Authors: Portia MacIntosh
‘Look, I got locked out of the room. You need to let me back in before someone sees,’ I say quickly.
‘OK, sure.’ Danny, as amused as he is, snaps into action, hurrying along the corridor and unlocking the door. As soon as it is open, I hurry after him. As I step inside I grab my towel from the floor, and in one swift moment I ditch my brochure and wrap it around my body.
‘What the hell happened?’ Danny asks.
‘These fucking kids kept knocking on the door and running away and – ’
Right on cue, there’s a knock on the door. Danny opens it and growls like a pissed-off Shrek in an attempt to scare the kids off, but it isn’t kids at all, it’s a hotel employee and he looks terrified.
‘I just…I, erm… The kids are under the supervision of their teacher now, so it won’t, erm…it won’t be happening again,’ the employee stutters.
‘OK, cheers,’ Danny says. As the employee shuffles off, that terrified look still on his face, Danny calls after him: ‘Sorry mate.’
Danny closes the door, whips off his soggy T-shirt and hops onto the bed.
‘Did you see that?’ he asks me, amused. ‘He shit himself.’
I sit at the desk and throw my head into my hands. ‘I am mortified,’ I mumble, my voice muffled by my face being covered.
‘Ah, it’s no big deal,’ he replies.
‘At least no one else saw me but you. I should be thankful for that.’
‘I don’t know,’ Danny chimes in. ‘They’re bound to have CCTV, so…there’s that. Even if they’re not watching it live, if they ever look over it – Christmas,’ he concludes.
‘Fuck off,’ I snap.
‘What?’ He laughs. ‘You’ve got an amazing body; you should show it off more.’
‘Danny, there’s showing it off and then there’s being a crazy naked-in-public lady angrily chasing children. You can get put on a list for that.’
He laughs. ‘Look, we said we needed to make you more comfortable with nudity – well there you go. You were naked in public and you didn’t die. That’s got to make you feel better, right?’
‘Surprisingly, Danny, no, that doesn’t make me feel even a little bit better.’
‘Just when I think you’re chilling out and being fun, you get all uptight again,’ he sighs.
‘Uptight?’ I squeak angrily. ‘Uptight? Just because I don’t want to beave children/hotel security/
you
?’
Danny hops to his feet, grabbing a dry T-shirt and running his hand through his damp hair as he looks in the mirror, before tying it up in a topknot again.
‘I’m going back to the bar,’ he says. ‘I’ll leave you to get dressed.’
‘Fine,’ I call after him.
‘Fine,’ he replies, slamming the door behind him. And just like that, we’re frenemies again.
Waking up in bed, the first thing I see is Danny. He’s just inches away from me, and he’s already awake. When I got in bed last night he was still at the bar.
‘And what time did you get in last night?’ I ask, moving a little further away from him.
‘What are you, my wife?’ He laughs.
‘I bloody feel like it, having to wake up next to you every day,’ I reply.
He smiles. ‘You don’t have to,’ he reminds me. ‘And yet you somehow always do.’
‘You’re like herpes, mister. Once you get under the skin, that’s it. Riddled for life.’
‘I remember when you were a lady.’ He laughs. ‘So, was that our first marital tiff last night?’
‘Something like that,’ I reply. ‘Let’s forget about it.’
‘Sure,’ he replies. ‘And it was only eleven p.m. when I got back. You were flat out. I didn’t want to wake you.’
‘No worries,’ I reply.
We lie there for a moment until my phone starts vibrating.
‘It’s been doing that on and off for about twenty minutes,’ Danny tells me. ‘I had a peep to see if it was worth waking you, but I saw that it was Will.’
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted waking up just to ignore him anyway,’ I tell him.
‘Just to make it clear, that was not me intervening. Like I said, I’ll never do that. You’re a big girl.’
‘Just what every girl wants to hear.’ I laugh as I climb out of bed.
I pull open the curtains and let the sunlight beam in, squinting my eyes that aren’t quite adjusted to the fact that it’s morning yet.
‘You know what I mean,’ he calls, stretching out in bed, filling the space I was occupying as well as his own. ‘I’m not used to sharing.’
‘Yeah, tell me about it,’ I reply. ‘Never shared a bed with anyone before.’
‘You’re good at it,’ he tells me. ‘You keep to your side – don’t lash out. Sometimes you move in for a snuggle, but that’s OK. Anyone would think you were an old pro.’
