this chapter? updated.
my fingers? outyped.
this weather? too cold.
hotel? trivago.
Chapter Twenty-One: "I Don't Speak To Lightweights."
I WOKE UP IN A BED.
It wasn't my bed from the villa, it wasn't my bed from home, from New York, from anywhere. Even when I was sleeping the part of me that was slightly awake knew it.
The awareness that I wasn't in my bed settled in when I shifted slightly, putting my head into the pillow without opening my eyes. I felt like someone took my head, dunk me in water and made me scream until I lost my voice.
"I haven't felt like this since last year. What the hell." I managed to croak out, my voice hoarse. I didn't have a hangover but fuck, I hated feeling like this. Most of last night flew into my head, making me cringe a little bit but I knew I didn't fuck anything up last night. I couldn't have. Especially not before talking about Angie.
I groaned into the pillow I dug my face in, inhaling deeply.
It smelled like Caleb. Cinnamon? It wasn't hard to detect it from a mile away let along being surrounded by it.
Heavily like Caleb.
What the fuc-
I shifted in the bed, twisting my body to realize that I was in Caleb's bed. In Caleb's room. Rubbing my eyes and realizing that I fell asleep with my makeup on and without my hair in a bonnet, I knew I looked like a huge mess. The scarf that had been wrapped around my head now lay under the covers near my feet. "For fuck's sake", I mumbled, squinting as I took in my surroundings.
Caleb's bed sheets were black in contrast to the white walls of his room. My eyes landed on the flat screen mounted on the other end of the wall. There wasn't a single picture in here besides the couple on his nightstand and four paintings. I leaned over the bed and just as I was thinking his floor was carpeted silver.
I glanced over at the balcony, the open curtains letting streams of sunlight into the room. It was a bright day but too bright for me. Too bright for me who had decided to drink my liver out last night.
I got up highly unmotivated, stretching my arms over my head as I pushed myself up and off the bed. Looking around once more, I was most definitely not going to leave this room unless it had a bathroom. I turned at the closed doors, one I figured was his closet and the other, slightly opened where I could see a shower and a sink.
Padding over to the bathroom attached, I walked in and immediately cringed at my reflection and the horrid taste in my mouth. And the red sweater on top of my light purple tube top.
I wasn't wearing a sweater last night, I remembered. I put my hands in my pocket and suddenly questioned where my phone was. I didn't bother panicking but I checked my pockets and it didn't turn up. Peering out of the bathroom door, I spotted my phone charging on Caleb's nightstand.
Okay, I'm in Caleb bedroom, in Caleb's house with my phone charging on Caleb's nightstand wearing Caleb's sweater but where was Caleb?
Zipping the sweater down as I went back to the bathroom, I spotted a bag sitting on the sink. I put the sweater on the side, inspecting the bag to see clothes and my makeup. In addition to the bag, a toothbrush laid out for me, along with a note on top of one of my black backpacks.
I picked up the note and read it. I didn't read it at first, but my eyebrows rose at Caleb's calligraphy. "Huh. Pretty handwriting." I said to myself. He surprises me, truly.
Naomi dropped by with clothes in the backpack. Use the toothbrush diligently, don't worry it's new you won't have my Caleb-ness on it. She brought your makeup too. Why is there so much of it, I don't understand but here you go.
Sending all my good energy to my sister, I quickly made good use of the clean shower and did my whole routine. I had managed to take my time braiding my hair back and apply my makeup whilst bumping the music from my phone. By the time I had gone through an entire playlist, I was certain that I had spent a long time in his bathroom.
When I was done, I left Caleb's room, feeling refreshed and less groggy. I found my way to the living room where Caleb was seated. His long body was stretched out, his feet up on the ottoman and slightly slouching in a comfortable position as his eyes stayed glued to the TV. I stared at him, all dressed in his jeans and shirt, his hair wet from the shower, curly for once. Which he effectively ruined when he ran a hand through it.
My eyes trailed from the damp hair to the bright green socks on his feet. He chuckled at something one of the weird characters said on the TV.
His eyes darted away from the cartoon on his TV when looked over at me with a pleased look. "Took you long enough. You were in there forever, I thought you were drowning in the shower or something."
"Good morning to you too, Romero." I crossed my arms, seating myself on the armrest of the perpendicular sofa.
