Like a shot, my hand whipped out and grabbed it, going to my messages where sure enough, there was an unsaved number. I braced myself, waiting for some blistering diatribe, or all-capital letter freak-out. But instead, there was just a short, normal sentence.
Hey, it’s Mickey. Had a great time last night but woke up in a weird situation. If you’re free, I’d like to meet at the greasy spoon across the street, see if we can straighten things out?
Huh, that was a really reasonable response to waking up with a wedding ring on his finger. Almost too reasonable. Either this guy was uncannily calm or…
Actually, I didn’t have an ‘or’ for that option.
I allowed myself one more groan, one more minute of wallowing, before getting up and changing. I felt like there was this terrible, oppressive weight over my head and I just wanted to slip under the covers and sleep all of it off.
But I had long since learned that problems didn’t go away like that, as tempting as it was to give into the laziness. I had to face it head on and deal with all the awkwardness.
Who knew, maybe he would find it funny. It was a bit hilarious, right? The stereotype of getting drunk in Vegas and running off to get married? That sounded like a comedy sketch to me -granted, a really overdone, trite comedy sketch, but still a sketch nonetheless.
But as much as I tried to stay on the positive side, my thoughts kept turning to the negative over and over again. By the time I actually was presentable and made it to the diner on the other side of the street, I was sure I had a deep scowl on my face and creases in my furrowed brow.
Mickey perked up when he saw me, looking a bit nervous but genuinely pleased. Huh, that wasn’t the reaction I had been quite expecting, but it wasn’t bad, so I could roll with it.
“Hey there, how are you feeling?” he asked once I was close enough for normal conversation volume.
“Uh… I’m automated to say fine on command, but really, it’s been a bit of a stressful morning.”
He grinned dryly at that. “Yeah, I can imagine. I’m not the biggest fan of being surprised first thing in the morning.”
“Yeah, me either.”
We shared a slight chuckle then the both of us fell quiet. There was that awkwardness I was so eager to avoid. Maybe it would be better if he was needlessly aggressive. I was good at dealing with macho types who needed to be taken down a peg.
Thankfully the waitress came over and saved us from the silence. Mickey ordered up a veritable mountain of food while I decided to treat myself to some pancakes.
Normally I would never do something so sugary and carb filled right in the morning, but I figured that I was about to be in a pretty stressful situation and if there ever was a stress-eater, it was me.
Unfortunately, the waitress could only stand there taking our order for so long and soon it was just the two of us again, staring blankly at each other like we were waiting for the other to take charge.
I looked him over, trying to see if there were any clues to how he felt. He didn’t seem angry, but maybe he was just holding that in because we were in public. Then again, he was the one who had chosen the location, so maybe he was afraid I was the one who was going to go berserk.
And for that matter, why wasn’t I going berserk? Something very obviously had happened between us when we hooked up, and the ring on my finger did not bode well.
“How’s your hangover?” he asked finally, sipping at his glass of water. The cup looked almost comically small in his overly-large hands. My mind instantly went to how those thick fingers felt inside of me and I had to cross my legs.
Geez, Mickey was a handsome guy, don’t get me wrong, but I usually wasn’t ever really effected by that. I worked with movie stars and fighting professionals for a living. I wouldn’t make it far if I was swooning and ogling everyone around me at any moment. But something about Mickey’s square chin and his intense gaze, and maybe also the way he looked at me got my motor running uncomfortably quick.
Or maybe it was just because I was still getting the latent effects of our hook up. Because man, it really had been a hook up.
“You okay?”
Oh.
Right.
He had asked me a question. I took a big swig of my water and flashed him a small smile. If he wanted jovial conversation, I could give him jovial conversation. “Not bad, actually. I had a splitting head ache when I woke up, but I chugged a whole water bottle and popped some meds.”