Page 8 of Room 1212
She blew out a defeated breath but finally gave me a small smile. “Fine.” I stepped to the side and offered her my hand to help her up the steps onto the bus. Then I handed the cat to Noelle.
Noelle just shook her head, laughing under her breath. “Good luck with them today, Drew.” Then she and Felix disappeared back inside, leaving me with a busload of seniors.
“Everybody aboard?” I called as I climbed in and took my seat behind the wheel, cranking the door closed. I got various replies, but they all amounted to yes, everybody was present and accounted for.
It was a short drive to the grocery store. We made the trip once a week, for those without mobility issues. While we provided their meals at the center, they still liked to get out and purchase some things for themselves. Sometimes it was a little treat, like a bag of chips or a chocolate bar, and some of them liked to choose their own shampoos and soaps, instead of the center’s unscented no-name brand.
As I pulled out of the parking lot, Davis leaned across the aisle to talk to me. “I heard you met that author, Jordan Kepler.”
Hearing his name made my stomach clench. I’d been trying my best to forget the entire fiasco, but I should’ve known better. The residents could be like a dog with a bone when they got an idea in their heads.
“Uh, yeah, I did,” I told him, already bracing for the barrage of questions that was sure to follow.
He waited for me to elaborate, and when I didn’t, he prompted, “And? What’s he like?”
“He seemed… nice.” It was an overly simplified answer. He’d been nicer than I deserved, certainly.
“Nice?” Lavender piped up. “That’s it? Nice? That man writes the sexiest books, and you’re telling me that he’snice?”
I shrugged, feeling their eyes burning into the back of my head. “What else do you want me to say?”
Davis snorted. “Well, for starters, is he as hot as his picture?”
I guarded my reaction as a flash of those blue eyes flitted through my mind. No, he wasn’t as hot as his picture—he wasbetter. In person, he smelled amazing, warm and rich, like cashew nuts. It must’ve been his moisturizer or something. Either way, he’d been visiting my dreams nearly every night since I met him, and every morning, I woke up hard and aching.
If I told the residents that, though, they would make it their mission to have us married by the end of the year, so instead, I shrugged again, faking nonchalance. “Meh. He’s okay.”
There was a collection of giggles from over my shoulder. They weren’t buying it. “Oh, don’t feed us that horseshit,” Davis said. “You’re halfway in love with him already.”
“I am not!” I snipped, feeling especially defensive. “Besides, it doesn’t matter what I think about him, because I’m pretty sure he hates me.”
“Why would he hate you? What happened at that book signing?” Davis sounded curious, but not in a gossipy kind of way. He spoke softly, like I’d heard him talk to his son when he came to visit.
The thought of Davis treating me like family made me miss my own father. That was what had me admitting the secret I’d sworn to myself I would never tell. “I… may have said some things I shouldn’t have… things I wish I could take back.”
“Like what, dear?” Lavender asked. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is.”
“No, it’s probably worse.” I paused a moment while I turned right at the next intersection, then I sighed. “I told him his books were cliché and his characters were all a stereotype.”
There were a few gasps and a guffaw of laughter from the residents who were all listening. “Why the hell did you do that?” Davis scolded lightly.
“I panicked, okay?” I reasoned. “I stood in line for like an hour, and he was really handsome, and I guess I got a little flustered. I kept rehearsing all these things I was going to say in my mind, the perfect thing, about how much we all love his books, and it was going to make me look charming and funny, and he would laugh and smile and be totally taken with me. But when it was my turn…”
“You stuck your foot in your mouth?” Davis offered.
I snorted. “A literal foot might’ve been an improvement, because then it might’ve at least shut me up.” I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. “But there’s no point in worrying about it, because I’ll never see him again. What’s done is done.”
The residents were silent behind me, which was somehow worse than if they’d been laughing or teasing me—or even scolding me! I deserved no less.
“You should find a way to apologize,” Lavender finally said, and I could see Davis nodding in the rear-view mirror.
“You should,” he agreed. “It’ll make you feel better, but in the end, the apology is for them more than it is for you. What if you hurt his feelings?”
The possibility made my guts writhe with guilt, but the thought of reaching out to him seemed to make the feeling even worse. “I’m sure he’s used to it. Authors must have thick skin, right? They get bad reviews all the time.” I winced, hating the sound of my own excuses.
“Authors are human too, don’t forget that. How would you feel if someone had said something like that to you?” Davis patted my shoulder once, just as we were pulling into the grocery store parking lot. “I won’t tell you what to do, because I think you already know the right answer.”
I took a deep breath, and let those words sink in. I could hear my father’s voice saying the same thing. He’d have said, “Let your conscience be your guide.”