Thomas & January (Sleepless 2)

“Listen,” I said, “don’t forget this, okay? I need you to remember that kiss. I want you to know that I do still very much want you.”

Her face bloomed in answer.

“Just give me a moment,” she said. “I’ll be ready in fifteen. You can get ready in here, if you want?” I nodded. “I’ll, uh, knock on the inside of the bathroom door when I’m ready to make sure you’re dressed.”

I heard water running for a moment and sounds of cloth hitting the sink and floor, including her shoes. I placed my hand on the door and closed my eyes, praying that God gave me the patience to sleep in the same room with that magnificent creature.

I was going to kill Jason.

I unpacked everything in the duffel in the set of drawers nearest the bed at the window. I knew we were only going to be there a day, but if you’ve ever had to live out of a duffel, you know it’s harder than living out of a suitcase. If you don’t keep everything organized and folded, it can take you hours to make it right again.

I threw on a pair of jeans and thermal under yet another black t-shirt before shrugging on my hoodie. I stood in front of a mirror and ran my hands through my hair. Done. I walked to the closet near the bathroom and removed the provided laundry bag, throwing all my stuff from that day and the day before inside.

I knocked on the bathroom door. A tiny shriek came from inside, making me laugh. “I’m not decent!” she said.

“Oh well, then it’s okay for me to come in then.”

“No! Not decent! Not decent!” I was quiet for a minute. “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”

I didn’t answer, just laughed. “January, here’s the laundry bag for all your stuff. I’ll set it right outside the door. We’ll want to have our things laundered tomorrow since we’ll be out of here tomorrow evening.”

Chapter Seven

At Least I'm Not as Sad

Thomas

January emerged fifteen minutes later, looking for all the world like sex on heels and I tried desperately to pretend she didn’t. We both moved in front of the sink and brushed our teeth together, trying not to laugh in the mirror and get toothpaste down our fronts, but that didn’t really work out too well for me.

A fresh t-shirt later, and we were out the door. January, a walking, ticking time bomb and I, the detonator. It was only a matter of time before one of two things happened. Either some idiot was going to push me over the line, or she was. I imagined both wouldn’t exactly be ideal. Though, I did have a preference.

“You know what you’re doing,” I told her as we settled into the scene of the only crime we’d actually committed that night. Yeah, I did that.

“Whatever do you mean?” She feigned surprise, her hand flew to her chest.

“You know what you look like. You’d have to be an idiot not to and you, January MacLochlainn, are not an idiot.”

“What?” She teased, one brow raised. “Do you plan those little ditties out before hand, or was that off the cuff?”

“I apologize, was that not clever enough for you?”

“It was beneath you, Eriksson, beneath you.”

“I know something else I’d like beneath me,” I joked.

She laughed loudly, her laugh the equivalent of a ringing bell, before checking herself. “See? You just killed it. It’s literally dead, floating upside down and bloated. It’s that dead.”

“What a visual. You’re the queen of defusing sexual tension.”

She made a tiny bow, raising the hem of her skirt a little and sending me very near that edge I warned you about. “Thank you. Thank you,” she said, righting herself. “Don’t try this at home, folks. I’m a professional.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Thomas Eriksson! You’ve cut me to the core! I don’t believe I can go on,” she said with an exaggerated Southern accent. She leaned her body against mine and went limp. I gladly held her up and against me. “Tell Mama I love her. Tell July I bequeath to her my collection of shells from around the world, and the snow globes can go to August.” She died in my arms and then peeked up at me with one eye open as the doors slid wide to a packed lobby.

anuary answered anyway. “Because he loves us?”

I looked at her in disbelief. “Do you even know Jason?”