by Lexy Timms
Leslie shrugged it off. She’d talk to her when she got back to the room later. It was no big deal.
Eventually, Leslie found herself dancing with Conrad at one of the clubs. He was an amazing dancer. They moved together and it felt like some sort of magic was happening between them. She loved being close to him, the way his body felt next to hers. Needing another drink, they ordered at the bar and moved outside to cool off.
The stars came out to fill the sky like a million silvery bulbs far away. She felt his fingers slipping between hers and she embraced the warmth and the bliss of holding his hand. This was what Leslie wanted. This was everything to her in that moment.
For two years she had watched her marriage and her one relationship dissolve into nothing, all beyond her control. She watched as the man she had grown up and built a life with wither and die in front of her. The painful process of burying Michael had also felt so fresh, but now it seemed like a longer time had passed.
The trip was more than a vacation. She had let go of past friends and everyone associated with Michael. She’d always measured success by the fact that she was not alone, and that she loved. It had been an incredibly hard, and lonely year. She didn’t want to be alone anymore.
Walking up to his suite, they didn’t say a word, even when they were in the elevator. They stood next to each other, holding hands and looking at their reflection in the doors. The made a striking couple, but the unspoken guilt they both shared made it slightly awkward.
Leslie felt free, liberated by this moment and this connection, but she wasn’t sure that Conrad felt the same way.
When they made it to the room, Conrad told her that the shower was all hers if she wanted to get first dibs on it. Conrad had made the plan that they were going to watch their favorite movies from growing up, and with the addition of alcohol it would be a riot. It was going to be the best movie event of the year and there were only two seats available. Leslie liked that, but she wasn’t going to shower in his bathroom when all of her clothes were in the next suite.
“Don’t get lost,” Conrad said, clearly worried that she was going to have some sort of epiphany between his suite and hers.
“I won’t,” Leslie assured him, leaving his room while he got ready and she did, too.
One the way back to her suite, she saw that the door was cracked open very slightly and two sets of eyes were watching her, making sure that she was alone before Josie and Amber threw the door wide open and let out a delighted squeal, motioning for her to hurry.
Leslie did exactly that and when they slammed the door, she leaned against it and grinned as she was hit with a tsunami of questions that they wanted answered, with all the details that she could give them. She let them run their mouths, letting their questions hit her and ripple through her while she just sort of listened and recovered for a moment, smiling like a fool as she only picked up a few questions here and there. Eventually, they silenced and she looked at them.
“I’m terrified. I think I’m falling for him,” Leslie whispered.
“What?” Josie cried in utter disbelief. “What did you just say?”
Amber let out a scream.
“I think I’m falling for him,” Leslie said, with pure euphoria shooting through her and making her feel like she was an angel. “I know it’s fast, but I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never felt so certain about something in my entire life. I mean, he wants to get together tonight and watch old movies and drink cocktails and it sounds like the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done! You know what I’m saying? I sound like a teenager!”
“Not at all,” Amber shook her head. “I don’t even know what you’re doing here, we need to get you back over there immediately. What are you waiting for? Get over there and hang out with him! That man’s a prize!”
“Be careful, Leslie.” Josie frowned as she watched her. “You’ve been alone for a long time. Don’t go thinking the first guy who pays attention to you is in it for the long haul. You’re wearing your heart on your sleeve.”
Amber pushed her playfully. “Josie! Don’t be such a sourpuss! Let Leslie enjoy this.” She waved her hand and turned back to Leslie. “So what’re you supposed to be doing?”
“I’m supposed to shower and change.” Leslie let out a love-struck sigh that was so exaggerated that she felt like a walking cliché. She ignored Josie’s warning. She would deal with the warning later. When she had time.
“I can’t believe you wore that with him all day.” Amber shook her head. “I swear, have we taught you nothing, wayward child?”
Leslie laughed and quickly rushed to take her shower to get back to Conrad as quickly as possible. Amber and Josie sat outside the textured glass, listening as Leslie recounted everything from the moment that Amber left her to the moment they finally tracked her down. While she talked, all she could think about was how handsome he was and how completely beautiful every moment with him had been. She wanted more of that. She wanted more of everything with him and there was this ravenous beast inside of her that demanded more. Damn it! She was going to have sex tonight! The poor boy wasn’t going to know what hit him.
When she got out, she dressed in panties and her big, plush robe that was provided by the resort before she quickly did her makeup and her hair, accompanied by her friends.
“You’d better take a video with your phone,” Amber whispered as she pushed Leslie to the suite door. “I want to see everything!”
“Gross!” Josie laughed. “Please don’t.”
Taking a deep breath, she said her goodbyes an hour after she’d crossed the threshold and headed down the hallway, watching as the room service was delivered, practically an entire buffet. Conrad stood in his robe, signing the bill. He winked when he saw her, holding his hands up in the air as he let the valet into the room to deliver the trays of food.
