“Be nice.” My face flushed in embarrassment. “He’s just the front desk clerk Zane.”
“Just give me my keys.” Zane muttered and the man quickly gave us a key attached to a piece of wood.
“This is the key for your door. You’re on the second floor. A wonderful room. The elevator is just up the stairs and to the right.” The man beamed. “Have a nice stay.”
“Who helps us with our bags?” Zane looked around and sighed as he picked up our suitcases. “I guess that was a lie as well.” He muttered to no one in particular.
“I can help.” I reached over to take my case and he shook his head.
“No, I’ve got them.” I watched as he struggled with both cases and just sighed. Let him be the big macho man, I wasn’t going to fight him just so I could give him some help. I walked up the red-carpeted stairs and to the elevator. It was an old-fashioned elevator and I had to manually open the door. As I looked inside I realized there was no way that Zane, myself and the suitcases were going to fit in. In fact there was no way that anyone would fit in with either case. I took a deep breath before stepping back and allowing Zane to see inside the interior of the elevator. I was scared that he was going to completely lose it but he just muttered something under his breath when he realized that it was too small to be of any use.
“So, I guess I’ll just carry these up the stairs.” He sighed and I gave him a wide smile.
“You can do it, Superman.”
“Not helping, Lucky.”
“Sorry.”
“You can make it up to me.” He gave me a lascivious stare and then started up the stairs with the suitcases. I wanted to tell him to take one at a time, but I didn’t think he was in the mood for any suggestions. Thankfully, the second floor wasn’t too far of a hike and we made it there before Zane let go of the cases and called it a night.
“Let me get the door.” I grabbed the key from him and fumbled with the lock.
Finally I opened the door and walked into the room. I looked around the room in dismay. It was small and cramped and the king-sized bed was made up of twin beds pushed together. I plastered a smile on my face so Zane wouldn’t see how disappointed I was. I walked over to the windows and opened them widely, hoping to catch a glance of the Eiffel Tower, but all I saw was some scaffolding on the building directly across from us. I turned back around to check out the bathroom, maybe there would be an old antique claw-footed bathtub that I could soak in and relax. I opened the door to the bathroom and there was no bathtub at all, just a shower and a sink.
“What the f**k is this shithole?” Zane dropped the suitcases on the floor and cursed under his breath. “I’m sorry, Lucky.”
“It’s okay.” I stood in the bathroom wondering how I was going to tell him that there was no toilet. “Let’s just relax, yeah?” I turned around quickly and grabbed the remote control and turned the TV on. I smiled when I saw Sheldon from Big Bang Theory on the screen. “Yay, they have American TV.” I grinned at him, but my smile became frozen as they started speaking in another language. I kept the smile plastered on my face and sat on the hard bed while flicking through the channels. I got all the way through 105 channels before realizing that there was nothing in English. I looked up and saw Zane staring at me and the TV screen with a smirk on his face.
“What’s so funny?”
“Your look of disappointment when you realized that there was nothing for you to watch on TV.”
“Oh, oops, sorry.” I stood up and walked over to give him a hug. “I’m just glad to be here with you.”
“At least we have that.” He kissed my forehead. “Now excuse me a second, I just need to go to the bathroom.”
“Um, about that.” I grabbed ahold of him. “I think we have to use a public toilet.”
“What?” He shouted, his face growing angry again. “I am not paying $400 a night to use a public restroom.”
“This place is $400 a night?” My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. There was no way this place was worth even $40 a night.
“Are you sure about the toilet?” Zane walked to the bathroom, opened a door and cursed. “Okay, let’s see if it is somewhere else.” I tried not to look at him like he was crazy, but the room was so dreadfully small, there wasn’t even a place to hide a toilet.
Zane walked to the corner of the room and opened a door to what I thought I thought was the closet. “What the fuck?” Zane cursed again as he looked in front of the open door.
I walked over to him to see what had gotten him so worked up. My face paled as I stared at the toilet. It was a normal looking toilet, but it took up the whole “room.” There was no way someone could sit on the toilet and close the door; it was literally impossible.
“Oh, that’s a tight space.”
We both stood there staring at each other for a couple of seconds before we both started laughing. Our laughter was so loud that I thought someone would think we were dying of a laughing attack. I doubled over from laughing so hard and Zane grabbed hold of me to keep me from falling over. “My stomach hurts.” I took a breath and clutched onto his arm.
“I’m about to piss my pants.” Zane gave me a wry smile. “Literally.”
“Well then you better go to the toilet.” I pointed to the door and he shuddered.
“Okay.” He took two steps and I heard him unzip his pants, and then I heard the sound of his wee as it hit the toilet bowl.
I cringed when I realized that every noise someone made while on the toilet would be heard by everyone in the room. I quickly walked back to the bed and laid flat on my back, deep in thought. What was I going to do when I needed to go to the bathroom? There was no way I wanted him to hear me on the toilet, not for number 1 or 2. Number 1 was bad enough, but I knew I would die of shame if he heard me go number 2. There were some things that should just never be shared.
“That’s better.” Zane plopped down on the bed next to me and I frowned.
“You didn’t wash your hands.”
“What?” He looked confused.
“You didn’t wash your hands and you were just holding your Johnson.”
“My Johnson?” He jumped up and walked to the bathroom. “I’d rather we call him Zane Jr.”
“I’d rather we didn’t call him anything at all, actually.” I stared at Zane as he made his way back to the bed. His hair was growing longer and I could see the facial hair growing on his neck and face. He looked handsome, and manly. I wanted to feel the rough of his stubble against the softness of my skin.
