Page 81 of The Other Side
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It took us two hours to get off the highway and another few to drive around looking for a place to stay overnight. We stopped at four hotels before we finally found one with an available room. And there was only one left: the honeymoon suite.
“This is a joke, right?” I hissed at Chance. “Did you orchestrate this whole thing? You knew about the blizzard, and the clerk is in on it because you already booked the room and gave her a twenty to pretend she’s never talked to you before. Was everything with Wayne a setup too? Iknewit was weird he’d agree to meet with you only on Christmas Eve.” I pointed a finger at Chance’s face in the hotel lobby.
Chance grabbed my finger and calmly lowered it. “She’s just hangry,” he told the wide-eyed hotel clerk.
“So you want the room?” she squeaked, her eyes darting back and forth between Chance and me.
“Obviously we want the room,” I snapped.
“Do you have room service?” Chance asked.
“The kitchen had to close because of the storm—short-staffed. So just vending machines.” The girl pointed to an alcove next to the check-in desk.
I thought I might cry.
“Just the room then.” Chance slid his ID and a credit card across the counter.
“I’ll pay you back,” I mumbled, not sure how, but determined to do so anyway.
Chance placed his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his side. “This is my fault. I’ll take care of it. I’m sorry, Violet.” He kissed the top of my head, and I let him.
There wasn’t much to do to get settled in the spacious hotel room, as I hadn’t expected Chance’s surprise adventure to turn into an overnight trip.
Other than the size, the only thing that seemed to make it a honeymoon suite was the giant jacuzzi taking up half the bathroom. As would have been expected for a small hotel some ways off the interstate, much of the room was dated. The beige carpet had been vacuumed to oblivion, the remote sported duct tape on the back to keep the batteries in place, and the outlets near the bedside tables did not work.
But lucky for Chance and the hotel, I was far from picky. The sheets were clean (I could smell and feel the crisp remnants of bleach), the cable was working, and the water from the tap turned warm quickly enough. What more did you need from a quick overnight stop?
The door lock clicked, and a moment later Chance came in, his hands full. I hurried to help him with everything.
He had grabbed a spare gym bag, which included a change of clothes, from the trunk of his car. The front desk had toothbrushes and deodorant, and I had no idea how much money he’d spent on the mountain of food from the vending machines.
“It’s not sparkling cider, but we could mix them together and try to pretend it tastes as good?” He held up two bottles of light beer in one hand and two bottles of apple juice in the other.
I couldn’t help but laugh. It would probably taste disgusting, but his ingenuity impressed me.
“I’m sure nothing beats your mac and cheese, but the closest they had were a lot of cheese-flavored things.” He pointed to the half a dozen bags of various chips, pretzels, and salty snacks.
“If we crunch up some chips and put them in with the ramen noodles”—he picked up the four Styrofoam cups of ramen noodles before setting them back down again—“it might be close enough?”
I stifled a laugh, amused by his effort and by just how far he was trying to stretch the vending machine food to fit within the parameters of my regular Christmas Eve activities. He was being so sweet, it continued to melt my resolve. “I’ll probably just eat them separately though. I’m not a fan of soggy chips.” I scooted to the edge of the bed, kneeling so we were almost at the same eye level.
“Right.” He nodded. “They did, however, have hot chocolate packets. No milk, but we can use hot water from the coffee machine.” He glanced over his shoulder to the small plastic machine sitting on top of the ancient mini fridge, which hummed so loudly you could hear it even when the heater was on.
“Come here.” I crooked a finger at Chance.
He took a few paces forward to close the distance between us.
Once he was within reach, I wrapped my arms around his torso and leaned my head against his chest. “Thank you.” I breathed him in. As usual, he smelled fresh and clean, but there was also the added scent of the snowfall from outside. It was heavenly.
He returned the embrace, resting his head on the top of mine. “I’m really sorry I ruined your Christmas Eve.” His hand gently stroked up and down my back.
“You didn’t ruin it,” I sighed. “We’ll just postpone everything until we can manage to get back.” I looked up at him. “I’m just glad I’m not alone.”
“Me too,” Chance simpered. He traced the edge of my face with his finger, tucking my hair behind my ear, before leaning down to kiss me gently, just for a moment, then pulled back, not wanting to push me further than I was willing to go.
Although surprisingly, and maybe it was because we weren’t at Montgomery, I found that I was willing to test those boundaries I had put up weeks ago.