“What took you so long?” he joked.
“Getting pretty,” Leslie tossed her hair and laughed.
“Job well done.” He smiled and went to help set the food on the table. The waiter left and Conrad uncovered the plates. “I ordered everything. I didn’t know what you liked besides trail mix and fish tacos.” He pointed to a tall bottle of gin. “The stainless steel pitcher’s full of tonic. There should be limes somewhere.”
There was a knock at the door and Leslie giggled. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, letting her hand slip inside his robe and run down the hard muscles of his chest. “That’s probably the limes.” She liked the sound of the moan that escaped his mouth as she pulled her hand away. “I’ll get it.”
Chapter 11
When she opened the door, she found herself face to face with someone she didn’t recognize. Definitely not the waiter.
The strange woman wore a tightly fitted dress that showed off her long legs, perfectly flat stomach, and ample cleavage. She wore her hair done up in a messy bun and had the largest sunglasses Leslie had ever seen placed perfectly on her face.
Leslie stared, unsure of what to do or say.
The woman stared back, her fist raised in the air, ready to knock on the door again. Her look of surprise turned to anger as she glared at Leslie. “Who the hell are you?”
“Leslie,” she answered, remembering suddenly that she was wearing just a robe. She pulled it tightly closed. “Who are you?”
“Conrad’s wife,” she hissed; a scowl on her face before she decided to add the final word that felt like the nail in the coffin. “Whore.”
“Kyra?” Conrad suddenly appeared behind Leslie at the door, pulling it open further to see for himself.
Leslie felt like a giant rock sitting between the two of them. She looked over her shoulder at Conrad, who couldn’t take his eyes off his wife.
“Kyra, what are you doing here?” he asked, clearly conflicted.
“I came looking for you,” Kyra pouted, her voice dropping to a playful whisper, clearly meant to be used only for Conrad. “Baby, where have you been?”
“Nowhere near
you,” Conrad answered. “And stop telling people that we’re still married. That ended when you decided to sleep with anyone who could ‘relieve you of stress’. Have you found any new young pups to fill the need?”
“Clearly you have.” Kyra glared daggers at Leslie.
“I’m just going to go,” Leslie mumbled, slipping past Kyra who hadn’t moved an inch and whose fiery gaze followed her as she hurried past. She nearly ran down the hallway. It was the perfect time for an exit, because what she was leaving was something similar to an emotional Hiroshima that she didn’t want to be a part of. How could she have been so stupid?
With each footstep that she took away from that suite and away from Conrad, she could feel everything that she’d had with him melting away. It was burning up and the embers were drifting in the wind as she ran away like a coward. She told herself that she should have stuck around and defended her interests, but what was the point? What was the point of fighting for something that had only existed for a day? She hung her head and refused to let her tears fall. She wouldn’t give Kyra the satisfaction.
She fumbled with the platinum card in her robe pocket and finally got the room open. She didn’t want to listen to what was happening in the hallway. She never wanted to hear Conrad’s voice again. Not after he asked Kyra to come into his room. She shut the door and leaned her head against it. This was her punishment for not being faithful to her dead husband.
All Leslie knew was that when Kyra followed Conrad into that suite, the door didn’t open for a very long time.
She stood leaning against the wall for support for a few moments. As silence filled the hallway she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, wishing she could disappear. There was a breaking point in the silence. A quiet settled over everything, and it stifled the anger and the rage going on inside of her. It would boil over at one point, just not now. Leslie walked back to her room and glanced at Amber and Josie without saying a word.
She leaned against her closed door as the girls got up. They sat down next to her as Leslie slowly slipped down the door and sat down on the opposite side of the threshold. It felt like losing Michael all over again. Only this time the pain was sharper, like the blade had moved quicker.
She was an idiot. There was no sympathy or mercy in her mind. As the hours passed, she realized she’d blinded herself into thinking something existed between her and Conrad. She’d come here, not looking for love but to stop her bleeding her heart. He just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. She shouldn’t have spent the day with him. She should’ve been like Amber and just fucked the guy. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Such a freakin’ idiot!! She only had herself to blame.
What had she been thinking? She should have realized there was no whirlwind romance to be had and that there was no fantastic and amazing ending to this. There was only the inevitable silence and sorrow she was finding herself slipping into slowly and becoming strangled by. The trip had been a stupid, stupid idea.
She had a good life going. She had everything right where she wanted it to be. There was no need to mess with things or to go on grand and exciting adventures to shake things up. In the end, she was two things. She was a writer and she was a widow. Those two things were never going to change, and struggling so hard against them was futile. She should’ve known better.
When she realized that she had been sitting against the door for what felt like hours, she got up and went back to her bedroom, closing the door and sitting in the silence, staring at the bed where she had kissed Conrad.
It was over. Again. Her life was completely and utterly in ruins.
When she heard a knock at her door, she looked up, realizing it had grown dark. “Yeah?”
