Chapter 44: My Morning Didn’t Go So Good
The light came in sideways through the gap in the curtains, the particular pale kind that meant early morning and nothing good.
Adrian was still mostly asleep when he rolled over.
His hand found something soft and warm. He registered it faintly, his eyes twitching. Then his fingers closed around it.
Once.
Then again.
Something about the texture was familiar enough to make his half-asleep brain hesitate.
He opened his eyes which landed on the mound of breast which he was currently grabbing.
Adrian slowly lifted his gaze to see whose they were. It was Jenna’s.
He went still.
Jenna lay beside him in his shirt and a pair of dark underwear, already awake. Her cheeks carried a color she probably wouldn’t thank him for noticing, and her eyes were fixed on his hand with an expression that suggested she’d been waiting to see how long it would take.
The silence lasted approximately four seconds.
"Adrian..." Jenna said.
"I’m sorry."
"I think we’re way past sorry."
"I wasn’t..." A pause. "I didn’t mean to..."
" Wake me up with some fondling?" she said as she glanced at his hand still grabbing her breasts.
He took it back.
"I said I was sorry."
"That’s not enough."
His head chose that moment to remind him that alcohol was a terrible investment.
A slow pulse throbbed behind his left eye. Adrian pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead and waited.
It didn’t help.
"You got completely wasted," Jenna sat up, pulling his shirt down over her clean thighs. "Like, impressively."
"I remember the bar."
He did. The shots. The game. Her saying something in the car. The system message.
After that, everything became impressions instead of a sequence.
"I don’t remember much after we left."
"That tracks."
Adrian looked down at himself.
Cotton shirt. Dark boxers.
Neither was what he’d worn to the bar. He looked at Jenna. She looked back.
"Who changed me?"
She gave him a look that somehow managed to be patient, exhausted, and deeply entertained at the same time.
"You couldn’t exactly do it yourself."
"Jenna."
"You really wanna talk?" She shot back, crossing her legs as she faced him. "Mr. Gropper?"
He thought about that.
There was probably a useful response somewhere inside his head. He couldn’t locate it.
"Fair enough " he said again.
"You’re buying me breakfast."
"Breakfast?" He paused. "What time is it?"
Adrian reached for his phone toward the nightstand. He patted the surprisingly fine wood.
Nothing.
"Hmm?" He checked the blanket, the space between the mattress and the wall, then stood and looked at the floor.
Jenna raised a brow. "What’s wrong?"
"My phone." He took another glance around the room. Still nothing. "Where is it?"
He didn’t wait for a response.
He got out of bed.
His legs immediately reminded him that standing had been an ambitious decision.
He ignored them and walked into the living room.
That turned out to be a mistake.
then a few pieces of women’s clothing scattered around the room. He decided, for his own peace of mind, that they belonged to Jenna.
Nothing.
Jenna appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
"Where’d you leave it?"
"You tell me. I barely remember shit." Adrian moved to the kitchen and checked the counter, then behind the fridge, just in case.
"You probably shouldn’t be moving around this much. You’re still hungover."
Adrian ignored her and kept searching, even though the room seemed to shift slightly whenever he moved too quickly.
He tried to reconstruct the night as he moved. The last time he’d had his phone was in the car. He’d read the system message.
After that?
Nothing he could put together properly. He remembered Jenna being there. Her voice. The car. And when she’d picked something off him.
Hmm. What was that? He memories failed to answer.
Doesn’t matter right now. Without his phone he can’t access the system, and he wasn’t going to let his billion dollar chance pass him by.
He could use Find My iPhone. He just needed Jenna’s...
Knock. Knock.
He stopped, a beat passing by until a voice called out.
"Adrian?"
The voice was familiar in a way that relocated his stomach approximately six inches lower than normal.
Rose.
Adrian turned toward Jenna. She was already looking at him. Neither of them needed to say anything. Then.
"You need to..." he started.
"If you say hide, I swear I’m gonna steal your damn car."
"Jenna."
"I carried you. I put you to bed. I slept next to you because your couch has a spring that goes directly into your spine, which you definitely know about and have done nothing to fix." She crossed her arms. "And now I’m supposed to become a secret."
"I know. I owe you."
"You owe me for at least six things, and we just stared talking yesterday."
"I know. I’ll fix it. I’ll actually fix it. Dinner, wherever you want. But right now, I need you inside the bedroom and not making any noise."
The knocked sounded again. "Adrian, I know you’re in there, you left your shoes outside."
Jenna held his gaze for a moment longer than he deserved. Then she turned and walked back into the bedroom without another word.
She gave him a look before pulling the door, and he got the distinct feeling she’d just added another item to the list of things he owed her.
Adrian ran a hand through his hair.
It did nothing useful.
He looked down at himself; wrinkled shirt, bare feet. Well this was as normal as he was going to get on four seconds’ notice.
He crossed to the door and opened it.
Rose stood in the hallway looking entirely fine, which felt unfair.
She wore a light jacket, her hair down, and her sweet floral fragrance as enticing as always.
Her eyes settled on him; direct, quiet, as if she could read something in his expression that he wasn’t sure he’d meant to put there.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey."
"It took you a minute."
"I was in the back." He stepped aside, and tried to keep his expression neutral. "Didn’t hear you right away."
Rose gave a small nod. She didn’t look convinced.
"I texted you last night."
A text. He never noticed. Maybe it was when he got drunk.
"Oh. Um... I lost my phone."
"That figures. You didn’t respond to any of them." A pause. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. After everything."
Right. Last night. The reveal.
It had only been a few hours, but between the drinking and everything else, it already felt much farther away.
"Yeah, I’m good," he rubbed his temple. "I’m honestly... great."
"You sure?" She paused. "You don’t exactly look great."
His eyes followed hers to his clothes which practically showed his hungover state.
"Oh. That." He leaned against the frame, gently rubbing his headache. "Let’s just say, last night wasn’t a nothing night."
She studied him for a moment.
"It affected me too, you know..." she said more quietly. "I’m still..."
She stopped. Then her gaze moved past him.
A small pause.
"Are you alone?"
His stomach tightened.
"Of course."
The answer came out too flat. Too quick. He knew it the moment he said it.
Rose’s looked past him again. Adrian tracked her gaze, keeping his expression level.
Then he spotted it.
On the floor beside the couch, half-tucked beneath the leg of the coffee table, was a black bra.
His mind went very quiet. Then very loud. He ran through every explanation he could find in roughly one second.
None were better than the truth. Most were significantly worse.
Rose looked back at him. Her voice didn’t rise.
"Did you bring someone home last night?"
"No." The word came out before he decided to say it.
She studied him.
"I’m telling you the truth," he added.
Technically, he was.
He hadn’t brought anyone home so much as been brought home, which he was increasingly aware was not the part that mattered.
Rose remained quiet for a moment. Then, very calmly:
"You wouldn’t mind if I came in, then."
Not a question. Adrian didn’t move.
Behind the almost-closed bedroom door was Jenna. In his shirt.
Somewhere in the apartment were probably more of her things, wherever they’d ended up, plus the bra sitting on the floor, apparently determined to testify against him.
If he said no, Rose would know something was wrong immediately.
If he said yes...
I’m fucked.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a third option.
His instincts and common sense arrived at completely different answers at the same time.
But at this point there wasn’t much he could do. He stepped back from the door.
"Sure," he gestured for her to step in. "Come in."
Rose forced a smile, scanning him for another moment. Then she stepped past him.