‘You’re killing me with kindness this morning,’ I reply, shooting him a filthy look as I search for something to wear. ‘Shall we just head back home?’
‘What? But we’re having so much fun.’ He laughs.
I shoot him a look.
‘OK, it’s on and off…but we could be having even more fun. We’re getting there. Just give it another day?’
‘Fine.’ I give in. My emotions are all over the place and I’ve no idea what’s going on, or what’s going to happen, but I suppose delaying the inevitable for a little longer won’t hurt. I might as well make the most of it.
I hold up two pencil skirts, near identical except for the fact that one is black and one is grey. I examine them for a second before deciding I’ll wear the black one with the white shirt I have picked out.
‘Hmm, decisions, decisions,’ Danny teases, trying to mimic my Mancunian accent. ‘Which middle-aged woman skirt will I wear today? I know, the one with the least colour.’
‘Fuck off,’ I snap – something I seem to do often with Danny, sometimes joking, sometimes serious.
‘You need a new wardrobe,’ he tells me.
‘I
needed
to be naked, is basically what you told me last night.’
‘Yeah, well naked is done now. Now we need to get you some sexy clothes. You look like you’re going for a job interview. At a bank. For old people. In the 1950s.’
‘Finished?’
‘For the blind,’ he adds, so I flash him my middle finger. ‘Well, baby steps,’ he tells me. ‘We might be moving slowly, but at least we’re moving forward.’
‘We sure are, fridge magnet,’ I call back as I head into the bathroom.
I close the door behind me and sit down on the toilet. I have my phone in my hand, and I stare at the screen, just glaring at the missed calls from Will until my tired eyes ache and I have to look away. I’ve spent months just hoping and praying he would cause my phone to spring to life. Even when I knew he was in a meeting or out for the evening and there was no chance he’d call me, I’d still check my phone longingly, constantly. Now that I don’t want to hear from him, he just keeps calling and, do you know what? It makes me cross. It proves that he could have called me more often than he did. Well, fuck him. I open up my contacts on my phone and find Will’s name, clicking block so that he can’t contact me any more. There. I can’t be clearer than that.
I wash my face and brush my teeth before slipping on my ‘job interview’ outfit and heading back into the room. Danny is still stretched out on the bed, watching TV with the covers kicked off and his arms behind his head. I feel myself bite my lip, quickly raising my hand to my mouth so that Danny can’t see.
‘You OK?’ he asks, noting my sudden movement.
‘I’m fine,’ I tell him coolly.
Danny hops to his feet with that puppy dog energy he always seems to boast. ‘Quick shower and we can go,’ he tells me. ‘Cardiff today.’
‘Awesome,’ I call after him.
As soon as he closes the bathroom door behind him, I plonk myself down on the bed. I’m glad we’re back on good terms, but I don’t really understand why we were even nearly on bad terms. I don’t have feelings for Danny, do I? I know I look at his body, but I’m only human. That doesn’t mean anything. We’re just good mates, that’s all. I’ve never had a good male friend before, and I think I’m just getting my wires crossed. I’m on the rebound. I need to remember that. But if that’s true, then why did I feel like shit last night when we were apart? And why did I lie there, wide awake, just waiting for him to come back, only to pretend I was asleep when he did get in?
No, I can’t think like this. I just need to enjoy the rest of the trip and, if I’m going to worry about anything, it should be what I’m going to do when it’s time to go home. Danny won’t be around for much longer, but I’m going to be stuck working for Will, having to see his stupid face every day. There’s no way I can continue working there, is there? But I can’t exactly afford to just walk out. I suppose I’ll have to start looking for something else and hope I find something fast.
The thing is though, if I don’t have feelings for Danny, then why do I care less about having to see Will every day than I do about the thought of no longer seeing Danny every day? Let alone not sharing a bed with him…
It’s another hot, sunny day as we park up in Cardiff.
‘Another day, another four-star hotel,’ Danny muses.
As we unload our luggage in the hotel car park, I struggle, the sun making me feel sluggish. Danny laughs at me, pushing his way in front of me, lifting my bags out for me.
As I wipe sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, something small catches my eye. It’s a pug, sitting on the ground next to us, just watching us.
‘Danny, look,’ I whisper.
Danny turns around and looks down at the pug.
‘Jesus.’ He jumps. ‘I thought it was a rat or something.’
‘Aww,’ I coo, crouching down on the floor and beckoning it over. ‘What a little cutie. Come here.’
