Page 8 of Head Over Wheels
“Do you want to try them on here to make sure they fit?” Deb points towards the bathroom.
“No, I’m sure they’ll be great, and I don’t want to take up any more of your time.” I turn to the door, where Jace is still standing.
“Can I walk you to your room? Make sure you get there okay? After this morning, I’m not taking these things for granted.” His eyes twinkle at me.
“I’ll make it just fine, thanks. You can go get ready for the event too. Thanks again, both of you, so much.”
Jace opens the door and stands aside for me to lead the way out.
“Stop by anytime if you need anything else, Ella. It was a pleasure to meet you.” Deb’s parting words warm my heart. She really is the nicest.
“Thanks again! See you both soon.” I head down the hall and pull out my room key to figure out where I’m going.
Seeing that I’m on the ninth floor, I head back to the stairs. I’m not quite ready for elevators again. In fact, it may be a stair-filled weekend for me. Although, the silver lining is that I got to meet two of my favourite instructors, and they both lived up to their hype. To be honest, Jace more than lived up to his hype. He’s even better looking in person, and so kind and friendly. I sigh happily as I get to my floor.
It’s not too hard to find my room, and the bed looks so inviting I just want to sink into it. Looking at my watch, I see that I only have thirty minutes until the meet and greet, so sadly, no nap for me.
I do take a few minutes to text Jess and fill her in on the last two hours. Her reaction is filled with emojis and exclamation marks. I tell her that I’ll give her details later, but this girl needs to get cleaned up before meeting everyone downstairs. At least the hotel room has the basics of what I need to take a quick shower. I wash my face and avoid getting my hair wet so I can put myself back together quickly.
When I try on Deb’s clothing, I notice that while they may not be a perfect fit, they look all right. Doing a once over in the mirror, I think I can pull this off. The olive is a good colour for me, and it brings out the gold in my skin tone. I took my makeup off in the shower, and I only have my lip gloss with me. I swipe it on, and it completes my fresh-faced look. This is the best I’m able to do with limited supplies. And at least I’m not still in the elevator.
My heart speeds up as I remember holding Jace’s hand, and how safe I felt. If I’m being honest with myself, spending those two hours with him only heightened my attraction for him. While before he was a fictional character, almost a book boyfriend, now I’ve interacted with him as a real person. None of it has been disappointing. He stayed calm even though it was pretty stressful for a while. While he might have been snobby or standoffish once he realized he was stuck there with me, he had immediately been kind and chatty. I’m sure he didn’t realize it, but when he grabbed my hand my heart melted. Now it feels tingly, just waiting for him to hold it again. I sigh, knowing that’s not going to happen.
And having met Deb too—she is just as nice as I thought she’d be. Which means I’m supposed to want them to be madly in love and live happily ever after. Right? But are they still a thing? The internet says they’re over and have been over for a long time. When we got to her room, they didn’t embrace or touch at all. It did seem like they were just friends. There’s a tiny kernel of hope kindling deep inside me, and I grin a little. I think the only way to really find out where all this is going is to get to the meet and greet and see what happens next.
CHAPTER 6
The event is being held in the studio across the street, so I take the stairs down to the lobby. I make sure to take my time so I don’t get sweaty, and take a minute to compose myself before coming out into the reception area. I go out the front doors and run quickly across the street since I didn’t want to wear a jacket and it’s cold. It’s great that it’s so convenient.
The first thing I see when I enter the studio is a giant Elevate sign in the middle of the floor, you know one of those signs that you can stand in to take pictures? There are a few people doing that, so I watch, then I see the doors to the event room are wide open. There’s a woman standing in front of the door waiting to scan the invitation QR code on my app, and then I’m through the doors. There are people milling around, holding drinks, and forming little groups. I see the bar and decide to start there.
“I’ll have a ginger ale, please.” The bartender is cute and takes my order with a nod. I grin back and thank him as he passes my drink over the counter. Turning around, I lean against the bar for a moment and do some people watching. As I look around, I see a lot of members walking in solo and breathe a sigh of relief. I’m not the only one who came alone. Before I can strategize too much, a girl who looks about my age stops in front of me.
“Hi! I’m Tara.” Her hand is outstretched, so I grab it.
“I’m Ella, nice to meet you.”
“Do you know anyone here?” She’s tall and thin and has gorgeous straight black hair spilling over her shoulders.
“Um, I know some people I’ve spoken to online are going to be here, but I don’t really know anyone yet.”
“Great, me neither. We can be buddies.” She shoots me a dazzling smile, and I can’t help but answer her with one of my own.
“Sounds good, thanks for coming over. Where are you from?”
She tells the bartender she’d like a Coke and then turns back to me. “I’m from Montreal, but I’m staying in the hotel for the weekend. I just thought it would be easier, not having to go back and forth, having somewhere to change. How about you?”
I watch as she takes a sip of her drink. “I came in from Ottawa this morning. But if you’re staying here, be careful with the elevators.”
Tara raises an eyebrow. “The elevators?”
“Yeah, I actually got stuck in one earlier today for a couple of hours. It got kind of tense a couple times.” I bite my lip, wondering if I should have said anything.
She reaches a hand out and places it on my forearm. “Wow, that’s terrible. What a lousy way to kick off the weekend. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine now, but sticking to the stairs.”
Tara nods, her hair swishing around her face with the movement. “I think I may have to do that as well.”