It was late the following morning when Shay's phone rang next to her head, pulling her out of a hungover sleep. Her first instinct was to grab her head before the phone, and when it stopped ringing, she sighed in relief.
She rubbed her eyes and blinked as she tried to focus. Her mouth was dry, and her head was throbbing. She hadn't been hungover since she was in college. Grabbing her phone, she stumbled down the stairs, noting that she was still wearing what she had on from the night before. When she walked into the kitchen, she noticed Sawyer standing at the fridge with a bag of frozen peas pressed to his head.
"This is your fault!" she groaned as he pushed past him, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water.
"How? Sullivan was the one who started pouring the drinks if I recall," he slammed the fridge, and they both groaned.
"Yeah, and you were the one who finished pouring them, if I recall," Shay drank a few huge gulps of water and then reached for some Aspirin in the cupboard next to the fridge.
"Why are you talking so loudly?" Sawyer sat at the bar and rested his head on the cool countertop.
Shay's phone rang again
"Make it stop!" Sawyer whimpered.
"Hello?" Shay asked in a voice rough from sleep and whisky.
"Shay?" Nate's voice asked, unsure if it was her.
"Nate?" she asked, licking her lips and doing her best to make her voice sound normal.
"Are you alright?" Nate asked with concern.
"Yes, Sawyer got me drunk last night, so I'm a little rough around the edges this morning." Shay shot Sawyer a glare that would kill a lesser man.
"Understatement!" Sawyer chirped in the background. "You look like you got hit by a bus!"
"Shut up!" she hissed.
"Who, me?" Nate asked, sounding confused at her harsh words.
"No, Sawyer." Shay stepped away from him and toward the other side of the kitchen, where she couldn't be heard.
"So, you were drunk last night?" Nate asked, wanting clarification.
"Yes, why?" Shay frowned. "Are you still in Hong Kong? Did you try to call me?"
"No, I never made it. I got delayed in London." Nate covered the phone and said something to someone. Then Shay heard a car door slam. "I'm headed to the airport now."
"Oh," Shay was disappointed. She had hoped he would be home sooner rather than later.
"I was...confused and concerned by the text you sent me early this morning," Nate answered her early question of why he wanted to know if she was drunk.
"I sent you a text?" Shay calculated the time difference in her mind from the previous night. There was a five-hour time difference which meant it had to be early.
"Yes, I was in an early morning meeting, and your very suggestive text caught me off guard." Nate's voice was very serious sounding.
"It did?" Shay squeaked. "What did it say?"
"I couldn't repeat it. It would make me blush." This time his serious voice turned into a smile. She could hear it. "There were the words, lick, grab, and shimmy all on one sentence, though."
"Shimmy?" Shay squeaked again. When Sawyer snorted across the kitchen, she spun to look at him. "What did you do, Sawyer!" she demanded.
"Me? Nothing!" he said innocently.
"Sawyer?' Nate asked.
"Hold on!" Shay said as she pulled up her messages and scrolled through them. There was no way she sent them. She was blushing just by reading them.
"I'm gonna kill you! I only hope that I sent similar texts to your lady love!" she hissed at Sawyer before she stormed out of the kitchen, but not before seeing Sawyer scramble for his phone.
"Nate," she began.
"Your brother sent the texts?" he asked.
"I'm afraid so. Texts like those would be a goal I would have to work toward." Shay was embarrassed. "I'm sorry that he sent them right in the middle of a meeting. I bet he snuck into my room after I went to bed and sent them."
Nate was silent on the other end.
"I have to say, I'm a little relieved," he eventually admitted. "I was worried that I had misjudged the situation and gotten in over my head. Not that the texts weren't exciting reading, but they're not really my style, and I didn't think they were yours."
Shay closed her eyes and cursed her brother. "It's not mine either. My guess is that Sawyer felt you or I, or both of us, needed encouragement. They-" Shay quit before she said too much.
"They?" he questioned.
"Nothing?" Shay licked her lips nervously.
"Damn you, Shay!" she heard Sawyer call from the other room.
"You're welcome! Feels real good, doesn't it!" she hollered back. She knew she didn't send any messages from his phone, but if he drunk texted her guy, chances were he drunk texted his girl too.
"Shay," Nate urged her to continue in a soft voice.
She sighed. "They, my brothers, are concerned that I'm going to get hurt by you considering your reputation. They wanted to check on me and make sure that it's not serious." Shay cleared her throat.
"And you told them it wasn't?" he asked. Then just as quickly, "are you concerned about my reputation also?"
"Not exactly," Shay hedged. "Can we have this conversation when you get back? I don't think it is one we should have on the phone."
"Alright," Nate agreed after a few moments. "But you promise we will have it?" he asked.
"I promise," Shay agreed in return.
"Damit, Shay! You've ruined everything!" Sawyer said as he burst into the room.
"I'll let you go. It sounds like you gave as good as you got." Nate ended the call before she could even say goodbye.
"Here!" Shay said as she pulled his phone from him, and he pulled her phone from her. They both took a few minutes to scan what they wrote.
Sawyer snickered, and Shay said aww. At least he said nice things like I love you, you're the light of my life, I adore you to his girl.
"I don't see a problem with this. Is it not how you feel?" Shay asked, handing him back his phone.
"It is, but it's my place to say it, not yours!" he shoved her phone at her.
"Well, I guess you'll have to call and explain, but it shouldn't matter since she doesn't want you anyway, right?" Shay watched her brother closely. His face turned bright red, and she felt she had to put him out of his misery.
"By the way, I didn't know you had stolen my phone last night and sent those messages to Nate, but I do know that I didn't send those to your lady love because I don't even know her name." Shay patted her brother on the shoulder as she watched a lot of different emotions flit across his face. Eventually, Shay realized he was deep in thought and turned to go back to her room.
"I'm sorry if I messed it up for you," he called after her.
"You didn't. Nate and I talk like adults, and we tend to work things out before they get out of hand. Maybe you and your lady love should do the same!" Shay called back.
"When will you get back?" she texted Nate.
"Only a few days, I hope. I'll call you as soon as I get back." was his brief reply.
Shay wanted to sign off with love, but it wasn't quite time yet.