Page 64 of Love or Leave

"I know," he said, trying to process how adamantly she was protesting telling Max and what that meant for them.

Not that there was athem. She'd made that clear.

"Okay," she whispered, breaking him out of his despondency, at least for now. "I agree. We should probably tell him one day. But later. Much later. Now is literally the worst possible time."

Cara gestured down at her naked body covered in a thin white sheet. Antonio fought off the fresh wave of desire that hit him.

"Fine," he said, shaking off the image of her straddling him. "What are we going to do?"

She narrowed her eyes for a moment at him before opening her phone again. Antonio stared at her, hoping she'd fill him in on whatever plan she'd cooked up, but she just silently clicked away.

"Uh," Antonio said, realizing a million years had passed since Max had spoken. "Sorry, I haven't seen her since last night. She definitely came."

Cara smirked.

"Back!" Antonio smacked his face. "She definitely cameback."

He pulled himself together and straightened his face, trying hard to ignore her. If they were going to move on, he'd have to look at her less.

Or never.

He searched the floor for his underwear until he realized he was in his own room, and he had a suitcase full of clean clothes. With a shake of his head, he grabbed clean underwear, a t-shirt, and shorts from his suitcase, and dressed faster than he ever had in his life.

When he heard a loudbingcome from the hall, he spun toward Cara.

"Take him away," she whispered with a wave toward the hall, before getting out of the bed and gathering her clothes.

After she made a beeline for the bathroom and was securely hid away, Antonio opened the door.

Max stood in the hall, blocking him. He was staring down at his phone, clicking away. "What took you so long?" he asked.

"Uh, I was taking a shit," Antonio said. That excuse always worked. No one ever followed up with questions after that. "Did you find Cara?"

Max nodded. "She just texted. Apparently, she woke up early and was feeling sick, so she went for a walk. She didn't want to puke in the hotel room."

Antonio nodded. Perfect. "Oh, good."

"Yeah," Max said, pushing a hand through his hair with relief. "I panicked for a minute. Thanks for getting her back safe."

Antonio nodded. "No problem," he said, ignoring the surge of guilt. "There's a café in the lobby, right? Let's go get some coffee."

Antonio stepped fully into the hall, forcing Max to move back, and let his room door close behind him. They walked down the hall toward the elevators together, leaving Cara enough space to dash over to her room and clean up.

Antonio just hoped she left sneakily enough so no one caught her creeping out of his room. Until that point, they'd only lied by omission. They had a chance that morning to come clean. But since they didn’t do that, he’d now actually outright lied. Right to Max's face.

He wasn't sure Max would ever forgive him. Or if he even should.

seventeen

Cara was at her lab, bleary-eyed from the hours she'd spent that morning in front of her computer. But she'd be lying if she said the only thing giving her a headache was the blue light. She knew the headache was actually from the nightmarish situation she'd created for herself.

She pushed away from her desk and spun in her chair. It was only eleven thirty, but she was ready for her lunch break.

"I'm breaking," she called over her shoulder at Dr. Tanaka.

Dr. Tanaka spun in her chair. "Like, mentally?"

Cara managed a weak laugh. "Yes," she said, taking out her lunch bag and reaching for the pill bottle she kept inside for emergencies.

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