I left the cafe, a fruitless day of job hunting behind me, and headed back to my room at the Grand Royale.
I stepped off the elevator and made my way down the hallway, my flats sinking into the plush carpet.
One silver lining about Dad being in denial about me and Leo’s “relationship” was that I had the Grand Royale’s flagship luxury penthouse suite all to myself for a week. Not that I needed all the extra room or amenities—I’d be just fine with the standard room—but hey, it was a perfect excuse to delay going home for another week.
I swiped my key card and walked in. As I expected, the suite was just as I’d left it this morning. When I woke this morning, the bed sheets in the second bedroom were still perfectly made, and there was no sign to suggest Leo had ever stepped foot in the suite. If he didn’t make use of the suite when he was attending an event hosted in the same building, I had a hard time believing he’d find his way over here any other time.
Which is why, as I made my way through the suite, my surprise grew at the unmistakable hiss of running water coming from the bathroom.
I paused and called out, “Hello? Leo? Is that you in there?”
“Hey, Tavi!” he shouted from the bathroom. “Yeah, it’s me! I’m in the shower!”
Oh. Weird.
He’d left the bathroom door cracked open, just like he always did. I knocked. “Hey, Leo.”
“Hey! Come on in,” he said from behind the shower curtain. “Don’t worry. You won’t see anything scandalous.”
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, anyway.”
“True, true.”
I pushed the door open, stepped over the clothes he’d left strewn on the floor, and hopped up on the vanity.
“I’m surprised, Leo.”
“About what?”
“I didn’t think you’d come by here. I thought I’d have this extravagant suite all to myself for a week.”
He laughed. “Well. I had to show up here at some point, didn’t I? Don’t want to break your old man’s heart, now.”
“Yeah. Gee. Wouldn’t that be awful.”
“But don’t worry, hon, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care what you do. We’ve got two bedrooms, and the place is big enough for us both without usstepping on each other’s toes. And it’s as much yours as it is mine.”
“Sure, I get that, but I just wanted to swing by and say hi.” He changed the subject. “Oh, and I also wanted to saythank you so very muchfor last night.”
“No need to thank me. I didn’t have a choice.”
He chuckled. “No?”
“As soon as I got home from Stanford, Dad told me I was going. I wasn’t exactly happy about it.”
“Well, either way, I’m thankful you came. I’d say you leftquitean impression. Did youseethe way those dirty old men were drooling over you? Those pitiful, lustful beasts!” He howled. “And then, Tavi, after you excused yourself for the night, they simply could notbelieveit that I didn’t immediately go chasing after you. Oh, and they let me know it, too.”
“Did you tell them why you didn’t chase after me?” I asked playfully.
He hesitated a beat, then sang, “Not fun~ny.”
“What’d you do after I left, anyway?”
“Oh, hell,” he huffed, a tinge of exasperation in his voice. “You mean, besides shake a million more hands and laugh uproariously at all their corny jokes? Not much.”
I glanced down at the floor, my gaze fixated on Leo’s discarded clothes. Something seemed off. Then it dawned on me, and I let out a squeal of a laugh. “Leo!”
