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Wrong.
With a giant ball of toilet paper wedged between my legs, I search every bathroom in the house and come up with nothing. But Sally comes back, thank god, with options.
“Okay, I got these from some of the employees.” She produces a fair pile of various sizes of tampons. “And Petunia, the housekeeper lady, overheard me asking and went to her house and got these.” With a triumphant smile, Sally produces a package of pads that look like they were purchased in the eighties.
Beggars can’t be choosers, though, am I right?
“Fantastic. This is great. Thank you.”
Sally gives me a hug and leaves me to get situated. When I’m feeling confident enough to go out in public, I bundle all the rest of the supplies into a towel and hug it to my chest. I don’t know how, but I need to get this stuff up to my room.
Of course, the first person I meet when I emerge from the bathroom is Ben.
His eyes go straight to the brightly striped towel bundle in my arms. “What’s that?”
“Don’t make me tell you,” I respond.
He starts to laugh, but my face must tell him I’m not joking. “Okay...”
“Just go cause a distraction that will let me go upstairs.”
His eyebrows shoot up, but he nods and heads in the direction of the television, on the opposite side of the living room as the stairs I need to sneak up.
“Hey, everyone, if I can have your attention…”
I don’t wait to hear what kind of announcement he’s thought up, making a beeline for the safety of my room. Once I’m there, I don’t want to leave, but I know people will start wondering where I am, so I quickly stash my treasure and change my shorts and panties.
I’m pretty sure I made it back down without anyone noticing, but Paul follows me into the kitchen.
“Did you change again? Do you have a drawer here or something?”
I whirl at the sound of his voice and prepare to fight. Calmly, of course. Not to raise suspicion. “What? No. But I do have most of my worldly belongings in a bag because, you know, the freaking flood.”
His hands go up in surrender. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you. I was just curious. You seem to know this house so well. And you know Mr. Adams like an old friend. I guess I just didn’t realize you and Ains were so close.”
And there it is. It takes all my physical restraint to keep my head from swinging wildly from side to side to make sure there wasn’t anyone around to overhear that. Instead, I focus right on the threat in front of me. “It’s not like?—”
“And don’t worry, I figured out where you’re sleeping, but I won’t tell.”
My mouth drops open, and I snap it shut, trying to make my brain function through the horror of his statement well enough to form words.
He just laughs at my obvious upset. “I said I won’t tell. Honestly, it’s on them if they’re too dumb to figure it out. I mean, this is Ainsley’s dad’s house. Of course he has a room here, and of course he’d let you?—”
“You’re going to be pleased at the movie choice,” Ben interrupts, walking into the kitchen smiling, as if my whole house of cards wasn’t collapsing down around me.
He stops short when he sees Paul. A quick glance between the two of us tells him all he needs to know.
And he saves me.
“Sally’s out there asking for you,” he says to Paul with a nod of his head in the direction of the living room. “Everyone’s getting settled in for a movie.”
“Oh, yeah. Okay. Thanks,” Paul says to him with a smile. He tosses a wink at me and heads off to find his bedmate.
“You okay?” Ben asks once we’re alone.
I shrug. Then I force a smile. “Yeah.”
“Liar.”