"Morning sunshine." How the hell was he smiling like that with all the drinking we did last night, I did not understand. Caleb stood with his bowl of cereal in his hands, "Breakfast? Or brunch seeing as it's after 1."
He didn't let me reply, heading into the kitchen anyway. I followed behind him, leaning against the threshold as he put his cereal down on the table. "Cereal?"
"Uh, yeah," I said and watched him pull out all the cereal brands he kept in the house my eyes widened as he lay them out for me to choose. This guy really loved his cereal. "What happened last night?"
"You don't recall much?" I recalled most but I was hoping that I was making up a lot of shit in my head.
"Do you?" I had to ask him, grabbing the cereal brand I wanted as he opened the fridge. My eyes went to his neck as he brought out the various types of milk in his fridge.
Even under the influence of alcohol, I did behave last night, and I sighed in relief. No hickeys means I was a good Octavia.
I put the cereal in the bowl as Caleb said, "Most of it." He closed the fridge as he continued speaking. "I don't have regular milk because not good for me and it's not good at all. I have almond milk, soy-"
He narrowed his eyes at me putting the cereal in the bowl and I froze, staring right back at him. "What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You pour your cereal first?"
"Oh my God," I closed the box, reaching over to wack him with it and Caleb laughed, defending himself as he grabbed it from me, adding more to his own bowl.
Retracting my hands, I almost knocked a bottle that was on the counter open and my eyes widened at the amount of alcohol on the table as well as the number of cups. No, no, no, we didn't drink all of that. I remembered my stupid self finding Caleb's alcohol in his fridge where he hid his entire stash.
I had brought out every single one and that would explain why there were so many. For a guy who doesn't drink that much I figured if he had people over, he'd share. He seemed like the type to and boy did he, I thought looking over at the red cups and shot glasses he had brought out last night.
"Don't tell me that you pour your milk first? You ask people questions like this all the damn time, don't you?"
"You make me sound weird," Caleb muttered.
"You are since you do that." But it was cute, no one probably minded it.
"You're weird." He said in a childish voice as he hip-checked me slightly.
"You pour your milk first and I'm the weird one?" I muttered, shoving him slightly as I grabbed the almond milk.
Caleb rolled his eyes, taking the soy milk and adding it to his bowl. "Never thought I would say this, but we got drunk off Malibu probably because we didn't eat."
"There's no way that we got drunk just off Malibu." That bottle that I had taken from the villa last night may have been new but when Naomi had given it to me, it was at most halfway. And between the two of us? And Caleb with his clear high tolerance of alcohol? Yeah, we couldn't have gotten drunk off of just that.
"No," Caleb grabbed a spoon and handed it to me. I shoved a spoonful of cereal in my mouth as he further explained. "You were hungry and then I got hungry, so we ordered food and talked for a while- your brother, by the way?"
"What about Daniel?" I questioned, remembering that the topic of our brothers had come up last night.
"I want to meet him."
"You already met Naomi, you don't have to know my entire family Caleb."
"Says who?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Says me," I retorted, "Plus, I have a feeling my mom wouldn't be able to stand you."
"She'll love me."
"You sound way too confident about that." Caleb could annoy a person from time to time and while most may consider it endearing as hell my mom wouldn't be able to tolerate him. I closed my eyes for a split second. I couldn't even imagine them meeting it just didn't make sense with their polar personalities.
Caleb chewed on his cereal, leaning next to me on the counter as he put the bowl down. "Trust me, she'll love me. Now, after we had that conversation, the food got here. And when it was here, you got up too fast-"
"You pulled me up like you were ready to fling me off the roof." I accused him, the memory coming back to me.
"It wasn't that serious." He waved it off with a hand.
"Yes, because you made me knock the rest of the bottle and it spilled all over."
"Then you were upset," Caleb pointed at me. "For what? I have no idea."
"You owe me." I joked.
"You found my vodka," Caleb told me, reaching over to the counter where plates lay along with bottles of water and a lot of alcohol. Caleb held up a long slim bottle and gestured to the shot glasses. He shook it in his hand and enough of its contents were still inside, making me slightly queasy as I looked at it. Yup, definitely hungover. "I don't owe you shit. This became your best friend and that's when we were absolutely pissed off. But I'm sure you were drunker."
"No," I lied. "I wasn't."
