Chapter 24: Always Red: Chapter 25

It was almost midnight by the time I got back to my room. I was exhausted, dying for a shower and an aspirin for my headache.

Scientists were always coming up with new things. Why not a pill to stamp out headaches in a matter of seconds? Or a shower room where all you needed to do was step inside, and three seconds later—bada bing, bada boom—you were all scrubbed and clean. Without moving a muscle.

Wouldn’t that be cool?

I wanted all of that. But most of all, I wanted my Red.

Walking right past the bathroom, I tugged off my shirt, discarding it on the floor as I made my way to the bed. Jeans and socks came off next, and finally—finally—I stumbled facedown in bed.

Red had lectured me so much about leaving my clothes on the floor that I felt a little guilty. I briefly thought of getting up and picking them up off the floor.

But the bed felt so good, and there was no way she’d find out. And…

I could still smell her faintly on me. I could close my eyes and imagine her.

Maybe I’d postpone that shower till tomorrow.

She’d probably be asleep by now. She liked to sleep early.

But sometimes she’d forget to silence her phone and my texts would wake her up. She was such a light sleeper.

What was I supposed to do? I missed her. She wouldn’t move in with me yet, but I’d put an end to that soon. As soon as I got home, I’d drag her to see the three houses I’d lined up with the real estate agent.

When my cell rang, I was tempted to let it go to voicemail. But maybe Red was calling. I hit the button without looking at the screen.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Caleb.”

A huge smile split my face. It almost hurt.

“Who is this?” I asked seriously.

“It’s me.”

“Who?” I flipped on my back, settling against the pillows as I imagined her lying in her bed with her hair spread nicely on the pillow. She was probably wearing those tiny red shorts, and her legs would be bare and…

“Caleb?”

I cleared my throat. “Are you the girl who left underwear under my pillow? Because…you know, that’s not normal.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Pause. “What girl?”

I almost laughed. Almost.

“Wait a minute,” I teased, still in a very serious tone. “You sound like the girl who’s obsessed with me. The one who climbed through my bedroom window the other night.”

“Wait. That was you trying to climb through my bedroom window!”

When I heard her soft laughter, I closed my eyes and imagined her face: dark eyes shining with humor, red lips stretched into a beautiful smile.

“Yeah, I’m the obsessed girl who climbed through your window—and ripped off your eyebrows,” she finished.

“Huh?”

“Paper Towns. John Green?”

“Who the hell is John Green, and why would he rip off someone’s eyebrows? That’s…cruel.”

“No.” She snickered. “The one who wrote The Fault… Oh, never mind.”

Ah. Had to be one of the million books she read.

“Hi, Red,” I whispered after a moment.

“Hi, Caleb.”

I knew we were both smiling, feeling happy to hear each other’s voice on the phone.

“Tell me about your day,” she said.

I thought about the situation with Beatrice-Rose, and my good mood plummeted. But then I remembered my day had started really good—with Red. Really, really good.

“Ben showed me around the hotel, introduced me to the staff. After the tour, we went up to the office to start my training. He works like a maniac, and he expects everyone else to do the same. We went through accounts, brainstormed proposals on how to acquire more investors. Then we came up with new ideas for promotional offers and packages for the coming summer and fall, to attract more guests to our hotel. And now I have my girl on the phone. Pretty good deal, all in all.”

“Sounds like a productive day.” I heard the smile in her voice.

“I kept thinking about what happened in your bedroom,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Are you sore?”

There was a pause on the other end, and I imagined her face blushing.

“A little,” she whispered.

And then I remembered…shit. Condom. Or, more accurately, lack of condom.

“Red?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t use a condom.”

Another pause. Soft, fast breathing. “It’s okay.”

What did she mean, it’s okay?

“I’m taking birth control,” she explained. “I went to see my doctor weeks ago.”

“Oh. Good.”

I frowned. I didn’t know what to think when I felt a flicker of disappointment. I guessed I was hoping she might be pregnant.

“Did you finally get to catch up with your brother?” she asked.