“Are you sure about that?” He laid down flat on his stomach and leaned on his arms while staring at me.
“Sure about what?” His eyes and lips had mesmerized me and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“You know what.” He laughed and all of a sudden I was taken back to the first day I saw him come into the diner. It had been a Friday about 7 p.m. It had been pretty slow and Maria and I’d been dancing around behind the counter. She had been trying to teach me the basic salsa steps and I had been concentrating so hard that I hadn’t even noticed some customers had entered the restaurant.
“Sorry to bother you two dancing queens, but do you think we can get a table?” His voice had been deep and firm, but his tone had been full of laughter.
I looked up, ready to apologize, but the words had stuck in my throat as I gazed into his deep blue eyes. He had stared back at me, and we had what I had thought was an instant connection. I had given him a sweet smile and was about to lead him to a table when I noticed the gorgeous blonde behind him. She stood there snarling at me and then studied her fingernails, and I had felt about six inches tall.
“I’m sorry, sir. This way.” I had grabbed the menus and berated myself mentally for thinking that we had had a connection. There was no way a man like him would be interested in a waitress like me.
“I thought I had walked into a dance class and not a diner.” His eyes teased me as he took the menus and I blushed.
“Sorry about that.” I muttered again and he winked at me.
“Do you guys only have burgers?” The blonde had looked at me in disgust. “What is this place, Zane? I thought we were going to Ruth’s Chris.”
“They didn’t have any reservations, Emily.” He had reached over and caressed her hand. “A burger won’t kill you just this once.”
“I guess so, Zane.” She had tinkled and tightened her fingers in his. I had stood there staring at them for a moment when Zane had looked up at me and smiled. A real, wide, genuine smile, and I had been captivated by him. It wasn’t just that he had been the most gorgeous man I had ever seen but there was a glint in his eyes that had lit a part of me on fire.
“Are you okay, Lucky?” Zane’s expression was worried as he looked at me searchingly.
I nodded slowly. “I was just thinking about the first time we met.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, your expression just now reminded me of that day.” I smiled gently and ran my fingers along his jaw line. “You were so arrogant and hot, I didn’t know what to think about you.”
“I’m just glad you thought about me period.” He stared into my eyes. “To think we may never have met if I had never gone in that diner that night.”
“We would have met.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “We’re soul mates. Soul mates always meet up at some point in their lives.”
“You’re just a regular old romantic sap aren’t you Lucky?” He kissed me back gently. “Can I hear your song for me now?”
“It’s bad.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to say it now.”
“Why not?”
“Yours was so beautiful and mine…well, mine is just really bad and goofy.”
“Nothing about you is goofy.”
“Have you seen me at the gym?” I giggled. “Trust me, if you saw me try to use some of those weight machines, you would think I was the goofiest person that you ever met.”
“Stop trying to change the subject.” He licked my lips with the tip of his tongue. “Let me hear it.”
“If you promise not to laugh.”
“Of course I won’t laugh.”
“Okay.” I groaned. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but it’s really goofy.”
“I’m waiting.”
“Argh. Okay. Here we go.” I cleared my throat and sat up a little bit so that we were eye to eye. I coughed and then recited the poem I had written for him.
Zane, there has never been a man like you
Who has taken my heart and swallowed it up
I want you to know that you never have to doubt
That you have my love forever
I’ll never leave you, never stop loving you, never stop wanting to be with you
You are me, I am you, we are one
The room was silent as I finished speaking and I was scared that Zane was trying to hold his laughter in. I looked into his eyes and I realized that they looked wet.
“I told you it sucked.” I mumbled, embarrassed.
“That was amazing, Lucky. Thank you.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Now, what do you want to go and do?”
“Wait, we’re going out?” I was surprised and disappointed that he had changed the topic so quickly but I didn’t want to ask him why. I knew he was a newbie to emotions and I was pretty confident that he was most probably feeling overwhelmed with everything that was going on.
He jumped up off of the bed and stared down at me. “Want to see the Eiffel Tower by night?”
“Sure, I suppose so.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes before getting off of the bed. “I didn’t know we were going to go out right away.”
“There’s no time like the present right?” He laughed forcefully and looked away. He walked over to his suitcase and started fiddling around with it and I stood there watching him unsure of what to say.
“Did I do something to make you mad, Zane?” I asked softly. “Was it my poem? I’m sorry if you didn’t like it.”
He turned around slowly and looked at me with a clouded expression. “I liked the poem, Lucky.”
“So why are you acting so funny?”
“You really love me, don’t you?”
“You know I do.”
“It just suddenly felt real. I know that sounds dumb, but I think it just hit me like a ton of bricks. You really really love me and you are in this whatever happens.” He paused. “I’m not an easy man to love and I know that I’ve already put you through a lot. I guess I’m just wondering how much you can put up with. There are going to be so many more ups and downs with me.” He grimaced. “If you haven’t noticed, I get jealous, angry, and annoyed, and it hit me that at some point you’re no longer going to be thinking we are one. At some point you’re going to regret that you said you would never leave me or stop wanting to be with me. I know you love me. But sometimes love isn’t enough. Sometimes people can push you away so hard that it doesn’t matter how much you love them.”
“I’m not going to leave you, Zane.”
“But you don’t know that. You can’t guarantee it.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, this is something I’m trying to be rational about. It’s just hard.”
“Don’t freeze me out, Zane.” I took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something.”