Romancing the Rebound

22

♡︎𝚂𝚔𝚢𝚕𝚊𝚛♡︎

As it turns out, the hotel is very into the whole couples in love scene. I guess that's not a shock—this is probably the hotel people check out for their honeymoons all the damn time.

Take Danny, for example. He's not on his honeymoon, but he was. And the hotel knows this, so they're doing what they can to make his honeymoon great.

Apparently, he's been throwing out pamphlets that they send him. He's starting to lose his mind with them. Lucky for him though, I find it in me to look past the couple part of the pamphlet long enough to actually read todays activity. A spa is today's activity.

So, obviously, that's what we're doing today. Danny isn't as thrilled about it as I am, but it's a couples thing and I didn't get this pamphlet, so I need him to come with me whether he likes it or not. And he will like it. He has to. It's a fucking spa.

I guess he's just not happy with being told to get into a robe and slippers. He scowls the entire time we're left in a room to undress. Then scowls harsher when I tell him to spin around to give me my privacy. Apparently, I can no longer have that after having him...you know. Inside me. He's just going to have to pout about it with himself because I still force him to turn away. He grumbles to himself while he does it, but at least he still does it.

"This is stupid." Danny complains. "Don't we get our own rooms for massages?"

"It's a couples thing, Danny." I dryly point out. "Couples do everything together."

"Yeah, not in my experience." He grumbles. "I did plenty of things by myself." He adds.

"Well, not everything." I clarify with a scoff. "Look—Whatever. This is meant to be a couples exercise."

"We're not a couple."

I narrow my eyes as I turn my head to look his way. I am horrified to see he's already facing my way. I wonder how long he's been staring at me. At least I have my robe on now though. "Yeah, well couples get discounts. You're not ruining this for me, Daniel." I threaten.

He just sighs. "Fine." He agrees as he looks away and down to the tables where we're eventually going to need to lay. "That doesn't look comfortable." He decides.

I scoff. "Have you ever gotten a massage before?"

He shakes his head simply, still staring at the tables like he doesn't believe we're seriously going to lay there. "This is stupid." He insists. I ignore him, uncaring what he thinks about it so long as he does this with me. Which, he will.

He might actually hate this—somehow—but he'll still do it with me. Maybe so I'm not alone, or maybe so I have my discount. Either way, he'll do this with me. He might complain about it later though. That's fine with me, I guess. It's a small price to pay for his company.

__________

There's something funny about Danny. Most of the time, he's a hard guy to read. But sometimes—in these rare little moments—he's pretty straightforward. I suspect that's how his normal personality is. I bet if I asked Delilah or Logan, they'd tell me one of his personality traits is honesty in the sense that he usually says what he wants or thinks straight up.

It's just one of the few little traits from his real personality that he shows me from time to time. And he shows me this trait when we're moved to a new activity the spa offers. Which is basically more self-care stuff like getting these moisturizing face masks while we get to do our mud baths.

Danny is not as sophisticated with the mud baths as I'd hope.

Another thing I learn about his real personality. He's kind of...funny. But stupidly so. Dumb humor, I guess.

"Danny," I scold him when I hear his stupid giggles. Yeah. Giggles. The man who glares twenty/four seven is fucking giggling.

"Skylar, they put us in tubs full of mud." He's still giggling and trying to keep quiet in our overly echoed room. It's just the two of us here in two separate tubs. "This cannot seriously be something people actually do."

"We're doing it, aren't we?" I dryly ask, trying to keep my eyes closed as I relax in my bath. Meanwhile, I can hear him fucking playing with it.

He laughs. "It's just a giant tub of mud. The hell could it do for us?"

"Shut up and relax in it, Daniel." I snap as I lift my head to look at him. I frown when I see he's not even relaxing in it, fully sat up and playing with the mud like a kid. Also, he took his face mask off. "Oh, God. You're so immature." I grumble as I shake my head and try to relax again.

"Have you done this before?"

"A couple of times." I hum dismissively.

"And you seriously like it?"

I open my eyes and lift my head to look at his smiling face. It's cute when he smiles. For some reason, he chooses not to. I've tried getting answers out of Delilah as to why, but all she offers is that he's had kind of a rough time lately. That's fair since I have barely known him a week. I still wish he'd overcome whatever it is—maybe stuff with his ex—and start smiling more. Even if it's not at me, I think people deserve to see that smile.

"Kind of." I admit on a sigh. "They really are good for you, you know." I hum. Danny shrugs, uncaring if it's good for him. I shake my head as I watch him pick his hands up in a bowl shape from under the mud to collect some of it. He simply drops it and smiles at the sound it makes. "You seriously are a kid." I mutter with a grimace.

"Oh, come on, Skylar." Danny smiles wider. "Just try it." He urges. "Have you never played with the mud?"

I sigh as I look down at it. His smile is enough for me to hesitantly cup my hands under the mud, bring them up, then make a face just before I drop it. Like I expected, it slaps back down. What I don't expect is Danny's loud laughter when it does. I start smiling as I look over at him. I can't help my little giggle while I watch him laugh. It's the brightest I've seen him this entire time. And the best laugh I've ever heard.

It's kind of a shame that this is the first time I'm hearing it with only a few more days to go until we go home, but I'm hoping I'll have more time. Even after we go home.

I mean, I have to be given more time, right? The fact that we're sleeping together aside, I think we've become pretty good friends. At least acquittances.

"That's so dumb." I smile as I look down, shaking my head. His laughter calms, mostly laughing to himself now.

I wasn't sure about him for a while there. But the more he shows me with this other personality of his, the more I want to know. I want to know what he's feeling. What he's thinking when he seems to be angry but really isn't. The sad thing is, I don't know if he'll let me in. Not so easily, at least. I know that for sure.

I wish he would though. Until he does, I'll just have to wait. If I want to know so badly, I'll wait for him to let me in so I can find out for myself.