I Hope You Find Me (12 page)

Connor began to laugh so hard his face turned
red and for the first time, I saw him cry. I chucked an apple at
him that had been sitting in a floral shaped metallic bowl by the
sink but it missed him and grazed the coffee table instead. Zoey
ran after it and chased it around the sitting room like a ball.
Connor was still laughing through his tears when I retreated to my
room to change into a pair of jeans.

I vowed to get him back later in the evening.
I considered dangling him upside down from one of the windows but
that required too much upper body strength.

While I yelled at him from my room, I hopped
into my jeans, “Be careful, you have to sleep sometime!” I giggled
despite myself, even though my pride was slightly bruised, it felt
good to laugh. Maybe a bottle of Moscato was exactly what I
needed.

***

“Well, you came baring gifts.”

I hated to be even the slightest bit kind to
Matt, but there he was standing before me with flowers in one hand
and a shiny gold box wrapped with a wide brown ribbon in the other.
The flowers looked like they were from one of the flower beds that
surrounded the palm trees out front and I was a little leery of
what was in the box. He handed both to me, and I stepped aside,
giving him and Mariah space to enter the suite. Mariah smiled at me
and gently put her hand on my arm as she passed by.

“It smells great in here!” Mariah followed
her nose into the kitchen and asked permission to peek inside the
simmering pot on the stove.

“Hope you don’t mind pasta.” I said to her
with a smile. I set the mysteriously wrapped box on the counter,
and put the flowers inside a large drinking glass. I set the
arrangement in the middle of the small dining table that was in
between the kitchen and sitting area. There were orange and red
carnations and a yellow daisy. I wondered if Matt had picked them,
or if Mariah had made the selection.

Matt noticed the bottle of expensive malt
whiskey sitting on the counter and pointed at it, “That’s not there
for decoration, is it?”

Connor had already set out extra tumblers and
poured a glass for Matt and offered Mariah some. Thankfully for me,
she passed.

“Great! This means hopefully someone else
will drink wine with me?” I said in a joking manner.

After Mariah agreed to raid the hotel bar
with me in search for wine, we left the boys and took Zoey on the
elevator ride downstairs. We made it to the nineteenth floor before
Mariah blurted out, “Oh my god, Riley, Connor is just
gorgeous!”

She looked juvenile in that moment, standing
before me in a fashionably short black dress with a light pink
sweater so tight around her tiny middle I was sure it was cutting
off circulation to her legs. Her curly hair bounced off her
shoulders as she danced on her toes, tightly squeezing her hands
together. She had ‘Sorority Girl’ written all over her but she
seemed a bit old for that phase of college. Her joyful personality
also seemed out of place considering the circumstances, and I
wondered if she was still going through the denial stage.

I smiled and said simply, “He’s okay.”

She stopped bouncing and grabbed both my
arms. With a very serious look on her face she asked me, “Have you
slept with him yet?”

I was dumbfounded. Of all the people that
could have stumbled our way through the city, we wound up with two
horny siblings.

“No…of course not. I’ve known him less than a
week, Mariah.” I shifted so she would loosen her grip on me.

“Are you serious? You’ve seen him, right?”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. We were obviously not speaking the
same language.

I sighed deeply and tried my best to not let
my irritation show. “I’ve seen him, yes. I’ve also seen a couple
hundred dead people since last week.” I looked at her, and she
reddened in the face.

“I’m sorry. I know. It’s awful.” She stepped
back from me and the rest of the ride down to the lobby was silent.
I felt slightly bad at hurting her feelings, but as the doors
opened up into the dark main floor, the image of the shirtless man
out front earlier took over my thoughts and I stared carefully into
every shadow…afraid he might jump out at any second.

After I let the dog relieve herself outside,
we found the wine stash. I grabbed two bottles of Moscato and
Mariah grabbed two bottles of champagne. What we had to celebrate,
I wasn’t sure, but at that moment I realized that I was most likely
going to drink those two bottles of wine myself anyway.

***

All of us were laughing, draped across the
sofas with drinks in our hands as Mariah did an encore performance
of her best drunk runway walk through the sitting room. She was
actually quite good until she turned…she wobbled her hips like she
was balancing an invisible hula-hoop as she stuck her arms out and
flapped like a bird to keep her balance.

