“Will do.” She steps around to my other side and places a hand under Cleopatra’s chin. “Hey, honey. I’m Tess. What’s your name?”
“Tegan,” the girl replies.
“How you feeling, Tegan?”
“Tired,” she slurs. “And bloaty. God, why won’t he just fuck me already?” she whines.
“Oh, sorry, honey. This one’s taken,” Tess replies.
“What?” Tegan whines again. “Noooo. But I want him.”
“I know,” Tess says, patting the girl’s shoulder. “But in love, as in life, sometimes there are great disappointments.”
“We need to get her out of here,” I say over the girl’s head. “I was trying to ask for her address to put her in an Uber.”
“I don’t know if we can trust anything she says at this point,” Tess replies. “Do you think Shelby will mind if we put her in a room upstairs?”
“Goddamn it. If she pukes all over the place, Shelbs will make me pay for it.”
“Make Patty McHotAbs pay for it,” Tess says with a glare. “If he’s her date, he needed to take better care of her. She’s completely toasted.”
“Oh, he’ll pay for it in more ways than one,” I assure her. Nothing that a few sets of suicide sprints won’t fix. He’ll be puking up his breakfast at next practice.
“Let’s get her upstairs,” Tess says. “Can you carry her with your knee—”
“I got it.” I scoop Cleopatra up in my arms and move towards the stairs.
Tess follows behind, snatching my discarded water off the floor.
The stairs open to a large game room area where some of the guys are playing video games. No one pays us any mind as Tess and I cut left towards the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.
“I stayed here once,” I say over my shoulder. “This is a guest room,” I say nodding at a door.
Tess slips between me and the door as she opens it. “Whoa—ohmygod,” she cries, throwing a hand up over her eyes.
I peer over her head to see a half-dressed Novy and Morrow spit-roasting some blonde girl. Novy is closer, his back to us. They both turn to the door at the same time, eyes wide.
“Get the fuck out,” Novy barks, still thrusting into the girl from behind. His toned ass is on display, pants around his thighs.
The girl between them pops off Morrow’s dick. I think my brain explodes when Poppy turns to face us, eyes wide, those tight blonde curls now disheveled. “Ohmygod,” she shrieks, a look of horror on her face as she locks eyes with me.
“Oh my god,” I bellow back as Tess pulls the door shut with a quick, “Sorry, carry on!”
I just stare at the closed door as I digest this new information. All the pieces snap into place: Novy and Morrow’s shitty attitudes over the past few weeks, their weird vibes of being in a lover’s tiff. It all makes sense. They’ve been fighting over the same woman…and that woman is Poppy Fucking St. James, our public relations manager.
But…how? I mean, Morrow is a super nice guy, so that tracks. But Novy and Poppy hate each other. They’re like cats in a bag. Half of our media training sessions are the result of Novy doing something to piss her off. I guess it’s true what they say about love and hate being a thin fucking line—
“Ryan…” Tess brushes her fingers down my arm.
I shake my head, trying to clear it. “Right. Fuck.” I shift my hold on Drunk Cleopatra and move down the hallway. “Come on, over here.”
“But these are the kids’ rooms—”
“The kids aren’t here,” I reply. “They’re all over at Shelby’s mom’s house tonight. Just open this door before I drop the Queen of the Nile.”
She hesitantly opens the door, peering inside. “Empty,” she says with relief.
We step inside Addie’s bedroom, and I move over to the pink princess twin bed, dropping Cleopatra down onto it. She groans, immediately curling on her side into the fetal position, her wig askew.
Tess takes charge. “Here, honey. I’m putting a trash can beside the bed, and there’s a water on the nightstand.”
Cleopatra just groans.
“She’ll be out soon.”
“Yeah, and then she’ll be hurting in the morning,” Tess says at my side.
“I’ll have Josh and Shelbs check on her,” I assure her.
Tess shakes her head.
“What?”
“It’s just so reckless, you know? What if she had done her little bump and grind trick on someone other than you? What if they weren’t as noble?”