Maid for Each Other(67)

I wanted to start to figure this out. I didn’t necessarily need to tell her that’s what I was doing, but I needed to start to unwind the knot that was Dex and Abi, all that was true and false, and see what was left when everything was undone.

And a very fucking interesting aspect of this thing was the fact that she hadn’t said a word about the hotel room. My mother reserved one room, assuming my girlfriend and I would be staying together, and I expected Abi would immediately demand I get a second room.

Which I’d planned to do. Happily.

But she hadn’t said anything.

I didn’t know what that meant.

Was she nervous to broach the subject, or was she okay with this arrangement?

Asking her would be the smart move, but I was a dipshit who wanted to wait and see what happened.

Because I wanted to stay in the same room as her more than I wanted to breathe.

I knew I should be considerate, but the selfish part of me wanted to be around her all the time. I wanted to know what sounds she made when she slept and if she tossed and turned. Did she leave the TV on, or was it perfectly dark and quiet?

I’d book the second room in a heartbeat if she wanted it, no question. But the idea of sharing a room—and a bed—was really fucking appealing.

The ding of the elevator startled the shit out of me, and I cleared my throat and stepped out as soon as the doors opened.

Get yourself together, jackass.

When I got to the room, I could hear the shower running.

“Dex?” she yelled, almost like she’d been listening for me.

I stepped closer to the closed bathroom door. “Yes?”

“Can you please come in here slowly and help me?” Her voice was loud but calm. “There is a scorpion blocking my exit from the shower.”

I slowly opened the door, thinking she was nuts because this was Kansas City, for God’s sake; there weren’t scorpions in the Midwest, were there?

But my eyes swept the room and holy shit, there was a brown scorpion on the floor right beside the walkout shower. That little fucker was resting right in front of the glass door that opened outward.

I had to suppress a shudder because that motherfucker gave me the creeps. Fuck. I had no idea how the hell you took out a scorpion. I desperately searched the steamy bathroom, looking for the best solution as I became very aware of how unprotected—and naked—Abi was.

She was standing frozen in the corner of the shower with a towel wrapped around her body. She wasn’t under the spray of water—I was guessing she left the water on because she didn’t want to freak out that little monster by shutting it off—but she was pressing herself against the back wall as if trying to make it move farther from the scorpion.

Oh, God, that thing was creepy as fuck.

I was wearing shoes, so my best bet was to try to stomp that thing, but I was pretty sure scorpions were super poisonous. I briefly wondered how quickly I’d die after getting stung by it.

But I looked at Abi’s face, saw how terrified she was, and I knew I needed to act even though I had no clue what I was doing.

“Okay, honey,” I said slowly. “No matter what happens, you stay far away from the scorpion, got it?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to throw myself in front of it, but what is your plan?” she said without moving her lips.

“I’m going to stomp on it,” I said calmly, even though I had a hardcore case of the willies and kind of wanted to hide as well. “But I have no idea how the thing will react. So your eyes need to stay on the scorpion and the second he moves out of the way, you need to run out of here, got it?”

“But, Dex,” she said, sounding panicked. “Can the stinger pierce through your shoe? Do you even know?”

“No, it can’t,” I said, even though I had no fucking clue. The shoes were good Italian leather so I was pretty confident no stinger was going to be able to penetrate the soles, but what the hell did I know about a scorpion’s range? “Now, if I fail and it runs away, keep your bare feet clear of him and get up on that toilet, you got it?”

Thank God the seat cover was down.

“Got it,” she said, nodding. “Are you going to do a countdown or something?”

“Well, we don’t want it to know our plan, do we?”

“What?” she said, and then I could see it in her eyes when she got it. “Do you really think this is a great time for jokes?”

“I’m not sure there’s ever been a better time for jokes,” I said, my eyes moving to that thing.

“True,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “Well, if you’re about to die, and I’m sure you’re not, I just want you to know I had fun with you.”

“Wow, that’s really quite an amazingly vanilla proclamation. I’ve adequately filled your time.”

“I’m trying to be speedy in this perilous situation.”

“Okay, let’s do this,” I said. “You ready, Abs?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding again.

“One, two—”

“Oh, my God!” she yelled, and I let out a very embarrassing screech as the thing started moving across the bathroom floor.

In my direction.

“Shit!” I scanned the area, looking for something to drop on him. He wasn’t running, but the fact that he was moving felt like he had an armory of guns pointed at me and he was about to fucking take me out.