“We’re going to run out for something to eat,” Josie said after a moment. “We won’t be gone long. Do you want us to bring anything back for you?”
“No, I’m good,” Leslie said quietly. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Josie said. “Keep your chin up, sweetheart, okay? He’s just a guy.”
“Thanks,” Leslie added, listening as they were heading out of the suite.
The moment they were gone, Leslie grabbed phone next to her bed. She punched in a number she’d committed to memory a long time ago. Shaking, she held it to her ear and listened as it dialed, waiting for someone to pick up.
“How’s my favorite client?” Grant answered in a warm tone, clearly expecting Leslie to have something a lot more interesting to tell him.
“Hey Grant,” she said after a second. “I need to go home.”
“You got it,” he said, his tone immediately changing.
Chapter 12
When she finished the manuscript, she stared at the screen and felt the need to immediately start up again with the next book. There was no reason to stop. It was the next thing on her list, and looking at the mountain of steamed rice and vegetable containers she’d been working her way through, along with the pizza boxes that were cramming up her entire kitchen, it just seemed like the solution to her boredom problem that was infecting her mind right now. Sure, the edits would come back soon and she would need to find some way to work those in, but Leslie found when she was in her darkest moments, she liked to strike out in new directions. Creating was her solution to feeling depressed and like she had lost everything.
In the week that had passed since she left the note in paradise for her friends while they had gone to eat, and probably discuss how they were going to handle their depressed hostess, Leslie had left quietly, caught the first boat and flight home, and then found that writing with the door locked, looking out over the street beneath her balcony was the best remedy. Just like when Michael had gotten sick, and then again after he’d died. Of course, since her friends didn’t come back immediately, she assumed they were more than willing to stay and enjoy the vacation while Leslie dealt with her sadness on her own.
She had no doubt she would get over Conrad. She had made a connection, but it wasn’t the kind of connection that was meant for a lifetime. It had been a silly fantasy, on a paradise island. She’d made herself believe she’d fallen for a famous, hot actor. Just like one of the characters in her books.
It wasn’t the end of the world and she wasn’t going to treat it like that. She’d been there before and knew exactly what it felt like. For now, she was just going to hit the workload she had and then she was going to come out of it completely better for it.
She knew she was lying to herself, but that didn’t stop her.
So she had really liked Conrad. She had made a connection with him where she had never made a connection with anyone before. So, while she was eating pizza slices from Gustavo’s and hitting the gym to break herself out of the depression that gripped her, she kept telling herself that she needed to keep moving forward. One step at a time.
Conrad had a mess of problems to deal with. The fact that Kyra had been looking for her husband only proved how determined she was to keep him. Maybe they’d gotten back together, maybe they hadn’t. It didn’t matter. Conrad wasn’t ready to jump right into another relationship. He’d needed a rebound. That was what she had gone looking for. Just sex with no strings… On a secluded island.
Standing up to go find something chocolaty to warm her heart, she heard a knock at the door and looked toward the sound with a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. Shit. Her neighbors were back.
“Leslie?” a familiar voice called, but not the voice she’d been expecting.
In fact, she had never expected to hear Conrad’s voice again except on television. She couldn’t help but feel a cold trickle run down her spine. She had anticipated Josie or Amber, but not Conrad. She crouched down, like he might be able to see through the door and spot her. “Leslie? Are you home? I have to talk to you,” he called out, knocking on the door again.
Anger built up inside of Leslie. She wasn’t going to open the door for him. She couldn’t let him into her life; at least, not now. She knew if she opened that door, she wasn’t g
oing to be strong enough to resist him; she would fall for him all over again.
He knew nothing about her. He had no idea she had money and who she really was. He thought of her as a starving writer. Hadn’t he teased her about that during the one lunch they’d shared?
Another knock at the door told her he wasn’t going to give up. She needed to cut him off now. Tell him she didn’t want him or the bullshit baggage that came with his life.
“What do you want?” Leslie asked, standing up slowly and walking toward the door.
“Damn, it’s good to hear your voice,” Conrad said, no longer sounding desperate or panicked. He sounded relieved, honestly, like he’d expected her to be dead. She felt slightly insulted by that. “Leslie, it took an entire week of begging your friends to get your address. I think they’re more furious with me than you are.”
“I highly doubt that,” Leslie growled. “How’s your wife?”
“She’s not…” He sighed, clearly frustrated on the other side of the door. “Can you please let me in so we can talk?”
“Why?” She didn’t want to see him. The minute she did, the wall she’d been rebuilding would come crumbling down. “You said she cheated on you and you left her. Then you go all googly-eyed on me. It was just a game to you, wasn’t it?”
“It wasn’t a game!”
She ignored his comment. “Then the moment you see her, you bend and don’t even fight to defend me. You just let me walk away.”
“What do you think I’m doing now?” Conrad punched the wood frame. “What do you think I’ve been doing for the past week?”
