Jake

I looked up when the door to the bedroom opened. Klara stepped out, fully dressed, with her purse in hand, and her hair was looking a little wet.

“So, you finally decided to join me, huh?”

Immediately, she frowned. I wondered if she knew, but every time she did that, her lower lip looked like it was sticking out in a pout, making me think she was cute again.

“I used your shower,” she muttered. “It took a few minutes. Sorry I didn’t ask first.”

I waved the apology away. “No need to say sorry for that. Say sorry for making me wait until the food went cold.”

Last night, while she took my bed, I slept on the couch. It was damn uncomfortable, and I woke up early with a crick in my neck. I felt like I didn’t get enough sleep, actually, but it was better than bothering her.

Still, I had to wonder when I started turning into a saint.

The tray had been set on the coffee table, and I lifted the covers off the dishes. I’d ordered all the stuff that was good for hangovers. Some eggs, toast, sliced bananas and honey to go on the toast. Then apple juice and water. There were coffee and bacon, too, but those were both for me. I’d wanted to wait for her to come out before I ate, but it had been nearly half an hour since I had the food brought up. Even covered, of course, it would go a little cold.

“Would you like me to call down and ask them to take this back to warm up?” I offered. “It shouldn’t take that long.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said quickly, walking over to sit next to me.

I wanted to laugh, she was staring at the food like she was starving, but I had a feeling she’d only get annoyed with me if I did.

“If I’d gotten a better suite, we’d have a proper table to sit at to eat, but you’ll just have to hold it in your lap.”

She threw me a strange look. “What do you mean, a better suite? I bet this one already costs twice more than mine. It’s five whole floors higher, too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So you do have a room in the hotel?”

Her head bobbed, even as she leaned forward and picked up a plate, then piled it with food. I had to lean forward and smack her hand when she went to touch the bacon. She threw me a nasty look, but she ignored it.

“I would have gotten you a better breakfast, but I had to keep in mind your hangover. If you irritate your stomach right now, you’ll regret it later.”

She grumbled underneath her breath but got everything else on her plate.

“And, yeah, I do have a room in this hotel. Did you think I just wandered inside to the club?”

I shrugged. “A lot of people do, the club isn’t exclusive to the hotel, or anything. I only ended up there last night because the guys I was with didn’t feel like calling it a night yet. So, we all ended up there.”

Come to think of it; I hadn't checked in with them or gotten a call from my brother since I left last night. I grabbed something and sat back to eat, watching her eat out the corner of my eye. She must have been hungry because she was scarfing down everything. I wanted to tell her to slow down before she choked herself, but before I could, she started coughing. With a sigh, I poured her some apple juice and held the glass out to her. She didn’t even look at me when she took it and drank it all down.

“So,” I said once she calmed down. “What’s a girl like you doing in Vegas, on her own?”

Her eyebrows shot up as she turned to me. “I wondered about it last night, too, but what do you mean by a girl like me?”

I shrugged. “Someone young who didn’t seem all that used to being drunk, or in a club.”

Though really, I didn’t want to tell her that she looked like the innocent, nice girl type that wouldn’t be into that sort of thing, to begin with. I’d run into quite a few, and they were the type I didn’t get along with, but considering where I found her, I could have read it wrong.

“I’m not young,” she protested. “I’m twenty-one.”

“And I’m three years older.”

“That’s barely a generation gap,” she muttered, turning back to her food. “And anyway, why don’t you go first? I’m already in your room with you, why do I have to tell you anything about me?”

I chewed thoughtfully on a piece of bacon as I stared at the side of her face for a second, before turning away. Usually, I wouldn’t just open up to someone I didn’t know, but after last night, I couldn’t say I was acting like my usual self at all.

“I came here for my brother. He’s having his bachelor party and invited all his friends. He and my dad thought it would be good for me to join in.”

She frowned. “But you were alone last night. Or did I take the attention away from your party? I’m sorry…”

I shook my head. “There’s no need to be sorry; I wanted to leave. We… see, my dad has this business, and my brother is a part of it. Has been since way back in high school, actually, but I never wanted what they did, and in the middle of his bachelor party, while he and his friends were on their way to being hammered, he was telling me it was time for me to be a part of the family business.”

Who the hell would do something like that? I was the only one not drunk since they’d left me to be the designated driver, but since we were in the hotel, I thought I’d get to drink, too. He just had to go and ruin my mood.”

“I felt it was the last time to enjoy myself,” Klara told him.

I looked up, brought out of my annoyance toward my brother. I blinked at her, and it took a few minutes for me to realize she was answering my earlier question.

“Oh.”

Wait… I frowned as her words properly registered in my mind. Did she say ‘last time?’

I was curious what she meant by that, and I would have asked, but the expression on her face stopped me. Even just looking at the side of her face, I knew she wasn’t thinking of anything particularly happy. Is she leaving the country or something? That couldn’t be it, though…but what big thing could happen that made her think it would be the last time she had to enjoy herself? My brother and his friends joked about nearly the same thing yesterday, but it was just that, a joke.

Klara didn’t look like she was joking, and that look on her face made something in my chest go tight, almost suffocating.

“Hey, do you want to do something crazy?” I asked.

She glanced at me, eyebrows arched, but the other look had disappeared.

“Sure,” she said.

I opened my mouth, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, “Wow, I didn’t think you’d agree that quickly.”

She shrugged. “I have nothing better to do, and if you’d like to entertain me, I won't complain. What was it you wanted to do?”

“Let’s go see the Grand Canyon,” I suggested.

She looked like she was going to agree when she paused and pursed her lips. The excitement I didn’t even realize was starting to grow in my chest disappeared. I knew it. There was no way she’d go off with some strange guy. Sane people didn’t do that in the world we currently lived in.

“I would love to,” she said, surprising me yet again. “But I need to go soon. I’ve got no money, I’ll need to see if I can get something from my bank account, and I need to be out of my suite in…” she hesitated, then pulled out her phone to check the time. “In the next couple hours, though probably sooner than that…”

Then, she went on eating, like she saw nothing strange about the situation at all.

I watched her for a while, having forgotten to eat myself, but she was finishing up on her honeyed toast. She brushed off the crumbs onto the plate, then poured herself some water.

“So,” I started slowly, once she was finished. “If I took care of your room issue, you could stay longer?”

She frowned. “Why would you do that?”

“Let’s say I want to see the Grand Canyon. What room?”

She was still frowning, but she gave me her room number. Again, I had to sigh at this girl. Naïve, too innocent, or just too trusting? I had no idea which she was, but I didn’t find her calculating, either.

I set my plate on the table then got up. The hotel phone was on the desk a couple of feet away, and I made the call to reception. It was easy enough to extend her stay for a few days and have the tab charged to my room. The hotel was discreet, so I wasn’t asked any unnecessary questions. In less than five minutes, I turned back to Klara.

“It’s done,” I said with a grin. “You’ve got no excuse now, right?”

She stared at me for a moment, then huffed a laugh.

“Yeah. No excuses. But can I at least go to my room to get changed, first?”