Page 15 of Dirty Monsters
“Don’t bother.”
Our conversation continued much the same for the next half hour before she finally dismissed me back to my room.
My nurse knocked on my door and did her normal temperature, pulse, and blood pressure checks right before lunch. She asked how I was feeling like always and then left me to my own devices.
I no longer had to stay in my room for meals and was allowed to roam the halls. I tended to avoid the groups of people who lounged around here and there, but I couldn’t avoid them in the cafeteria. People were littered everywhere.
It felt like I was in school all over again. I grabbed a tray at the start of the lunch line and followed the group of people in front of me as they were handed their own food.
Scanning around, I decided to join a group of people sitting at the back of the cafe. They nodded in my direction while continuing with whatever conversation they’d been having before I arrived. One of the guys glanced my way after they finished. “So what are you in for?”
“Um…”
Answers floated up all around the table—cocaine, heroin, alcohol.
“So which is it?” he asked again.
“Cocaine.”
“I knew it. You all need to pay up,” he said, holding his hand out to the people sitting around the table.
My brows scrunched in confusion. “Wait, you were betting on what I was in for? How long have you known I was here?”
An older lady sitting beside me said with a smile, “Oh, word spreads fast about newcomers around here. We figured it was only a matter of time before they let you out to interact with the rest of us.”
“What are you here for?”
“Alcohol.”
I nodded but didn’t respond. No need to get close to any of these people when I wouldn’t be staying much longer. I ate the rest of my lunch in silence, listening to the people at the table around me chatting it up.
When I finished, I stood, returned my tray, then turned to head back to my room. I didn't make it far, though, before I was stopped dead in my tracks.
It was him.
He was leaning up against the receptionist's desk, saying something to make her smile. I wondered why he was there if he worked in another house. I unconsciously started walking toward him.
His hair was no longer wet from his earlier surfing. He was dressed in black scrubs from head to toe, only exposing those very tan, muscular arms. My mind flashed back to the morning when I saw him without a shirt on and in only his board shorts.
Apparently, I wasn’t as casual with my perusal as I thought when my eyes trailed up, and I found him staring back at me. He smirked, showing off a dimple or two, and I couldn’t help the way my heart sped up at the attention. I watched as his eyes dragged down my body once and then back up again, taking me in.
His tongue slipped out, licking his lips, and I trailed them like I’d been stranded in the desert and in desperate need of water. Or his lips. I could get lost in them. They were a light pink color and puffier than a normal man’s lips. I briefly wondered if they were as soft as they appeared.
My feet kept walking as I continued to stare. When I advanced on him, I stopped, noticing the receptionist was no longer there.
“Hi,” I said softly.
“Hey there.”
We stood, staring at each other, lost in a daze between us. There was tension. I felt it. His eyes might have been looking at me, but something dark lurked beneath them, and I wanted to know what it was. I wanted to know what kind of secrets hid in his closet.
His smile was too white up close, too perfect, and his body was even bigger standing next to him. His whiskey-brown eyes were rimmed by black on the outer edge of his iris. I wanted to drink them in. Whiskey was one of my favorite drinks, no doubt. So if he could be my substitute, I’d gladly say yes.
The door opened behind us as the receptionist walked back in from another office. Handing over a file folder, she smiled at Ro. “Here it is. All the paperwork you’ll need on Miss Fanning.”
“Perfect. Thanks for this.”
His eyes met mine again as he turned to leave. “Nice meeting you…”