She was still uncomfortable and shy discussing things like us making love. I wanted her to be comfortable enough to tell me what she yearned for when we were in bed. I wanted to satisfy and fulfill all her desires. I wanted her to—

“Caleb?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Did you spend time catching up with your brother?” she repeated.

Oh. Right.

“Yeah, I did. But he’s a workaholic. I have my work cut out for me.”

“You’re good at the things you love to do. I know you’ll do great.”

Oh, my girl. She was so sweet.

“I love that you think of me that way,” I said. “I felt like a kid again. Ben and I used to tag along with our grandfather when he went to work. I grew up visiting and learning about hotels from him. Even as a kid, the work, the adventure, even the drama inside the hotel fascinated me.”

I heard her moving around, then the rustle of pillows and blankets as she lay on top of them.

“Tell me a story about it.”

“Hmm, let’s see. I remember when I worked there as a bellman—”

“You did?”

I didn’t know whether I should be insulted or amused at the shock in her voice. “Yep. I told you I’d worked at the hotel. What, did you think I was just a spoiled, gorgeous rich boy who drove around in fancy cars and picked up women?”

When she didn’t answer, I realized she did think of me that way. I scowled. “Ouch.”

She chuckled. “That was so accurate, it wasn’t even funny.”

Way to rub it in, Red.

“But that was then. I didn’t know you before,” she whispered. “Now I do.”

“And now you’re so in love with me, it’s not even funny,” I concluded. “All right, let me tell you a story. This one happened at our hotel in Vegas. You have to promise not to tell anyone. It’s top secret,” I warned.

“I’d spit in my palm and give you a high five right now, Caleb, but you’re too far away.” She uttered it so sincerely and so sweetly that it took a moment for me to realize she was joking.

“Feisty.” I chuckled. “There was this very famous actress. VIP status.”

“Which actress?”

“Ah. That I cannot disclose. See, we may be hotel employees, but we’re basically like priests. Or doctors. Or lawyers. We can’t possibly disclose the names of clients,” I whispered.

“Like CIA,” she whispered back, absolutely on to the game.

“Yes,” I murmured. “Like those guys. But since you’re my fiancée, I’m allowed to tell you.” I told her the name of the actress, and she was impressed. “This A-list actress books the entire floor. For herself. Her manager and assistant were on a different floor.”

“Okay. So maybe the girl loves her privacy. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No, there isn’t,” I confirmed. “But we were still curious.”

“Uh-huh.”

“No one was allowed on that floor, except for maids and room service. And since she was VIP, well, you know, we try our best to give them everything they ask for.”

“Of course.”

“So it was only natural for me and Ben to sneak in. We dressed up as room service.”

“Naturally,” she replied, deadpan. “So, what’d you find out?”

“We thought she was making a porno or…murdering someone, but we found out she was cheating on her boyfriend.”

“Oh. That’s why they broke up.”

“Yeah,” I replied. Paused. “She was cheating on him with another woman.”

“Really? I had no idea.”

“But then the boyfriend, a very famous singer, came for a surprise visit. He was holding this enormous bouquet of roses in front of him and had a small band trailing behind him, carting around their equipment—guitars, violins, you name it. He was going to propose.”

I heard her quietly gasp. “Aw. Poor guy.”

“I know. He also decided to…um…take off all his clothes before knocking on her door. He probably figured, hey, might as well go all the way. Door opens, he sees them. Both naked as a bird. Two minutes later, a flat-screen TV came flying out the window.”

“Oh God.”

“Nearly killed a bellman.”

By now, Red was in fits of laughter. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh, but…”

“Go ahead. It was kind of funny, considering he ran out of the room naked and mad as a bull. All the way down to the lobby.”

“What?”

“I swear it’s true. You didn’t hear that on the news?”

“I don’t really watch the news.”

“Come on, everyone was talking about it. I remember my grandfather was happy. It was free advertising for the hotel. Good or bad, it was still advertising, he said. Anyway, a week later, the singer was already dating a different actress.”

She sighed. “I guess it wasn’t real.”

“I guess it wasn’t. Red?”

