Page 17 of Truth or More Truth (Throwback RomComs #3)

sixteen

. . .

W hat am I doing?

I drop onto my hotel bed and flop backward with my arms spread wide.

Why did I ask Melissa if I could stay the night?

I mean, I know why I don’t want to be alone, but I’m alone most nights of my life—mostly because I don’t want anyone to see me like this, though it hasn’t happened in a long time.

Why do I feel comfortable enough with Melissa to be able to ask if I can stay with her?

What is it about her? And what was I thinking pulling her onto my lap and then later kissing her—even if it was just a peck on the forehead?

Instead of trying to figure it out, I get back up and change into gym shorts and a T-shirt.

Then I brush my teeth, grab my room key, and head back down to Melissa’s room before I can talk myself out of it.

Staying with her isn’t a great idea, but the thought of spending the night alone makes my heart race, and not in a good way.

I knock lightly and look up and down the hallway, hoping no other wedding guests see me.

I’m confident Randall and Wendy are holed up in their room until morning, but who knows what Diego is up to, and a few of Leslie’s family members that were at the rehearsal are staying here.

I doubt virtual strangers would say anything to me about what I’m doing, but they might say something to Ash or Leslie, and I don’t want them to know about this.

The last thing they need right now is to worry about me.

Melissa opens the door, and my breath catches in my throat.

She’s wearing quite a bit less than she was last night, probably because it’s not twenty-five degrees in this hotel.

When I asked to stay with her, I pictured her in the same baggy sweatshirt and flannel pants from last night, not tiny shorts and a T-shirt.

“I …,” I run my fingers through my hair, “… this isn’t …,” I turn to head back to my room, because this is the worst idea I’ve had in a long time.

Melissa stops me with a hand on my arm. “Bobby, it’s fine. Come in. We did this before, and we can do it again. Please stay.”

I turn to look at her, hoping I won’t find pity in her gaze. Instead, I see care and compassion.

“You sure?”

She nods and sweeps her hand into the room. “I’m positive.”

The room smells like her—lemon and vanilla. I’m enveloped in it as I enter, and I pause between the beds before looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t care which bed is mine. You pick,” she says.

I sit on the one to my left. “I know I’m being weird—” I say.

“No,” she interrupts, sitting on the edge of the other bed, facing me.

“Not weird. I’m not sure what happened tonight, and I don’t need to know until you’re ready to tell me.

” She takes my hands in hers. “But I’m glad you feel comfortable enough with me to be real with me—to tell me you need to not be alone, whatever your reasons are.

They don’t matter. Well, they do, but what matters more right now is that you don’t have to be alone. Thank you for trusting me.”

I nod. “Not sure you should trust me .”

“Bobby, you’ve given me no reason to believe you’d do anything I’m not comfortable with. I fully trust you. Okay?” She squeezes my hands and then lets them go. “I need to brush my teeth, and then I’m hitting the sack. You good?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “I’m good.” At least, I hope I will be sometime in the near future .

Melissa stands and ruffles my hair before heading to the bathroom. The feel of her touch lingers as I stare after her.

While she’s gone, I take off my my watch and set it on the nightstand.

Then I consider whether I should leave my shirt on since Melissa will soon be in the bed next to mine, but knowing I’ll sleep better without it, I take it off and get myself situated under the covers, facing away from Melissa’s bed so she won’t feel the need to try to talk to me.

I’ve already encroached on her privacy. I don’t want her to feel like she needs to entertain me in the process.

A few minutes later, she pads back into the room and gets into bed.

“Good night, Bobby.”

“Night, Melissa. Thanks again.”

“You’re more than welcome.”

The light between the beds flicks off, and darkness surrounds me thanks to the blackout curtains. I should’ve opened them a few inches to let a little light in. If I’d stayed in my own room, I could have. I should’ve stayed there. Why didn’t I stay there?

This is the part I dread when I’m like this—the darkness.

This is when I get flashbacks to that terrible night.

It was so dark, just like it was tonight when that deer’s eyes glowed at me and sent my heart straight up into my throat.

I don’t always panic when it’s pitch black like this.

Last night I was fine. But last night, the memories were far from me.

Tonight, they came screaming back into my consciousness, thanks to not only our near accident but also learning about Nanette’s recent headaches.

My heart begins to race, and my breathing turns shallow as scenes from that awful night flit through my mind.

Breathe slowly, I tell myself, with my eyes pinched shut. Take deep breaths.

“Bobby?”

Melissa’s voice jolts me out of my stupor.

“Y-yeah?” I respond, taking gulps of air.

“Truth or dare?”

“W-what?” Did I hear her right? She wants to play a game right now ?

“Dare, you say? Okay, I dare you to come sleep with me.”

My eyes pop open. What is she saying?

“Like last night,” she says, “except tonight it’s not to keep warm, but to keep calm. Let me help. I can hear you nearly hyperventilating over there.”

My body is frozen. I can’t sleep with her again.

I can’t. My feelings for her and my need to touch her—to hold her—have exponentially increased throughout this crazy day.

I don’t know if I can handle being cuddled up in bed with her, knowing we can’t take this any further than we already have.

