Page 31 of Fake Rocks
Being in a small confined space with someone I was getting to like more and more was obviously starting to have an effect on me. First the train and now a hotel room. With a sigh, I stopped moving and dropped my hands to my sides.
“Do you want to choose something for both of us?” I asked, dropping down onto the sofa. “I don’t really care. It’s got to be better than what we had on the train.”
His brows knitted together, and he came to sit beside me. “How about we share some calamari? Then a burger? Or there’s salad?”
I snorted. “Do you really think I look like the kind of girl who eats salad?”
“Well, you and your model friends probably follow the cigarettes and black coffee diet, so I guess you don’t need to.”
There had been other things I’d tried in the past to suppress my appetite, though it wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with Tris now. He didn’t need to know about my dalliances with drugs.
“Ooo, baked mac and cheese!” I said, pointing at the menu, my mouth already beginning to salivate at the thought of it. “Maybe I will have a salad with it though. Dinner tomorrow night will probably be several courses and I need to look hot in my dress.”
“You’ll look hot anyway.”
Tris’ statement stuck out in the silence of the room. If we’d have been in a bar or a restaurant, there would have been background noise to cover up my reaction, which turned out to be an involuntary gasp.
There was an awkward pause. Then both of us started talking at once about what drinks we should get, before we both ground to a halt again.
“I’m sorry,” Tris began. “I didn’t mean… well, you are hot…” He trailed off, that same flush creeping back up his neck. “Shall we order up the food and stop talking?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I quite like you telling me how hot I am.” The words slipped from my lips before I knew what had happened. I felt my own cheeks flame. Before my treacherous mouth could get me into even more trouble, I took the menu from him and stood up, moved towards the desk where the phone was and ordered what we wanted.
It was going to be at least half an hour before the food would be ready and I decided to take a shower. At least it would stop me saying things I didn’t know if I could come back from. As I stripped off my clothes, I was aware Tris was only the other side of the closed door. There was a part of me that wished he would join me while I was showering.
How had a fake-make-the-public-love-me-again relationship got me worked up like this?
The outrageous flirting and over-the-top behaviour I’d demonstrated with Troy Carson hadn’t ignited anything in me. But the small exchanges with Tris, the brief conversations, our first ‘date’, did.
I couldn’t talk to Rosie about it, because that would mean telling her the truth and exposing Tris and I as fake.
For the first time in a long while, I really didn’t know what to do.
My mind still worked overtime the whole evening as we ate dinner and channel hopped through a myriad of old comedy series episodes. I couldn’t seem to settle on anything and kept changing channels every time there was an advert break.
It was on the fifth or sixth time I did it, Tris reached out and took the remote from me.
“Seriously, Saff, can we at least watch one whole episode of something?”
I sighed. “Sorry. I can’t seem to find anything to hold my attention. Maybe we should go out after all?”
“It’s nearly half past nine.”
“Yeah, it’s still early.”
Tris’ eyebrows shot up. “Early? Are you serious?”
“What? Sometimes I don’t go out until after eleven.” I shrugged.
“That’s closing time where I’m from.” Tris laughed. “I’d be heading home to bed and you’d be starting your night.”
Suddenly, the thought of being in bed with Tris was all I could think about. I wished he wasn’t so adamant about sleeping on the sofa.
“You’ve clearly never lived.” I jumped up, trying to put some distance between us to stop the images currently flooding my brain. I stood at the bottom of the stairs which led up to the mezzanine level. “I could get changed, we could go and get a couple of drinks…”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I frowned at him. “Why not?”