I wanted to keep the good mood going—I loved hearing her laugh—but I knew I had to tell her what I’d found out today.

“Hmm?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

I heard the sharp intake of her breath, as if she was bracing herself. “All right, Caleb. I’m here.”

I smiled. I’m here. It was a simple sentence, really. But it held a lot of promise.

“Ben told me he saw Beatrice-Rose in Paris a few weeks ago. She’s sick, Red.”

“You’re worried about her,” she observed.

“No… Yeah. I don’t know,” I replied, frustrated. I sat up in bed, rubbing my face with my hand.

“It’s okay to be worried about her, Caleb.”

“I don’t want to worry about her,” I said a little sharply.

Sliding out of bed, I started toward the kitchen. “What I do know is that I’m not ready to forgive her or let her back in my life. She hurt you.” I made it to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, twisting off the cap harder than I intended. “And going by what you told me about when you saw her today, she doesn’t plan on stopping soon.”

I took a sip and walked to the small eating area.

“I can handle her, Caleb. She can’t say anything that will change how I feel about you,” she said softly, and I heard the apology in her voice. “She’s a manipulative liar. Nothing gives her the right to hurt and abuse people. You don’t have to subject yourself to that kind of abuse. No one deserves to be abused. Not even her,” she finished.

“I know.”

“My dad… He was the same. He nearly…killed my mom,” she choked out. “And me. He didn’t care as long as he got what he wanted. Tell me if that’s right. Tell me if you want to be around people like that. Tell me if you deserve to just take their abuse.”

She took a deep breath. “Beatrice-Rose needs help, Caleb. I feel bad for her, I really do, but it doesn’t mean I’ll stand by and do nothing when she decides to harm the people who are important to me. What she’s doing now… It’s a cry for help.”

“I know.”

I had asked for a bottle of aspirin from the front desk earlier, and when I found it sitting on the dining table, I sighed in relief. I shook two pills into my palm, swallowed them, and chased them down with water.

“The PI phoned me earlier,” I said. “He found something.”

“Did he find out who planted the drugs in your car?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “It was Justin.”

I heard her sharp intake of breath.

“There’s a warrant for his arrest now. They found footage of him in the underground parking lot of my building. He had keys to my car. That’s why the alarm didn’t go off.”

“How did he get your keys?”

“I’m not sure. Before you lived with me, I’d invite the guys to my place for a beer. But only a couple of times. Justin might have stolen them then. I’d never needed my spare keys before. I just kept them in my room, but when I checked, they were gone.”

“Someone had been in your room. Are you missing anything else?”

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing the anger rising inside me. I still couldn’t believe I’d been robbed by someone I considered a friend.

“A Piaget watch I inherited from my grandfather is missing, some cash. I don’t know what else. Clooney, the PI I hired, is checking the security footage of the building. There are no cameras in the hallways. I refused to let them put one in, but there are cameras in the elevators and lobby.”

I stumbled back into bed, hugging my pillow. I wished it was her.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’m so tired, Red. I wish you were here.”

“Me too. I miss you,” she said. “I-I was hoping to spend more time with you today. Watch movies, make you dinner. I don’t know. Something.”

My eyes felt heavy, but I managed a smile.

I reached sluggishly for the lamp and turned it off. Better to hear her voice and imagine her beside me in the dark.

“I would have loved that,” I murmured. “Hey, Red?”

“Yes?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“Um…”

“Are you thinking about me? And what happened in your bedroom?” I whispered.

Soft, fast breathing was her reply.

“Because,” I continued, “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Me too.”

“Good.”

“You sound so tired, Caleb. Get some sleep. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I murmured. “I have this picture of you in my head when I close my eyes. Just you,” I whispered. “Just you.”

I settled into my pillows, feeling sleepy and lethargic, wishing she was curled up beside me.

I want to make love with you again.

Today.

Tonight.

Tomorrow.

Every day.

For the rest of our lives.

“Come home soon, Caleb.”

“Soon, my Red.”

I hung up the phone and closed my eyes, imagining her beside me as I drifted off to sleep.