Page 24 of Tell Me Something

“It’s okay, you don’t have to.”

I didn’t understand what he was talking about until he made his way south. “Josh, what are you—?” Oh, his fingers were back inside me.

“Someone who has been deprived this long deserves two.”

CHAPTER SIX

I woke slowly and stretched. The first thing that dawned on me was that both my hands were untied; the second was that my bed was empty. Looking at the time, I saw it was past eight o’clock in the morning. We had a construction tour scheduled in an hour.

My robe was draped over the back of the chair, and I slipped it on when the knock came at the door. I looked through the peephole before opening it and then smiled at the man with a tray.

“Room service, Ms. Holloway.” His nametag said he was Jose.

After signing for the meal and thanking Jose, I opened the covers to reveal fresh fruit, pancakes, and bacon. There was also an envelope with Haylee written in the unmistakable penmanship of Josh.

Smiling, I opened it, already moved by the romantic gesture. But I cursed when I read the words.

Decided to go to Hong Kong solo and early. Please enjoy the resort for the day and fly back to New York whenever you’d like. I’ll see you back in the city in a few days and don’t read anything into this. It’s business, not personal. –Josh

“Not personal?” I seethed, pacing the room. He conveniently left me at the resort after our first sexual encounter and flew off to Hong Kong without his travel assistant? Not personal? How did it get any more personal?

I called the travel line and spoke with Maria to confirm that, indeed, Josh had taken off about an hour earlier.

So now I was supposed to make my way back to New York. It was like a walk of shame the morning after, only I got to do it for three thousand miles all the way back East.

After a shower and some time to think, I decided that I would follow my father’s words of wisdom. He’d once told me that saying nothing spoke volumes. Considering he’d been a successful divorce attorney and had seen many reactions in his day, I figured he probably knew what he was talking about.

On the bright side, this was an opportunity for me to get my mother’s winter clothes from storage in San Francisco. With that in mind, I made some travel plans of my own and set off for the airport.

WHEN I LANDED in San Francisco, I cruised through customs quickly and then drove twenty minutes north in my compact rental car. The large storage unit was expensive to maintain each month as it was in a mega-secure facility, but it was worth it. Many of the items inside were heirlooms and irreplaceable, passed down for generations. They were also well organized. My mother had been meticulous about how she stored the furniture after selling our house the summer following the death of my father.

Once in my storage bay, I smiled sadly at the familiar furniture and ran my hands lovingly over the wardrobe rack. Now that I was living in New York, I’d have the opportunity to wear the vintage winter clothes that had belonged to my mother and grandmother.

I’d had a privileged upbringing in San Francisco suburbia, but I would’ve traded it all to have my parents back. Being an only child meant I’d been the sole recipient of my parents’ undivided attention. Even so, I’d have given anything to have a sibling with whom to share this grief. It had been a while since I’d had myself a good cry, but surrounded by my parents’ things, my childhood memories, and my emotions from this morning, I allowed the tears to flow.

When I heard my phone ring, I frowned at the unknown number but answered because, technically, it was a workday. “Hello.”

“Where are you?”

Josh’s voice took me off guard. “Um, where are you?”

“Which unit are you in?”

Was he actually here?

“One fourteen,” I replied, wiping my eyes the best I could before walking over to open the door.

Nothing should have shocked me any longer with Josh and his unpredictability, but I was still stunned to see him standing there.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

He stepped inside and took a look around before focusing back on my face. “Your parents’ things?”

“Yes. I was collecting some of my winter stuff. I didn’t have any of it with me in LA, well, for obvious reasons.”

“Are you all right?” His hand came under my chin.

His voice had the tears dropping again. “I haven’t been here in a while. It’s emotional, in a good and bad way, to be surrounded by so many things from my past.”