Caleb raised an eyebrow in challenge, pulling out his phone. He moved over next to me to show me a video of the both of us and I immediately put my fist to my mouth. I had Caleb's phone in my hand as we were in his apartment. He was laughing in the background and I was laughing too but my laugh got terribly loud when I heard something breaking.
My eyes widened as I turned to Caleb. "What did you break?"
"You don't remember? Probably because you were fücked," Caleb reminded me, and I shoved him again as he laughed. "I was trying to make eggs and they all fell to the ground."
"Oh my God. We ordered food, why did you want- you were so gone." I laughed and he cringed, remembering himself last night. "Kept saying shit like,' it's not going to taste good if I don't have eggs. I want eggs'. You're such a baby when you're drunk."
Caleb chuckled, leaning his head back on the wall as he flicked to another video. Music was playing in the background and we both were smiling at the camera as we clicked our shot glasses together and took a shot. "Oh my God," I muttered again.
"Yeah, we ended up talking in my bedroom for a bit and fell asleep talking." He said, reaching over to show me more blurry pictures.
I grinned at Caleb when I remembered something. "You say I was gone?"
"You were," Caleb showed me another video. My eyes widened as I recalled getting on the same counter we're leaning on right now and jamming out to a song with the remote control in my hand.
I stopped the video quickly when I said smugly. "I wasn't the one who threw up."
Caleb immediately took his eyes off me, putting a hand to the back of his head as he sat down to eat his cereal at the counter, not caring that there were cups and alcohol littered on top. "Listen-"
"Huh?" I put a hand to my ear, getting closer to him "What did you say? Sorry, I don't speak to lightweights."
Caleb grinned, shooting me the middle finger. "Fück off and eat your cereal."
I laughed. Even though we got drunk out of our minds I had a good time last night. Especially before we got drunk. It was great to talk to Caleb about home. It was good to have someone else around me who knew where I grew up from the insider point of view. I was not going to lie, having him joke like this with me, see me at my drunkest made me happy I considered him my friend.
Friend. My eyes went over his face to his arms. Feeling warm, I took a seat across from him, taking a spoonful of my cereal in my mouth. Friend, yeah, that totally works.
You always sexually attracted to your friends, Octavia?
"At least you made it to the toilet." I reminded him before saying under my breath. "Barely."
"I heard that." He pointed his spoon towards me, narrowing his eyes.
"Well, last night was eventful."
Caleb shot me a grin. "Of course. Caleb and October times."
As I swiped on his phone, I noticed a couple more pictures that Caleb and I were highly aware of. Why? How is it possible that he looks like that even under the influence of alcohol? Holy shit.
I showed him and he chuckled at the poses we had taken. "Oh, you love taking pictures. There's probably over a hundred where you pretended you were a model and made me take pictures of you, then of me with you, then of me-"
"Oh my God," I groaned, not really feeling shame but at the same time couldn't believe I did that. "I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine." He laughed. "It was cute."
Don't say that Caleb, I said in my head.
I flicked through the phone again. "These aren't even bad." I pointed out. Totally Instagram worthy. Especially the ones where he was with me.
My own phone buzzed in my pocket. When I took it out, I saw a bunch of messages from my agent, Erika. I sighed, going through the links she was sending me, and Caleb looked confused at my sudden change of mood. "What's up?"
"Just stupid tabloids."
"Is it because of that picture you posted?"
"Of you and me? Yeah. Just garbage about how you're a possible rebound from Keith and more Keith and yadda, yadda, yadda." I sighed, feeling my heart pound a little harder at the sight of Keith's name. Not exactly what I wanted to see in any case.
Caleb was silent for a bit, eating his cereal before taking his gaze off the counter and looking up at me. "Little Kenny huh?"
I snorted, "Caleb."
"Just trying to make you feel better. Might as well give the paps a show and post pictures of me half naked on your account."
"A show?"
"Dramatic flair," He rolled his eyes playfully, "If you will."
"I'll hold you onto that." We shared a smile before I tore my gaze away, my eyes focusing on Keith's name as I rested my spoon in the bowl and put my phone back in my pocket. "Um, I'm going to use the bathroom."
Caleb nodded as I headed out and back towards his bedroom. Entering his bathroom and closing the door behind me, I headed over to the mirror and stared at myself, blinking back any bit of emotion that held itself to his name.
Nope, nope, no, no. Not today.
And it was a good thing he hasn't contact me in the past couple of days either. It's bad enough that people still talk about him and me after we broke up, I didn't need the constant reminder that even though it's been many months, we were over.
