I say for one single morning?
It was, after all, shockingly close to sunrise.
So instead I pulled out my paperback and sank into the nearest armchair. I opened the book in front of me, but couldn’t bring myself to read more than a page or two.
I was seething with anger and confusion. Some of this was directed at Jack, and even more of this was directed at myself.
When I considered all of the foolish decisions I'd made ever since meeting him, it made me feel so incredibly stupid.
From the first moment I'd laid eyes on him, I'd been too star-struck to think straight. And then, after getting to know him better, my fan-girl fascination had morphed into real feelings.
Now in hindsight, I realized that I'd been so blinded by my own emotions that I hadn't stopped to consider the terrible possibility that our relationship might be mostly one-sided, even in spite of his pretty words.
I didn'twantto think this. I didn't want to thinkanyof this. And yet the dark thoughts kept coming.
Maybe I was just his bed-buddy, someone to enjoy while he was on the road. Maybe this was the reason he'd been so tight-lipped about himself. Maybe he hadn't planned on me sticking around past the actual book tour.
I couldn’t quite believe any of this, which only made me feel like a bigger fool. Maybe I was the biggest idiot on the planet, because even now, I still loved him – and believed that he loved me, too.
What a mess.
Fifteen minutes later, I was still drowning in uncertainty, even as the elevator carried me upward to my new room – a suite located just a few doors away from the suite I'd been sharing with Jack.
But it wasn't until I opened the suite's door that the odd fifteen-minute delay finally made sense. On a stand near the bed were my suitcases, presumably containing all of my things.
