“I swear, Matthew. Do not make me scream.”
“Scream all you want. You married me. This is your life now.”
Coop protests as I stride forward. He’s heavier than I thought, stronger too. But even so, I manage to make it to the hotel lobby before finally setting him down. His face is red, his hair in disarray. He looks positively wrecked.
Probably how he looked last night, I think before pushing that thought aside.
“I’m divorcing you this instant,” he huffs, and my eyebrows rise in surprise.
“That’s all it took? Me carrying you around like a starch?”
He purses his lips and nods before shaking his head. “Actually, no, you’re right. I changed my mind. I think I’ll get you back by being your insufferable husband for all eternity.”
“Oh, fuck no,” I murmur with a laugh, but he’s already striding away toward the hotel bar. “Hey! Where are you going? We just finished drinking.”
“I need a cocktail. Another one, to put up with you.”
“No more drinks,” I say, sliding up next to him at the bar. He’s waving the bartender over, and I shake my head at the man.
“No more drinks for him,” I tell the bartender who looks conflicted on what to do. Probably hates his life right now and we’re only making it worse. “Really. No drinks. He’s had enough.”
“You can’t tell me what to do. If I want a drink, I’ll have a drink. You’re my husband, not my father.”
“Well, since you’re playing the husband card, and we’re technically still married, I do have a say.”
He gasps, his nostrils flaring. “Good fuck, you’re an evil genius.”
“Sometimes,” I reply, and he pokes me.
“Fine, no drink. You win this round, but I promise, I’ll get you back.”
“Yeah, alright, Coop. You’re buzzed enough. Let’s go sit outside for a bit and relax. Breathe in some fresh air.”
“It would be more fun to sit outside and breathe in fresh air with another drink.”
“Maybe after you’ve calmed down a little.”
“Fine, well then, scratch the lounging outside. I want a bath. A hot one with lots of bubbles.”
My eyebrows fly up at the unexpected turn of events. “Yeah, okay. If that’s what you want.”
“I want,” he says with a nod and walks toward the shop in the lobby. It has all sorts of things that people in Vegas would need. Chocolate, hydration drinks, cigarettes, and of course an entire shelf of bubble bath.
Who fucking knows why that’s being sold here. Personally, I haven’t had a bath since I was a kid.
Real men don’t do that.
Or at least that’s what my dad says.
Baths are for sissies.
“Oh, smell this,” Coop says, pressing a bath bomb under my nose. I can’t help but inhale and it smells floral, like a garden in the spring. “I love gardenia. Oh, and honeysuckle is to die for,” he says, picking up a glass vessel filled with some kind of liquid and twirling around gleefully. He looks like a kid in a candy shop, and I’m slightly jealous that he is free to like these kinds of things. That he doesn’t have a voice in his head telling him not to like it, that he can’t possibly want it.
Lucky fucker, I think as I follow him to the cashier and watch as he purchases an obscene amount of soap. By the time we leave, I’m convinced he’s going to float away on a cloud of bubbles as soon as any of that shit hits the water. I’m sure of it.
“You can’t possibly expect to use all of this tonight.”
He waggles his eyebrows at me. “Watch me. I’m a rule breaker.”