“Ugh,” she says, taking the noodle from me and tossing it on the floor behind her. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter, the whole place is a mess.”
She opens the door wider and I step inside.
She wasn’t kidding.
The hotel room looks trashed.
There are Ramen noodles everywhere, spilled juice on the carpet, the curtains look like someone’s been hanging off them, the bed is unmade.
“Didn’t you just get here?” I ask, looking around.
And then finally I spot the culprit.
She’s in the closet, peeking through the gap in the door.
“Hey True,” I call out to her.
True just bares her teeth like a wild animal.
Okay then.
“Don’t mind her, she’s been a terror for the last twenty-four hours,” Steph says, collapsing onto the couch. She looks exhausted, now that the euphoria of seeing me again has worn off. “To that end, I haven’t slept in twenty-four hours.”
“Not even on the flight?”
She gives me a look. “No. Not on the flight. Linden did,” she growls over his name, “but True didn’t sleep and she cried the entire time. The whole entire time. Everyone on the plane hated me. I even had some assholes tell me I shouldn’t be flying with a child but oh my god, she’s freaking two years old. She’s allowed to fly. Plus when we brought her to your wedding, she was fine. She was an angel! I don’t know what happened.”
“Speaking of your deadbeat husband, where is Linden?” I ask.
“He said he was going out to get us some food since the Ramen we packed, well…” She gestures to the noodles all over the room. “There was an incident. But I’m pretty sure he’s out exploring the town, or who knows, at a pub with Bram. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“They’re next door right?” I ask, pointing to the adjoining door.
“Yeah but I think they’re sleeping. At least Nicola and Ava are.”
“Nooooo,” I tell her. “You can’t let them sleep! That’s going to mess up everything. You’re all here for a week, you need to try and adjust.”
“That’s what I told them,” she says, yawning. “Though honestly, I don’t think it would hurt if I just closed my eyes for a second.”
“No, Steph,” I tell her. Then I look at True in the closet. “True, go attack your mom. Don’t let her sleep.”
True makes a cat-like sound and then comes roaring out of the closet, running right for her mother and jumping on her.
“Oh god, Kayla, I am going to kill you.”
I grin at her. “Didn’t you miss me?”
She groans as True starts lightly slapping her mother’s face. She’s such a pretty looking girl, the product of two of the sexiest people I know, and yet her capacity for evil is truly impressive.
But to make things fair, I head over to the door to the other room and I start banging my fists on it. “Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up! Wake the fuck up!”
“Kayla, no, wait, what are you doing?” Steph cries out.
I look over my shoulder at her just as the door opens.
I turn to face a very old, wet, half-naked man in a towel.
“What’s going on?” he asks me.
I yelp. “Ahhh! I’m sorry. You’re not Nicola.”
“No I’m not bloody Nicola,” he says with a sneer. Then he looks over at Steph. “And there’s no way anyone in this place can sleep a wink with that child running about.”
Then he turns, his ass crack clearly showing, and slams the door shut.
I slowly look over at Steph, my face beet red. “You said they were right next door!” I cry out, absolutely mortified, though that’s fading away into hilarity.
Steph’s trying not to laugh. “I did! I said they were next door. I didn’t say through that door!”
“Oh my god,” I laugh, collapsing to my knees on the carpet, tears streaming down my face.
Now Steph is laughing too, a big belly-aching laugh, and the two of us are positively howling. I’m rolling around on the floor, and then True comes beside me and starts rolling around too.
Then the main door to the room opens and through my tears I can barely see Linden and Bram walk in.
“What the hell is going on here?” Linden asks, staring down at me. “Kayla?”
“Hi,” I manage to say, holding my ribs. “The man. The old naked man.”
They close the door and look at the both of us.
Bram shakes his head. “I think they’ve lost it.”
“To be fair, Kayla lost it a long time ago,” Linden says. “Being in our motherland must have gone to her head.”
“Oh my god.” I lift my arms up above my head. “Help me up you bastards.”
Linden grins at me and comes over, placing his hands at my elbows and lifting me up to my feet.
“Nice to know you’d leave a woman on the ground,” I tell him.
“Shut up,” he says, smiling.
We hug.
Linden’s always been a good hugger.
“Bram,” I say, turning to him next. “How are you? Still doing Bramtastic?”
He gives me a cocky grin, “You know it,” before he pulls me into a quick embrace. “So what’s this about an old naked man?”
I grimace. “I was trying to find Nicola and wake her up.”
“You can do that right now if you want,” he says, running his hand over his beard. “Me and Linden have been walking around, trying to stay awake.”
“Uh huh,” Steph says as Linden attempts to kiss her on the cheek. “Is that why you smell like beer?”
Huh. I hadn’t even noticed. Then again, everyone smells like beer in this place.
“You’re supposed to acclimatize,” Linden says, flashing Bram a cheeky smile.
“It’s eleven am,” Steph points out.
“No, that sounds about right,” I tell them. I turn to Bram. “Take me to your woman.”
I follow Bram out in the hall, leaving Steph and Linden and True to sort through their mess, and to the room on the other side. Of course.
Bram swipes his key and we step inside.
It’s dark.
The curtains are drawn.
Fuck that noise.
Bram slides the key into the light switch and I flick them on.
Nicola and Ava