We laughed even harder when she insisted she
wasn’t drunk with her cheeks flushed pink and her slightly round
nose scrunched up in defiance. She pointed her slender finger at
Connor and plopped down next to him on the sofa and took a sip from
his glass. Connor had pulled various bottles of alcohol out of the
cupboard, so I had no idea what was in that glass but I was pretty
sure it wasn’t going to mix too well with the bottles of champagne
Mariah had finished on her own. The wrapped box Matt gave me was
sitting on the coffee table torn open with half its chocolate
contents missing.

“So, what's
your
hidden talent?” Her
words were slurred and she leaned into Connor as she drank from his
glass.

I watched Connor shift his position so he was
facing Mariah and smiled at her. She had one of her bare arms
resting loosely around his shoulders. I didn’t like what I saw, at
all.

He laughed and said, “Not sure it’s a hidden
talent, but I can play ‘Freebird’ on the guitar.”

“You lie.” I said to him with a chuckle.

His face went serious and for a second I
thought I insulted him. “We’ll just have to find us a guitar.”

“So you can butcher Lynyrd Skynyrd? Sorry, I
can’t allow that.” I said to him with a laugh.

He tossed a pillow cushion at me and it
bounced to the floor, its clear sequins spraying prisms of light
along the ceiling tiles above us. We all laughed again until Mariah
asked, “What’s
Freebird
?”

“What?!” Connor and I both said it at the
same time and looked at Matt who raised his hands in the air
defensively.

“You’ve never heard ‘Freebird’?” I couldn’t
believe it.

“No, who’s Lenny Skinny?” She looked
perplexed, and hiccupped.

I looked at Mariah like she had three
heads.

“Matt! Please tell me you’ve heard of classic
rock?” Connor was sitting upright, his hands in the air while
Mariah picked up his tumbler once more and drank freely from
it.

“What’s
classic rock
?” Matt said
innocently, and Mariah cursed at him and pillows were flying
through the air again.

Matt insisted if we had a piano, he could
play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with his feet. We all agreed
through fits of giggles we were happy with the fact that there was
no piano nearby for him to prove that claim.

“That leaves you.” Matt said to me.

“I’m sorry, what?” I played dumb.

“Oh come on now.” He said as he rose from his
seat and plopped down next to me. “Surely you have a hidden talent
you can share with the group.” He leaned in close to me and
playfully tugged at the hair tucked behind my ear. I tilted my head
away from him even though his smell was enticing and his body felt
warm against me and the darkness that filled his eyes penetrated
me.

I lifted my glass to my lips and smiled
sweetly at him, hoping he didn’t pick up on my unease. “I have many
talents, most of which you will surely never see.”

Connor whooped and Matt threw a glare in his
direction, and reached for my glass.

“Refill?” He asked me.

“Just a little.” I handed it to him. I
watched him walk away in his too-tight jeans and even tighter
shirt. I decided I liked the back view of him much more than the
front. I conceded he was a bit more attractive when I was buzzed on
wine. But he was still an asshole when he opened his mouth. He
returned with my glass filled nearly to the top. “That’s way too
much!” I gushed.

He sat down next to me again, so close our
thighs were touching. I looked from his leg up to Connor, who was
eyeing Matt coolly. He had control of his drink again and with one
swig finished the last of it. His tumbler made a hollow clunking
sound when he set it on the table a bit too hard. He settled deep
into the cushions and propped his feet on the table. Mariah had
curled into the corner of the sofa and began to doze.

For a short while the three of us just sat
quietly while I sipped my wine and Matt nursed his own drink. He
broke the silence and the light-hearted conversation from before
took on a more somber tone.

“What if Mariah and I didn’t head up north
right away?” He was looking at Connor when he asked the question
but then turned to me and flashed a toothy smile. He put his arm up
along the back of the sofa, making the space between us diminish
and I didn’t like it. Matt’s smiles seemed forced to me, and his
stares almost predatory. A warning shiver ran up my spine and I
remembered how uncomfortable he made me before.