But I know for sure I can’t handle being here in the pitch dark alone.

“Bobby?” she says again. “Please say something.”

I take a deep breath and then push out, “Something.”

Melissa chuckles. “Glad to know you’re coherent, but if you’re not coming over here, I’m coming over there.”

I can’t make myself move or say anything else, and I hear her covers being tossed off. Then she’s sliding into my bed behind me. She fits her body up against mine, and when her arm settles along my side, I grasp her hand and pull it to to my bare chest, holding it tightly over my pounding heart.

She gasps lightly and then asks, “You okay?”

I nod, knowing she can feel the movement even if she can’t see it.

“Good,” she says. “Let’s sleep.”

It takes a while for sleep to come, but with Melissa holding me, the memories finally fade and I drift off.

I jerk upright to the sound of pounding on a door, dislodging Melissa from my body in the process. She was draped across me, sleeping as soundly as I was just seconds ago, based on the confused look in her eyes when I turn to look at her.

“Melissa!” Wendy’s voice comes through the hotel room door. “Open up! We need to head to Leslie’s parents’ house.”

“Crap,” Melissa says as she scrambles off the bed. “I forgot to set the alarm.” She races to the door. I can’t see her from the bed, but I’m hoping she’s not planning to let Wendy in. We can’t let her discover me here, or we’ll never hear the end of it.

“Did you just wake up?” Wendy asks Melissa. “Let’s get cracking, sleepyhead.”

“No, you don’t need to come in,” Melissa says loudly, alerting me that Wendy intends to do just that. But there’s nowhere for me to hide, so there’s not much I can do if she pushes her way in.

Which she does. And then she stands blinking at me from the end of the bed as her eyes open wider and wider and a smile blooms across her face.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Wendy looks back and forth between me and a blushing Melissa while grinning like a maniac.

Melissa sends me a beseeching look before covering her face. “Nothing. We have nothing here.”

“Except a shirtless Bobby Jacobs in your bed,” Wendy states. “Possibly a completely naked Bobby Jacobs in your bed, since I can’t see his bottom half.”

I grab the sheet where it has pooled around my waist and cover my chest with it, which makes Wendy chuckle.

“Technically, my bed is the other one,” Melissa replies.

Wendy snorts. “Whatever you want to tell yourself.” She puts her hands on her hips and smirks at me. “Do you have anything to say for yourself, young man?”

I determine to play it cool. “Ask me anything you want about what happened here last night.” There’s no way she knows about what happened in the car, so whatever she asks will be easily answered.

And since I’m mostly recovered from yesterday’s events, she shouldn’t be able to tell anything is wrong.

Wendy rubs her hands together and asks in a gleeful voice, “Did Melissa sleep in her bed or yours?”

“Neither,” I reply.

Her forehead wrinkles. “What does that mean?”

“I mean, her bed is over there,” I point, “and mine is down the hall.” I chuckle at myself.

Wendy rolls her eyes. “Okay, funny guy, let me rephrase. Did you and Melissa sleep in the same bed? ”

Melissa groans. “Wendy!”

“I will neither confirm nor deny,” I say, “but nothing untoward happened between us. She didn’t even try to feel me up.

Can you believe it?” I’d never admit it to either of them, but I’m a little disappointed Melissa didn’t try anything.

Not that I thought she would. It was neither the time nor the place.

“Bobby!” Melissa glares at me.

“Stop yelling our names,” Wendy says to her.

“If you’d just tell me what happened, this can be over in a jiffy.

I refuse to believe the two of you slept in the same room but not the same bed, even though both beds are messed up.

As Bobby said, it’s not as if he doesn’t have his own bed down the hall. ”

“Okay, fine,” Melissa says. “We slept in the same bed but, as Bobby so eloquently put it, nothing untoward happened.”

“Well, why ever not?” Wendy demands. “What was stopping you?”

On my part, not much other than a panic attack, I think but don’t say.

“We’re friends,” Melissa says, resulting in a pang in my chest region. “We were, uh, talking and then Bobby decided to sleep in here, and uh, I was cold, so we did a repeat of the night before. All we did was sleep in the same bed.”

So Melissa did tell Wendy the rest of the story from the previous night. Interesting.

“Once again,” Wendy says, “there’s something you’re not telling me.

But we don’t have time for me to wheedle it out of you now.

” She points at me and then at the door.

“Out. We’ve got to get her dressed and out the door in two minutes.

You don’t need to watch.” She cocks an eyebrow at me.

“Unless you want to? Or maybe you’re naked as a jaybird and don’t want me to watch you climb out of that bed? ”

I force my face to stay impassive and try not to imagine any of what she just suggested. Then I leap out of bed, snatch up my watch, shirt, and room key, and hustle out the door. “I’ll see you ladies later.”

When I step out into the hallway, thankfully the coast is clear of anyone I know.

I give a brief nod to the curly-auburn-haired woman in the hall who grins widely at me.

It’s only when I’m safely back in my room that I realize I’m only wearing my shorts.

No wonder the woman was smiling. I might be pushing middle age, but I do some form of exercise most days, and I’ve got the body to show for it.