Page 81 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
After Nick left, the girl behind the desk gave me my room keycard and told me I was on the top floor and down the hall to the right. My room had a view of the pool down below apparently. She told me robes and towels could be found in the closet.
I was too miserable to even think about going for a dip in the pool, so most of what she said went in one ear and out the other.
When I got to my room, I shouldered the door open and went straight to the bed to put my bag down. I looked around, finding the place much nicer than I’d expected—but not as nice as the room Cal and I shared in New York.
That was okay. I didn’t want to be reminded of our time there anyway.
I turned on the TV and put on some mindless sitcom for background noise. I ended up watching a bit of it before I pulled out a menu from the top drawer of the nightstand to order room service.
I called, ordered, and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the TV, until the knock came at the door. I let the staff member in, who put the tray of food down on my bed. They left after I tipped them, and I sat and ate by myself.
Then I stripped out of my clothes and put on the robe from the closet. I curled up in the dozens of pillows on the bed, pulled the blanket over my lap, and flipped through the channels on the TV, looking for something I could get sucked into.
Anything would be better than sitting there with my thoughts.
All I could think about was him.
It made no sense. Even though I was furious with him and felt betrayed, I still missed him, and he was the only person I wanted to be with. He was the one I knew would be able to make me feel better just by gathering me up in his arms and holding me.
But he was also the one responsible for making me feel so horrible.
I turned off the TV and went into the bathroom where I washed my face and brushed my teeth. The chances of me being able to get any sleep tonight were slim to none, but I was still holding steadfast to my routines. I needed to do something to stay sane, even if it was as simple as flossing and putting on chapstick.
When I was about to climb back into the bed, there was a knock on the door.
I froze with the blankets drawn back and looked over my shoulder.
“Who is it?” I called.
Nobody answered. I frowned, knowing who it was.
Cal.
Whatever he had come to say to me, I didn’t want to hear it. I wasn’t ready. I needed to sit with my own thoughts for a little while and try to make heads or tails of the whole mess. I needed to figure out who I was without him in my life. And maybe that meant things would never be what they were. Maybe it meant he and I would have nothing to do with each other.
I sighed and went to the door. I had to at least tell him to leave.
I opened it. “Cal, I don’t have anything to say to you right now.”
But the person at the door wasn’t Cal. It was a pretty young woman in a wheelchair. She had sandy blonde hair that she’d tucked behind her ears and lovely green eyes that struck me with familiarity.
“Oh,” I said. “Hi. I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
“You thought I was Cal,” she said knowingly.
I nodded. “Do you know him? Wait, did he send you?”
The girl smiled and shook her head. “No, but his father called me and told me you were here. At first, I wasn’t going to come, but then I realized I was being abad friend. How are you, Lina?”
A bad friend? So, we knew each other. At least, she knew me, and I had known her in the lifetime I could no longer remember. But those eyes of hers were registering something in my brain. It wasn’t as concrete as recognition, but it was like a little tickle in my mind, a whisper that she was someone special to me.
I licked my lips. “I’m all right.”
“Can I come in?”
I stepped aside and held open the door. She rolled her wheelchair in through the open door and stopped when she was in the middle of the room. She turned herself around and motioned for me to sit in front of her on the edge of the bed. I went and sat.
I perched my hands on my knees and watched her nervously. “I’m sorry. But who are you?”
