“What can I get for you?” she asked.
“Heroin,” I said.
“What else?” she urged. I sighed. She wasn’t going to let me do it.
“Why are you still here?” I thought, saying it out loud. She didn’t say anything, and her hand slowed down a little in my hair. She moved a little under me, and I was scared she was actually going to leave.
I hadn’t meant it. I was just pissed, sick, and tired. People gave me what I wanted when I asked them to, but not her. Her kindness was throwing me for a loop. I didn’t know what to do when someone was nice to me without any real reason to be and didn’t have to be.
She didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything, either. I don’t know when it happened, but I must have fallen asleep because I woke up. Abby was gone. I sat up, I was groggy and sort of tired, but the pain from the night before was mostly gone, and I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up. I started getting up when I stopped, seeing a piece of paper with my name on it, handwritten.
I sat down to read the note.
Nate, I had to leave for work. I didn’t want to wake you. You did great last night; call me at the front desk when you wake up. Abby.
She stayed, I thought. Why was she even still talking to me? I remembered what I had said to her. I would have punched myself in the face if I was her. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I owed her an apology. And a thank you.
I looked for my phone to check the time before calling the front desk. The room was clean, I noticed; she must have arranged that, too. Already too much, I thought. I needed to start paying her or something. She probably wouldn’t take it, though, because that was the kind of person she was.
Too good for me. That might have been true, but if she had seen me last night and still wasn’t done with me, I wasn’t letting her go. I sat on the couch with the phone and called the front desk.
"Good afternoon. Thank you for calling Four Seasons Lanai, you're speaking to Abby. How may I help you?" she said picking the phone up.
“What did you tell housekeeping after they found my room trashed two days in a row?” I asked, smirking.
“Mr. Stone, I trust you’re fine this morning. How can I help you?” she said.
“What did I tell you about calling me that?” I said, laughing at her professional work voice.
“Yes sir, I can certainly make arrangements to take you around the island today. Come to the front desk when you are ready to leave.” I stopped. The fuck was she talking about? “Is there anywhere specific you would like to visit?” she asked.
Oh, of course, someone must have been listening to her. Her boss was probably there, and she wanted to make him think I was asking her to take me out again.
“Is your boss there? Let me talk to him,” I taunted her, smirking.
“We can definitely make the trip there and back before sundown,” she said, answering a question I hadn’t asked her. This was so funny. I didn’t know she had a sneaky streak in her.
“Is this your way of making me leave my suite again? Let’s go back to that beach we went to yesterday and fuck in the sunset again,” I said. I heard her giggle a little before clearing her throat.
“One hour? Of course, sir. Everything will be arranged,” she said before hanging up. One hour. More than enough time to shoot up before I have to leave, I thought. I still felt a little sick, and I had time. If I took just a little, she probably wouldn’t even be able to tell I was high.
I’d made it through last night, though. It would have been a shame to throw that away. How about it, I thought, do this one thing for once that you can be proud of yourself for. I put the phone down and in an hour was downstairs ready for my day with Abby.
Chapter Eighteen
Abby
"I could have sworn that we were sitting right here just last week as you told me how much you wished you didn't have to be the one who was, and I quote, ‘babysitting Nate Stone,’" Makani said to me as I hung the phone up.
I shot her an apologetic glance. I wasn't going to hear the end of this, and I knew it. She had managed to squeeze what had happened the night before out of me, and I knew I'd have something else to tell her when I saw her again that night. Provided we did actually see each other. Nate had gone from barely leaving his suite to completely monopolizing my time.
The thing was, I wasn't even mad about it. Part of the performance had been for Joseph's sake, to make him believe that I was going above and beyond as a proud member of the Four Seasons staff to accommodate a special guest. The other part had been for Nate, but mostly for me. I wanted to spend more time with him.
If I put the sex aside and just focused on Nate as a person, I liked him a lot. Last night had scared me, and his words had hurt, but I couldn't get over how it felt to watch him fight and win against something that loomed so large in his life.
He had fought, and he hadn’t given up, no matter how hard it had gotten. I could only imagine how hard it had been for him. He could have chosen the easy way out, staying sick, but he hadn’t, and that was extremely commendable. That right there told me about the kind of person that he was and the strength that he had even when he was suffering. Guess there was something to my fangirl crush, after all.
"Are you about to tell me something about being careful and not letting him get to me because this can't be permanent?" I asked her.