I want You Deeper

Charlie had been a bundle of nerves all day. By the time they stood at the registration desk, she wondered if someone could get so nervous, she passed out. That would be just her luck. She would faint right here in the lobby, and all her former classmates would wander in and see it. That would be all anyone talked about the rest of the weekend- the dork from school who passed out upon arrival. “Name?”

The desk clerk was speaking to her, which meant she hadn’t fainted. She’d managed to stay upright, Nicholas standing next to her in a mostly empty lobby. The few people who were scattered about weren’t people she recognized. Not that she was sure she’d even be able to recognize people she hadn’t seen in ten years.

“Charlie McLaughlin,” she said. “I called earlier this week and they said they’d set us up in rooms next to each other.”

It was the best resolution she could think of, considering she did not want to share a room with Nicholas. But if her classmates saw that she and her fiance weren’t in the same room, they might have questions. It was just easier to be next to each other to reduce the risk that anyone would notice they weren’t sharing a room.

But the desk clerk frowned. That was not a good sign. Charlie’s nervousness began to escalate to panic as she contemplated the possibility of trying to share a small hotel room with a billionaire. The best she could hope for, if that was the case, was that there were two beds in the room, but things like trying to shower or-gasp-use the bathroom with him in the same small space… She didn’t even want to think about it.

“I have you in the presidential suite,” the desk clerk said.

“Me?” Charlie looked over at Nicholas. “That can’t be right.”

“It is. I called. I upgraded us.” Nicholas handed over his credit card, which Charlie couldn’t help but notice was solid black. Didn’t a black credit card mean something? She was pretty sure they were rare.

“Yes, Mr. Shaw. You’ll be on the top floor. I’ll get your room key. We’ll have your luggage up momentarily.”

Charlie looked over at him. “The presidential suite? How did you get it at such late notice?”

“I have my ways.” He winked at her. “There are two bedrooms and three full bathrooms. It’s bigger than my college apartment…and far nicer. Thank you.”

He said that last part to the desk clerk, who had handed over one of those folded envelopes with a card key inside it. Then he gestured for Charlie to follow.

“This is just so weird,” she whispered as they headed toward the elevator. They passed a group of people who looked around Charlie’s age, but like everyone else she’d seen since arriving, she didn’t recognize them. Either everyone had changed dramatically, or she didn’t know her classmates as well as she thought she did.

“Checking into a hotel? I do it all the time.” He pressed the button to call the elevator and stepped back to look at her. That put the pressure on her to respond, but she didn’t know how to explain it.

“I’m at my high school reunion with someone I barely know.”

Did that sound rude? She didn’t mean to sound rude. She was beyond grateful that he’d agreed to come to this with her. He’d paid to upgrade them to a suite. She had to at least appreciate that.

“It’s just nerves,” she said. “I guess I underestimated how scary this would be.”

Nicholas looked around, and Charlie realized how absurd that sounded. There was nothing scary about a mostly empty hotel lobby. But the cocktail party was somewhere in the events area on this floor, which meant the very people Charlie was nervous about seeing were probably not all that far away.

“Let me ask you something.”

His statement made her forget her nerves for at least a few seconds.

“What’s that?” she dared to ask.

“Why is this scary?”

The elevator doors opened in front of them, and Charlie used it as an excuse to delay answering. She stepped into the elevator, thinking through her answer. She honestly had no idea.

“It all goes back to junior year.” Once the words were out, she felt emboldened to keep talking. It was something she’d never shared with anyone. It was something she didn’t even spend much time thinking about, actually. “The summer before junior year, I was babysitting the kids I watched each summer. Their parents had a membership at the country club -the one where we’ll be tomorrow night. That meant we could use the pool all summer. So every day, I’d take the kids to the pool. Shellie and her best friend, Jamie, were regulars there. They pretty much lived in the lounge chairs near the lifeguard stand.”

“I’m going to guess the lifeguard had something to do with this,” he said.

“Huh? No. Well, aside from the fact that they were constantly distracting him when he was supposed to be watching the kids.”

The elevator door opened, and they stepped out onto the top floor. To the right was a huge window that overlooked the nearby restaurants and retail shops.

