ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ

₀₂₂

𝘙𝘏𝘠𝘚 𝘔𝘖𝘖𝘙𝘌

I TOSS AND TURN IN THE hotel bed. The mattress is too soft for my liking. My body sinks into it-and the comforter is too thick, and i'm partially sweating.

I roll over to see the alarm clock. One in the morning. I groan and roll back into my back. Wren and I checked into the hotel at ten and split up to our separate rooms thirty minutes later.

I close my eyes and move the hair off my forehead. I run the hand down my bare chest and feel the heat of it. I pull the comforter off my body and lay on the bed-huffing.

Five minutes later when i'm finally drifting to sleep, a sharp piercing sound wakes me up. Right up. I can see from the crack in the door that red lights are flashing in the hallway. I grab my phone from the side table and make my way out of the room.

The fire alarm shrieks in my ear as I walk down the hallway. All the other guests are walking out of their rooms and crowding in the hallways. I look over everyone's heads to see if I find Wren. No luck.

I take the stairs all the way down to the lobby. The receptionists are trying to calm everybody down, saying something like 'false alarm' but the buzzing in my ears muffles it.

I stand to the side as I take in the chaos. Everyone is in pajamas, some without shirts-like me-and some bundled up. I watch as the firefighters come in and speak to the hostesses. I cross my arms as-

"Has anyone ever told you that your skin glows?" I look down at the voice and to see a short blonde with hot pink lace pajamas on.

"No."

Her giggle makes me want to suffocate her-and when her hot pink fingernail traces over my bare bicep, the urge to push her back washes over me.

"Well i'll let you in on a little secret. You have the type of glistening skin that just makes me crumble." She tries to whisper in my ear, "I could just lick you up."

I'm about to tell her to fuck off when i see a woman with dark hair approaching us. She's wearing a white tank top-I can see...everything through it-and gray shorts. Her hair is slightly messy and her face is bare; lots of freckles span her nose.

I have never been happier to see Wren.

When she stands in front of me, she totally ignores the blonde woman. Then she grabs the waistband of my sweatpants and pulls me toward her. While my side is to the other woman, Wren mouths 'go with it'. I uncross my arms and place one around her waist, and move my other hand to the side of her head. I lean down and place a kiss in her hair.

Then quietly-just loud enough for the blonde woman to hear-i whisper, "Hi baby." The gruffness in my voice is unusual to me, but Wren's is far more foreign when she whispers softly, "Hi."

I hear a huff of annoyance from behind me and then Wren let's go of my waistband. "She's gone." I nod.

I stare at her. She rolls her eyes. "What?" She says.

"If i didn't know any better, i'd say you were jealous." We're still close together-but not touching. Wren scoffs.

"You're hilarious." Her face remains guarded. "I could tell that she was bothering you, just admit you appreciate me."