The pug waddles over to me, rolling onto its back so that I can tickle his tummy. He’s wearing a collar, but there’s no ID on there.
‘Is he OK?’ Danny asks.
‘He feels warm,’ I tell him. ‘It’s too hot for him to be out here.’
Danny looks around to see if there’s anyone about looking for him, but there’s no one.
‘There’s a shop across the road,’ Danny points out. ‘I’ll go get him some water.’
‘Thanks,’ I call after him, before addressing my new friend. ‘Well, aren’t you handsome, huh? Yes you are.’
The pug rolls around gleefully as I continue to tickle his tummy. My arm is getting tired, but I keep going. I don’t want him to wander off – he needs water.
‘Here we are,’ Danny says. ‘Cup your hands.’
I do as he asks and he pours a little water into them. The pug drinks it up, so Danny pours some more.
‘I got these too,’ he says, shaking a box of dog biscuits, causing the dog’s tiny tail to wag frantically. Danny pops the box open and gives him one. ‘I’m going to call him Kevin, because he’s all alone and fending for himself,’ Danny says, putting on one of those cute voices people reserve for talking to babies and small animals.
‘Hello, Kevin,’ I say in a similar tone, tickling his tummy again because he seems to like it. ‘He feels warm,’ I tell Danny. ‘We need to get him out of the sun.’
‘Do you think they’ll let him inside the hotel?’ he asks.
‘I don’t know. Call them,’ I suggest.
Danny takes out his phone and, after a quick google to find the number for the hotel, he calls and asks about their policy on pets.
‘Yeah, it’s a no,’ he tells me, scratching his head as he wonders what to do. ‘We’ll have to sneak him in. Just until he cools down, and we get on to the RSPCA or something.’
‘We can’t sneak him in!’
‘You didn’t mind sneaking things in when we were in York,’ he replies, like I’m being unreasonable.
‘Yeah, a toaster and a few slices of bread, not a fucking pug. You can’t smuggle a dog into a four-star hotel!’
‘Not even a dog as cute as Kevin?’ Danny asks as he hooks his fingers into the corners of Kevin’s mouth, making it look like he’s smiling. As my heart melts, all common sense goes out of the window.
‘OK, how do we do this?’ I ask.
‘Right.’ Danny claps his hands together. ‘You go and check us in, then come back out here and help me with the bags. I’ll figure it out.’
I nod in recognition of the plan before dashing inside to check in, hurrying back out as soon as I have the key. When I get back outside, Kevin is gone.
‘Where’d he go?’ I ask.
Danny gently raises my holdall. It isn’t zipped closed, but he opens it more so I can see inside. Kevin is in there, snuggled up inside one of my bras. He’s so cute, I can’t handle it.
‘Grab something light, so it looks like we’ve got our stuff. I’ll carry this one carefully.’
We walk into the hotel lobby, trying our hardest to look casual. As we step into the lift, I’m aware of the man behind the front desk who checked me in staring at us. I give him a wave, as though to confirm that this is the other person staying in the room and he nods. Just as the lift door closes, Kevin tries to make himself more comfortable, causing the bag to move.
‘Do you think he saw?’ I ask.
‘He can’t have,’ Danny concludes.
Once we’re in the safety of our room, Danny lets out Kevin, who immediately tries to take a few run-ups at the bed, but fails to jump even close to high enough.
‘Come here,’ Danny says, scooping him up and plonking him down.
Kevin makes himself comfortable, so Danny gives him another biscuit.
Danny and I both sit down, searching on our phones to figure out what we can do to try and get Kevin home again.
‘I’ve got the number for a local dogs’ charity,’ Danny tells me. ‘But the line is engaged.’
‘Well, keep trying,’ I tell him. ‘I’ll keep looking into other options.’
After thirty minutes of trying, the line is still engaged.
‘Right, I don’t think it’s far – I’ll pop over there and see what’s what,’ Danny says as he hops to his feet.
‘Are you taking Kevin with you?’ I ask.
‘I’ll leave him here,’ he tells me. ‘Just in case they won’t take him and we have to smuggle him back in.’
‘OK, well, hurry back,’ I tell him.
‘Will do,’ he replies as he rushes out.
‘Well, it’s just me and you, Kevin,’ I say to him when we’re finally alone.
I shuffle around the room, looking for something to do to amuse myself, deciding that I’ll give Amy a call and let her know how things are going.
‘Hello,’ she answers almost immediately.