The texts start with, “OMG,” migrate to, “SteveSS,” then turn into something like, “bitchwhereare?” and finally graduate to, “IM AT YR DOOR POUNDING WHEREU?”
I tab on her last missed call notification to ring her back and she picks up immediately.
“Where the hell are you? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say, taking another bite of English muffin and feeling unusually peaceful.
“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for, like, three hours.”
“I know. I just saw. My phone was on ‘do not disturb.’ What’s wrong? You okay?”
“Where. Are. You?”
I hesitate to answer because… I don’t know why. I just do. I mean, I could probably figure it out if I did a moment or two of self-examination, but that feels like a whole big thing I don’t wanna get into with myself right now. “I’m in… Steve’s suite.”
There is a long pause. I can hear her breathing. Then, after a moment, I hear…
Pound, pound, pound. On the door to the suite.
“Are you—?”
“Open the door.”
“Are you outside—?”
“Open the door.”
I trot to the door and open it to find Britney, still in her dress from the night before, standing there with the phone still at her ear. The two of us, a coupla saucy dames from the 1920s, just waking up from a night out on the town like the hot tomatoes we are.
“What did you do?” she asks.
The words coming out of her mouth land on my ear before the echo of it comes through the phone. I tab end on the call, finish swallowing a bite of muffin, and answer, “What do you mean?”
She moves past me into the suite, looking around. “Is he here?”
“Steve?”
She pauses again to stare at me. “How many guys were you with?”
“That’s—I don’t know why I asked that. No, he went downstairs to help his sister get ready for the panels.”
Britney kind of grunts for some reason. “What’s all this?” she asks, noting the massive spread of food.
“Breakfast. You want any—?”
“There’s something you should know.”
“Okay.” I take another bite and wait for her to tell me what it is I should, apparently, know.
“I think Steve is SS.”
“What?”
“Steve. I think he writes the books. He’s SS. Not his sister. Steve is SS. Master Choke? All that? That’s Steve.”
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