Page 13 of Puck Me Secretly

He looked resigned again. “Come knock if you need anything.”

“Oh,” I blinked.I guess not. “Okay.”

I watched as he moved with athletic grace towards his own room. He unlocked it, gave me one last glance and disappeared into his room.

CHAPTER 5

In a daze,I walked into my hotel room and stopped in front of the big mirror. Dried black streaks of eye makeup stained my cheeks. My hair stuck in a million directions, and I still had the yellow life vest limply hanging around my neck. I looked like a crazy person.

With shaking hands, I pulled the vest off. I didn’t know what to do or how to feel. So many thoughts, so many emotions rushed through me.

Was this real?

Had I actually cheated death?

What is Max doing?

Why didn’t I die?

Feeling disoriented, I sat on the bed. I needed to zone out. I didn’t want to think about what I had just experienced. I clicked on the television. Every channel, including CNN, broadcasted the crash. Announcers stood in the field, with the crash site behind them, and with excitement, explained that this was a miracle crash.

Yeah, so not helping.

I turned off the TV and laid back on the bed.

Despite considerable odds, I had survived my greatest fear. I hadsurvived a life-altering plane crash. Shouldn’t I feel different? Shouldn’t I have big endorphins pouring through my body, giving me a new perspective on life?

Only, I wasstillme.

Nothing had changed.

I took a hot shower, shrugged on my complimentary robe and sat on the end of the bed. I stared at the wall between Max’s room and my own.

What was Max doing?

Did he feel different?

Max had displayed unbelievable courage through that harrowing event. While people around us fell apart, he had held me together. I had lost my shit on that flight and he had cocooned me from the worst.

And we had survived.

Now I was alone and the only person I wanted to be with was him. I didn’t understand that, but that is how I felt.

What would happen if I popped over to his room to see how he was doing? He told me that if I needed anything, I only needed to knock. But I didn’t want to impose. Hadn’t he done enough for me? He had spent the day taking care of me, so I wasn’t sure he wanted to continue to deal with me.

I can’t be alone right now.

I shoved my feet into my pink converse sneakers which created a ridiculous fashion statement with my robe, but I didn’t care. I moved down the hallway, made it as far as his door, but then couldn’t bring myself to knock. Turning around to go back to my room, I muffled my gasp when his door opened.

We studied each other. Max’s unbuttoned navy dress shirt teased me with a hard expanse of corded muscle. His damp hair indicated he’d recently gotten out of the shower.

Blue eyes took in my runners and housecoat. “I didn’t hear you knock.”

“I was going back to my room.”

“I was coming to check on you.”

That made me feel better. Enough so I could speak my truth. “I don’t feel like being alone.”

---