“Huh?” I was sure I hadn’t heard him
right.

“You know, I’ve yet to hear what
your
plans are.” His voice was lower, softer, but it didn’t hide the
sharpness of his gaze.

I blinked at him and then blinked at Connor.
My head was fuzzy from the wine; the room seemed smaller and warmer
than it was minutes before. As I bent forward to set my glass on
the coffee table, Matt lowered his arm from the sofa and rested his
hand on my lower back, just above the waistband of my jeans. Connor
made a move to get up but I bolted from Matt’s hand before he
noticed the red flush that had crept up Connor’s face.

I stood, uneasy with the friction that had
started weighing down the air and attempted to form a solid yet
simple answer for Matt that wouldn’t include the details of what
little planning Connor and I had made.

“What’s wrong with this place?” I gestured
around me. “If we kept the generators going, I’m sure we could stay
here a long time.” I looked at Connor and he was watching only
Matt.

Matt stood and faced me. “What about family,
don’t you have anyone that you want to find?”

My voice was flat when I answered, “My family
is dead.” I tried to move around Matt to take my glass to the
kitchen but he stepped in front me of me, blocking my path.

“Excuse me.” I tried to push past him but he
gripped my arm. I staggered back a step in surprise.

“So what, you want to die here too - with
him?” He tightened his hold on me and I gasped at the uncomfortable
pressure in my upper arm.

Connor was instantly on his feet. “Let go of
her.” He kept his eyes on Matt as he maneuvered around the table
behind me.

When I yanked away from Matt he put his arms
up. “It’s okay, I get it.” He said with a forced smile on his
face.

“No, you don’t.” Connor moved in front of me,
putting himself between me and Matt. I slowly set my glass down on
the table without taking my eyes off the two of them.

He snorted and looked over Connor’s head at
me. “What exactly is the deal here? We wouldn’t be here at all if
you hadn’t left that note. Obviously you wanted someone
else
to find you, so why stay with this asshole?”

Connor moved at him and Matt squared his
quarterback sized shoulders. His voice was low and threatening,
“Man, I can snap you in half, don’t even try it.”

“It’s time for you to go.” I could see the
muscles in the back of Connor’s arms tighten as he spoke.

“Or what, you’ll call the police?” Matt
sneered.

Zoey had picked up on the change of vibe and
was standing on all fours, watching us. I knew I had to do
something before fists and possibly fur started flying.

“Matt, you should go to Nevada with Mariah,
to find your family.” I had backed up so that I could walk around
the sofa and approach them from the side. “You can take whatever
you need, there’s plenty here to share.”

He glanced at me quickly and then at his
sister, who was fully asleep. He said to me, anger creeping into
his voice, “We don’t need more shit. And you know Nevada is as dead
as this place.”

“So what do you want?” I asked him,
frustrated.

“I thought that was obvious?” He winked at
me. And that’s when Connor hit him.

The punch took him by surprise and he reeled
backwards, stumbling over his own feet. He landed on the ground
hard. He rolled onto his side, cursing and covering his face with
both hands. Blood started to seep through his fingers and Connor
stepped back, away from Matt’s thrashing feet.

Zoey began barking madly, rushing back and
forth between me and Connor, clearly confused. Matt had wobbled
back up onto his feet, continuing to curse while I struggled to get
a hold of Zoey’s collar. She stood next to me, shaking and
whining.

Mariah pushed herself up and looked around
the room. “Matt?”

A guttural sound came from Matt as he lunged
at Connor. Zoey rushed in between them barking wildly at Matt and
nipping at his shoes. Mariah was on her feet, unsteady, and her
eyes widened at the sight of Matt’s bloody face. He got one good
swing in at Connor, striking him in the jaw before Zoey bit his
leg. He howled and backed away, kicking at the dog. She forced him
backwards to the kitchen area before I called for her to come to
me. Mariah was crying and Connor was yelling for Matt to get
out.

I felt horrible for Mariah but I gently
pushed her towards her brother and tried to tell her calmly to take
him back to their room, that he was drunk. He was still cursing and
yelling as they left, and the vibration of their door slamming shut
down the hall shuddered through our suite.