A tiny elderly lady wearing a floral dress and a thick white cardigan stepped out through the door behind the reception desk. Her jaw dropped when she saw us dripping all over her floors.
“Goodness me, look at you two!” She scurried back into the room she’d just exited and returned with two large towels, handing one to me and one to Logan.
“Thank you,” I said, wrapping the towel around myself and breathing in the comforting scent of clean linen while Logan began drying his hair.
“I presume you two need a place to stay?”
“Yes please,” Logan told her. “Do you have any rooms?”
“I have one.” She scuttled behind the desk again and opened up a large leather bound book. “It’s a double room though. I presume you two are married?”
My eyes widened, my mouth opening and closing like a deranged goldfish. Married? I couldn’t bring myself to look at Logan. Geez, I’d just hoped I’d get close enough to maybe kiss him, now we were married?!
The old lady glanced up from the book, her lips twitching as she winked. “I’m just teasing you, dears.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Logan’s shoulders sag in relief as mine did the same thing. Old lady’s got a sense of humour.
“Are you okay with a double room?” Logan asked.
Hmm. Having been so freaked out by the owner’s joke, I hadn’t considered the potential weirdness of us sharing a bed. But it wasn’t like we were strangers, and sure, we weren’t that close but… what the hell, I wanted to get closer to him and you can’t get much closer than sharing a bed.
I nodded. “Fine with me. As long as you’re cool with it.”
“Should be okay. As long as you don’t snore.”
With another roll of my eyes, I turned back to the old lady and said, “We’ll take it.”
She set about taking our details, payment, and telling us everything we needed to know – including her name: Mrs Kay. I tried hard to take it all in, but the wetness of my clothes was beginning to seep into my skin, making me shiver. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than having soaked clothes stuck to your body.
Spotting my discomfort, Mrs Kay said, “We need to get you out of those wet clothes and get you warmed up.”
“We were going to head into town to buy something to wear but…” I looked down at myself. “I don’t think I can move yet.”
“Wait there.”
Mrs Kay, once again, disappeared into the back room, and I turned to Logan. “Maybe this place isn’t so bad.”
He shrugged, but he was shivering too. Again, I tried to keep my focus on his face and not on the fact I could see his abs through his wet t-shirt. “Beats going back outside. And the old bird obviously doesn’t mind us spending a night in sin.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself smirking. Was sinning an option? If so, staying over was a better idea than I’d expected.
When Mrs Kay came back, she carried two crisp white bathrobes, and she handed one each to Logan and me, along with a key. “Go on up to the room, change into these, then bring your wet clothes down. I’ll give them a quick wash and dry for you.”
Hold. Up. She wanted me and Logan to get almost naked while she washed and dried our clothes? Clearly, she thought we were a couple, not just two stranded friends. If that were the case we would probably have taken advantage of the lack of clothes. But that wasn’t the case.
That’s not to say I wasn’t thinking about taking advantage of it. Which sort of made it worse.
“Thank you,” Logan said, totally unfazed by how weird this was. Did he often hang out with girls he didn’t know that well with only a robe to cover his nudey bits? Because for me, this was a first. However, if he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it, I couldn’t either. I gave Mrs Kay a smile before following Logan up the stairs to room number five. The lights along the hallway flickered, continuing the slightly eerie vibe, and with the thunder still crashing outside, goose bumps erupted across my skin.
It’s all fine. You’re perfectly safe.
“Don’t worry,” Logan said, seriously, as he unlocked the door. “Our clothes won’t take too long to wash and dry, and then we can go out again.”
I think he was trying to reassure me that he wasn’t going to pounce on me while we were almost in the buff, which I appreciated, but with the unease at being somewhere unfamiliar and dark in a storm, a massive part of me wanted him to wrap himself around me until I calmed down. My heart hammered in my chest as we stepped into our room and flicked on the light.
Flowers. Flowers everywhere. Hideous pink flowered wallpaper covered the walls, and the curtains, duvet and cushions matched. The carpet was also pink, and the furnishings were as outdated as the décor downstairs. Still, it was warm and the bed looked comfortable. Too bad neither of us could sit down until we’d dried off. I was exhausted from our run through the rain, and I couldn’t wait to thaw out with a cup of tea.
Within thirty minutes, Logan and I had showered, changed into our robes, and delivered our soaked garments to Mrs Kay.