56

Ryan

Two Options

I should've been tired, I should've been ready for bed like Kassie was. But I felt good. I had one single purpose driving me and that was enough to push past the exhaustion.

At the nearest abandoned gas station, I left my car and called a taxi. I'd planned out the whole thing. Wearing nondescript clothing. Having the taxi drop us off at the metro train. Avoiding the cameras.

I just wasn't expecting one thing.

Adam grinned the entire time we stepped through the revolving doors but he grabbed me before we could pass by the front desk.

"What—?" I started to ask when I saw exactly what Adam had spotted.

Zariah. In the coffee shop.

I swore under my breath and sidestepped to the plants, like they were the right size to hide three football players.

"I bet she'd be cool with it," Adam muttered.

"We can't tell her because then Kassie will find out," I said.

"Wait. We're not telling Kassie? Why?"

"She'd get mad about this," I muttered, taking another look at Zariah, sipping her coffee. "I don't want to make her mad. She would say something like this is her problem and she has to deal with it and this is really reckless or something."

"This is pretty reckless," King pointed out.

Adam and I took a long look at him and I dropped my voice. "Do you want to go home?"

"I didn't say that."

"Why the fuck are we arguing about this?" Adam hissed. "It's just Big Z and she's on her phone. She wouldn't look up for a traffic accident." He threw up his hands. "Fuck it. I'll just tell Zariah I'm here to see a brunette."

Before I could haul him back, the linebacker took the long walk across the lobby, right past the coffeeshop and Zariah, engrossed in her phone. She didn't look up once. Not even when he skirted past the counter. King and I paused for a long moment before we followed after him towards the bank of elevators.

"This hotel's security is terrible," King grunted.

The ride up the fourteen floors was quiet. None of us felt the need to say anything. I'd found Miller's room number in one of the emails between Cleo and I, all the way down the hall to the right.

I rolled back my shoulders, ready to knock on the door, when I spotted the latch popped up, leaving about an inch and a half of space for anybody to push through.

"Holy shit." Adam whistled. "It's like the universe wants us to beat this guy's ass."

King frowned. "Are you sure it's his room?"

I rapped my knuckles against the wood, unsure if he was even inside.

"Come on in!" a voice bellowed. "Just leave the food on the desk!"

Without any hesitation, I pushed it open. On the desk next to the door, was a couple of scattered posters with the huge, colorful birds on them, the hornbills that Kassie drew all the time. Bird Pants . This was definitely Henry Miller's room.

King and Adam tried to step inside with me but I shook my head.

"Just wait out there," I muttered.

Inside, the room was humid with steam. Henry was in the middle of the shower and I could hear him turn the water off, probably excited about his breakfast that wasn't coming yet. This needed to be quick before the delivery guy showed up. I gently pressed the door back to its place and stood by the desk. His phone was charging on the outlet.

Footsteps followed from the bathroom and he walked out in a t-shirt and shorts, covered in dark stains from barely drying off. He stopped halfway in the room, finally connecting the dots that I stood right in front of him, and his eyes bulged from his head.

"What the…?"

"Hello." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I—what—"

"You didn't treat my girlfriend correctly and I want to see that fixed."

Purple splotches spread across his face as he struggled to regain composure. His eyes shot between me and the door and back to me again. He cleared his throat. "Whoever the hell you think I am, you've got the wrong man. You've got the wrong room."

"You're Henry Miller."

He paled and pulled a one-eighty.

"Whatever she said, I said—I—sometimes, people drink. I have a beer. I forget my place, it happens, okay? It happens. There's no reason to—there's no—" He wet his lips and his eyes darted back to the door. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm—"

"She's not here right now. And she's the one that needs an apology."

"An apology? "

"You'll have to email it."

" Email? " Henry started hyperventilating. "Have you lost your mind?!"

"You're going to write an apology."

"So someone could screenshot it ?"

"I don't know what that is," I said.

"How do you not know what a fucking screenshot is?! Shit —and what happens if I call the police?! Huh?! What fucking happens then?!"

I held up his phone from the charger and the blood completely drained out of his face.

"Just tell Bailey I'm sorry!"

I frowned. "I'm not here for Bailey."

"Who—Melissa? Laura?" The man did a double-take and his eyes lit up in brief recognition. "I know you—you're the football player—the Romans—it's that girl! That college girl! The high school jailbait!" Whatever look I had on my face made him suck in a hard breath. "Can't we come to an understanding here? She wasn't even upset!"

"And you'll make sure she's not upset when you write that apology ."

"Do you know who I am?! You want me to make a breadcrumb trail for HR?! Like some fucked up Hansal and Gretel?! I'm sorry, I've said I'm sorry, I messed up! What'd you want? Money?!"

"I don't want your money. I want that apology."

" No . Who do you think you are? Get out of my hotel room! That's—that's blackmail, I'm not apologizing for everyone who gets their panties in a twist. I always knew something like this would happen to me—fuck you!" With a dash, he rushed to the door.

I stepped out of the way to let him and he yanked the door open.

"Hey, man." Adam offered him a grim smile. "We like Kassie and my buddy here is going through a rough patch. It'll be better if you start typing."

King nodded.

"We've got two options." I held up one finger and waited until Henry Miller glanced back, mouth agape. "You write the apology to my girlfriend and we make sure you press the little CD button—"

"That's to save something," Adam corrected me. "You're thinking of the wrong button, captain."

"We make sure you press the send button and we leave. The send button? Is that what it is? Is that what it's called?"

King threw up a thumbs-up sign.

"You do that and you'll never see us again." I raised my second finger. "Or, option two. You don't send her an apology and I stomp the hell out of you."

The breath wheezed out of Miller. He took a moment to steady his breathing and walked a step back toward his dresser. "You're a psycho. All for a fucking girlfriend."

That wasn't really the right word for how I felt about Kassie.

"I'm hoping to spend the rest of my life with her but it seems kind of early for that conversation," I admitted.

" What?! "

"Rest of your life?" Adam snorted. "Dude, you're twenty-one."

It was like Miller didn't hear him. "So you're threatening me ? That's the next step?! "

"Yes. I don't have a lot of experience with—she's got this warm glow about her. She makes everything feel brand new. I don't know." I shook my head, that familiar chest-tightening feeling taking over. "This has got to be what falling in love is. You know when you're asleep and you dream that you're falling in the sky? And you're falling, and you're falling, and there's no ground at all? It's that feeling, but all the time when I'm with her."

"Oh, man." Adam sighed.

King shrugged. "I think it's nice."

The Bird Pants creator stared at me, blinking slowly like I'd spoken another language. "This is pathetic," he finally snapped, shaking his head.

My fingers twitched at my side.

"No." Something new took over Miller's voice, and instead of wobbling, he grew more and more pissed off. He straightened his shoulders. "I know guys like you."

Adam leaned into the door frame. "There's been other guys kicking your ass? No offense, how're you still walking around?"

"I know guys like all of you!" Henry hissed out. "It's all steroids and needles and pills and shit. That's what it is!"

Slowly, I cocked my head to the side, watching him flounder.

"That's not real!" Miller gargled. "I'll show you!"

"And that means…no apology?"

"I'll kick your ass!"

King and Adam took a few seconds to glance at each other.

I didn't need them though. They were fine right there at the door. Walking over, I flicked back the latch. Adam and King watched me until it clicked into place and Henry and I were the only two people in the room. I flexed the fingers on my right hand.

"See, I was hoping you'd say that," I said, my voice low. "My art girl's been trying to convince me to relax but, really, I was hoping you'd say that."