He turned to face her rather than starting toward their room. “Did something happen to the kids?”

She stared at him a moment, confused. She wasn’t articulating herself very well today. Quickly, she shook her head to express a vehement no.

Taking a deep breath, Charlie plunged in. “All summer, day in, day out, they sat there with their sunglasses on, talking to each other and watching us. I felt so self-conscious. Sometimes they’d giggle. Sometimes they’d make negative comments that I could hear-usually when I walked around in my bathing suit. By the time school started up, the body-shaming was out of control. I had a nickname.”

“What was that?”

She was ashamed to say it, but how did she back out now? “Bones.”

“Bones?”

“Bones. I was tall and thin, and my bones kind of protruded in places. Elbows, knees…my granddad called me ‘knobby-kneed.'”

“Adolescence is rough,” Nicholas commented. “I hit my growth spurt late, which meant I was shorter than pretty much everyone else in my class.

I had about seventy nicknames by the time I hit high school.” “Body shaming.” Charlie shook her head.

She turned and started toward their suite, mostly to keep herself from making some comment about how he looked pretty darn good, no matter what height he was. As she walked, though, she was self-conscious about the fact that he was behind her. She wondered if he was suddenly assessing her frame, looking for signs of knobby knees or pointy elbows.

“The point is, we aren’t those people anymore,” Nicholas said. “If you met any of your classmates for the first time now, you’d see them through different eyes.”

Charlie slowed, but mostly to try to figure out the signs posted on the wall. He had the keycard. She looked over at Nicholas, who also was staring at the signage. He pointed to the right.

“I know,” Charlie said. “Logically, I know all that. But I don’t think logic is going to be in charge when I walk into that reunion.”

Nicholas stepped forward and pushed the door open. “Yes, but how many of your classmates have a room as nice as this?”

Charlie followed his gaze into the room, which already looked amazing, and this was just the entryway. Mouth gaping, she stepped inside, taking in the furnishings, the big, open window on the far side of the main room… She’d never seen anything like this.

The main room had a big seating area with a table next to it. There was also a desk in the corner. No sign of a bed anywhere. Those were in the bedrooms, which were to the left, she assumed.

“My boss has me reserve suites for conferences and trade shows,” Charlie said as she spun around to take it all in. “I never go, though. I just make all the arrangements. Usually, he has get-togethers in the suite. I always wondered how that worked, with him sleeping in the next room.” “You’ve never stayed in a hotel suite?” he asked.

“I haven’t traveled much,” she admitted with some embarrassment. “I’m kind of a homebody.”

Kind of? Kind of? She couldn’t have been more of a homebody. Even when she traveled, it was to her mom’s house. Same trip, same packing list -they even ate at the same restaurants every time.

“When was the last time you swam in a hotel swimming pool?”

Nicholas’s question threw her off guard. She stared at him, fully prepared to blurt out an answer. But then she realized she didn’t have a good answer for that.

“I was in high school,” she said. “It was the outdoor pool at the beach.

Why?”

“I think we should go for a swim.”

Charlie looked at him. He’d texted her earlier that week to remember to bring her bathing suit. She’d considered it ridiculous at the time, but she’d tossed one into her suitcase at the last minute just in case. She always liked to be prepared.

But as much as Charlie would love an excuse not to go to the cocktail party that was the kickoff event for the weekend, she needed to go for it. Before she could respond, though, there was a knock at the door. Nicholas rushed off to meet the bellboy and get their luggage.

“I should change,” Charlie said, grabbing her suitcase as soon as Nicholas had sent the guy away with a tip and a thank you.

“Into your swimsuit?” Nicholas gave her a conspiratorial smile. She liked it. It made her feel like she was in on some inside joke, even though there wasn’t one.

“Into my cocktail dress. We have just enough time to get down there for the last couple of hours. Make an appearance, that sort of thing.”

Taking a deep breath, Nicholas nodded. “As long as there’s food, I’m in.”

Charlie grabbed her suitcase and headed toward the bedroom on the right. She didn’t know which one was supposed to be hers, but she assumed Nicholas would stop her if she’d chosen the wrong one. Instead, he called out to say something else entirely.

“Wear your swimsuit under your dress!”