Chapter Thirteen
Olivia woke up in hell.
An army of jackhammer-wielding assholes slammed against her skull in a torturous rhythm so loud she couldfeelher brain rattle. Her throat burned, and her stomach sloshed in a way that brought yesterday’s dinner dangerously close to the surface. She needed to run to the bathroom before she upchucked all over the beautiful sheets in Sammy’s guest room, but lead weights pinned her limbs to the bed.
She wanted to close her eyes and drift back into slumber, where her aches and worries would disappear, but in the dim recesses of her mind, she realized it was Wednesday. She had to go to work.
The thought of getting up—much less dressing, commuting to the office, and spending the entire day at her desk, staring at her computer and fending off inappropriate come-ons from Logan—made her want to die.
You can do this,Olivia tried to say, but the words didn’t come out, so she settled for a silent pep talk instead.
On the count of five. One...two...three...four...five.
She rolled onto her side. She’d moved, which was good. But she was still in bed, which was bad.
Her stomach gurgled, and Olivia would’ve thrown up had it not been for sheer force of will.
Hell. No.
No way was she puking all overherroom. The smell of vomit lingered, even after you cleaned it, and the room was her sanctuary. She refused to taint it.
Olivia stared at the drawn shades—if she closed her eyes, she might not open them again for the next, oh, twenty hours—summoned every ounce of willpower she had, and lurched off the bed.
Success!
Now all she had to do was make it to the bathroom.
“Fuck,” she rasped, her voice sounding sick and scratchy to her own ears.
After an eternity, Olivia managed to half-stumble, half-lurch her way across the hall into the bathroom, where she promptly hurled her guts in the toilet. Just when she thought it was over, another wave of nausea overtook her, and she resumed the disgusting exercise.
Sweat slicked her skin, hair stuck to her face, and her throat felt like it was scraped raw by razor blades.
She wasn’t sure how long she knelt there, puking out the contents in her stomach, but in the middle of her misery, she felt someone—obviously Sammy, because they were the only people in the house—gather her hair back from her face. It reminded her of her party days, when she, Farrah, Courtney, and Kris would take turns holding each other’s hair while they threw up after drinking too much.
Maybe that was the problem. Olivia remembered only bits and pieces from last night, but she knew she’d imbibed more margaritas than she should’ve. It’d been a dumb move, drinking that much on a work night. She rarely fucked up like that, but Olivia had been so happy to have female friends nearby again that she’d slipped.
But whatever monster was raging through her body felt more serious than a hangover. Besides, weren’t you supposed to throw up the night you drank too much, not the morning after? Maybe—
Aaaannd there went her dinner again. Or maybe it was yesterday’s lunch or breakfast. She couldn’t possibly have any of the burger and fries from Catalina left in her stomach.
After an eternity, the vomiting finally, blissfully ceased, and Olivia slumped on the floor.
Sammy knelt until they were at eye level, worry etched all over his handsome face.
“G’way,” Olivia moaned. She didn’t want him to see her like this. She felt and no doubt looked like shit, there were bits of vomit in her hair—gross—and her complexion probably resembled that of a wax figure.
Embarrassment snaked through her, which was so messed up. She might bedying,and she was worried about what she looked like in front of Sammy?
Talk about screwed-up priorities.
Sammy’s mouth tilted up for a moment before it flattened again. “You’re not dying, and you look...well, not fine, but not worse than what anyone else in your situation would look like.”
Shit.She’d voiced her thoughts out loud?
Her day kept getting worse and worse.
“What time is it?” Hopefully, she had time to shower. Even if she didn’t, shehadto shower. She couldn’t walk out of the house like this.