I watched his back as he walked out the door. My eyes couldn’t help but take in the view. His shoulders were so wide and broad. If I had a list of everything that I found attractive, shoulders wouldn’t have necessarily been at the top of it, or on it at all. But after returning home and being reunited with Cash, it was top three.
After he shut the door, leaving me alone once again, I looked over and saw that there was water and medication. I popped the tiny pills in my mouth and drank the glass of water. When I downed the last drop, I set it back down and I tried to find context clues to help me piece together what might have happened the night before.
My dress was draped over the chair in the corner of the room. One of my shoes was on the floor by the closet and the other had fallen onto the floor after it had stabbed my hand. I glanced beside me and saw that the right side of the bed did not look disturbed. The waffle blanket that I normally draped at the foot of my bed was covering me but I wasn’t even under my comforter.
Cash may have stayed last night but he hadn’t stayed in bed with me.
As relieved as I was that I hadn’t missed the experience of spending the night with Cash, even if we’d only slept, I couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed that we hadn’t shared the bed. Even if I couldn’t remember it, the thought of him lying beside me through the night felt like a missed opportunity.
Speaking of missed opportunities, he was downstairs making me breakfast. What was I doing lying upstairs feeling sorry for myself?
I sat up, a little too fast, causing my stomach to rebel. I tried to stand up but the tiny man jackhammering my brain made it near impossible to remain upright.
What had I been thinking doing those shots of tequila? They’d sounded like such a good idea at the time, but I clearly hadn’t been able to handle them. I should’ve known better.
In college, I’d witnessed my peers party seven days a week and still make it to classes. And now that I was at Southern Comfort so much, I saw regulars drink every night of the week and I assumed they still showed up to their jobs the next day.
I honestly had no idea how they did it. I could get tipsy off one drink and two was my absolute limit. Any more than that and I was toast.
Ironically, the last time I’d felt like this had been the day after I’d arrived in Firefly. I’d gone to the bar and gotten wasted because I’d been so overwhelmed by seeing my brothers again, and how many people in town knew me.
Thankfully, that night, Billy had taken care of me. Instead of being upset that his long lost sister had gotten wasted at the bar, he’d brought me home with Reagan, who I’d seen sneaking out of the house in the early hours of the morning. When I’d woken up, he’d fed me a breakfast that he’d said he’d perfected as a hangover cure.
And it worked. I just hope that Cash’s remedy was as effective.
After a few minutes of breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, I managed to make it into the bathroom. When I saw my reflection in the mirror, I was horrified.
In my wildest dreams, I never would’ve thought that I could look worse than I felt, but somehow I’d managed to.
I looked like a raccoon or actually a scary clown. Mascara and eyeliner had migrated under my eyes, my twenty-four-hour lip stain had lived up to its name and stayed, but it had spread from my lips and was smeared across my face. And my hair, my hair looked like there was a family of birds living in it.
Cash had seen me like this.
Part of me just wanted to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my head, and cry. But I knew that I couldn’t do that. Cash was downstairs, and he’d made me breakfast. He’d obviously taken me home last night, stayed over, and was still taking care of me.
I needed to go thank him and maybe try and see if I could find out just how bad my behavior had been last night.
I turned the shower on and as I pulled off Cash’s T-shirt I saw that I was still wearing the special lace bra and panty set that I’d bought hoping that I’d end up spending the night with Cash.
Which, technically I had. Just not the way I’d hoped for.