Page 24 of When We Fell Again
Levi: What the actual fuck?! Are you two hooking up?
Alexis: Don’t be ridiculous.
Levi: Where are you?
Alexis: At the hotel. Jordan needs some rest after last night.
Levi: Again, are you two hooking up?
My fingers itched, wanting to tell Levi to fuck off. Hooking up with Jordan would totally be the wrong thing to do, no matter how much I thought I wanted it.
Levi: And what DID happen last night? Jordan went AWOL and we all thought the worst. We couldn’t get hold of either of you or Claudia. You know why we’d be worried, right?
Alexis: He’s fine. He’ll be ready to leave later.
And then I switched my phone off. I didn’t need Levi Kennedy’s opinion on this situation.
Turning onto my side to face Jordan, I watched him sleep. His body was covered in way more inks than I remembered, yet my gaze was drawn to one on his right wrist, in line with his thumb. The letter L covered in thorns and framed with a line-drawn heart. The one he’d had done to remind him of me. My heart caught in my throat. I would have expected him to have had it covered up or removed after we split. But he hadn’t.
Gently, I reached over and traced the line of his jaw. He mumbled and stirred but didn’t wake. If he had woken up, what would I have said?
No matter how I looked at it, this whole situation was moving into dangerous territory.
Rolling over to look at the wall, I screwed up my eyes and tried my hardest to get some sleep.
It only seemed like seconds later when I woke to the sound of the phone in the room ringing incessantly. Without opening my eyes, I reached out to grab the receiver on my side of the bed.
“Hello?” I croaked.
“Oh, good, you’re there.” Levi’s tone sounded anything but happy. “We’re ready to leave. Can you get your arse down here ASAP?”
How the tables had turned. This kind of call usually fell to me, chasing up the band for being late, knowing we had a schedule to stick to.
I moved onto my back and discovered the empty space in the bed next to me. A quick scan of the room showed no evidence of Jordan’s clothes and even less evidence of the man himself. At least I wouldn’t have to explain that.
“Give me fifteen minutes,” I said, already getting up as I spoke.
“You’ve got ten.” The line went dead.
Since when had Levi been so against me? He should have been glad I looked after Jordan.
Rushing around to get all my stuff together, I almost missed the note wedged underneath the tea tray. Written on hotel notepaper was one word.
Thanks.
With a single kiss.
I’d recognise Jordan’s handwriting anywhere.
Without another thought, I folded the note and tucked it into the back pocket of my jeans. I gave the room a final sweep, grabbed my suitcase, backpack, and handbag, then headed downstairs.
The band and the two guys they used as roadies, Angus and Eric, waited in the hotel reception for me, and a slow hand clap greeted my arrival. I gave them a tight smile as I passed my key card over to the receptionist and checked the details on each of the bills. Thankfully, because we were rarely staying anywhere longer than one night on this tour, everything was fine. No huge room service or bar charges this time.
“If you can email me the receipts, that would be great,” I said, already regretting the amount of follow-up emails I’d get to review the hotel and their service. I couldn’t say too much about this one in Exeter because I’d probably only been in the place for about three hours, and most of those had been spent sleeping.
“Of course.” The receptionist smiled. “I hope everything was okay with your stay.” Her eyes wandered over to Jordan, who was slumped against the wall, his bag at his feet. He wore a Rockfield Studios t-shirt, which made me smile in spite of the animosity in the air. Jordan always swore that one day Idol Rev would record there, following in the footsteps of some of his favourite bands and musical influences.
“It was fine, thank you,” I snapped.