I pressed a hand to my temple, pulling my phone out and recalling last night's events in my head.
I didn't talk about Keith last night, did I?
No, no, Caleb wouldn't have greeted me with a smile. I mean, he would have given me a smile nevertheless, that was him- that's what Caleb does- but he also would have given me some pitiful look and I didn't need that. I would hate that.
I remember that we spoke of home. A lot. There were little things brought up here and there through the night. Of places we've both been to and the people we've seen.
It's crazy that Caleb and I are from the same town. No, there was something crazy about Caleb being best friends with one of the richest people in the world, Sam Cahill. Why does that of all things leave me dumbfounded? And the picture on his lock screen basically showing me their friendship made me miss my own best friend.
I took another deep breath before pulling my phone out and calling that familiar number. It rang one time before she picked up. "Sydney."
"It's like eight AM," I could hear the attitude in her voice, but it was playful. "Why are you calling?"
I hate time zones.
"Why are you awake?" I shot back in a low tone. Sydney could sleep like the fucking dead. I remember my fist hurting after banging on her door one time in the afternoon. Both her and Zen were out like a light and it took ten minutes of me hitting my fist against the door for one of them to register the sound.
"Why are you whispering?" She retorted.
"I'm not at my house," I told her, my eyes glancing at the closed door.
"Where are-" She gasped. "Are you at his house?"
"Why are you awake?" I repeated my previous question.
"You are, aren't you? You're at Caleb's house."
"Why are you awake?" I repeated.
"I have rehearsal at 9," She elaborated. "Now say yes."
"Yes," I obliged. "I am."
"Hmm," Sydney tsked. "Don't we both recall that he's with Angie?"
"No."
"What?"
"He told me a couple days ago that he's not," I further explained. "That they aren't dating or together at all. At all."
I could imagine the confusion on Sydney's face. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"Then go get him, what are you waiting for?"
"What am I waiting for?" I rhetorically questioned. "Angie's Angie. She's amazing, she's beautiful. She's kind, she's a fiery, sexual person-"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm aware of who Angie is, what's your point?"
"You're telling me that Angie who sees a hot guy or girl and falls for them so fast even if it's based on their looks, suddenly didn't do jack shit with someone like Caleb? Caleb who is also like Angie, in that nature? You'd think they would have at least slept together, would you not?"
"Yeah." Sydney's voice got quiet before she asked. "Then why the hell didn't it happen?"
"That's what I'm wondering. It doesn't make sense. She was so attracted to him and then suddenly, oh, they're just friends. Something isn't adding up."
Sydney paused. "On Caleb's part or on Angie's part?"
"I think Angie's," I admitted.
"Detective Octavia and Sydney back at it again."
"Coming at you 8/7 central on the Absolutely Stupid Network." I teased back.
Sydney let out a little laugh at our antics. "After you figure out the whole Angie thing, what's going to happen?"
"We're friends, Sydney."
I could hear her clear her throat. "He's not Giulio."
"What-"
"He's not Giulio. You and Giulio were a product of failed relationships and multiple encounters. You were a disaster waiting to happen at this point. Caleb's Caleb. By the way, you've described him he just seems like a one-time kind of guy. You have the hots for him, he has the hots for you. Get it over with."
"Not sure about that."
"Have you seen you? Shut up. He's not stupid."
I exhaled. "You're supposed to say that."
"One night, all you need is one night, one time with him. Just sex, right?"
"Yeah," I admitted. Relationships were a no for me now that I was trying to focus on myself. Yeah, myself, sure, that's the reason why relationships were a hard pass for me. Besides, we were both adults. If our intentions were clear, then that's what it could be and that was just fine.
"That's it," Sydney said. "Just to get Caleb out of your mind. He probably wants it more than you do."
"He flirts with everybody, Sydney," I told her.
"You flirt with everybody!" She exclaimed. "Jesus Christ, I'm surprised you two haven't fücked yet," My eyes widened at her interesting choice of words. Sydney could be crude, not crude or blunt as me but when she said that instead of sex, she was fed up. She probably wanted this to happen more than I did. "It's crazy."
"Just let me figure out the Angie thing first."
"Well, for now, there's nothing wrong with harmless flirting. You might as well show him what he could have, you know?"
I looked at myself in the mirror, wondering what possessed her at eight o'clock in the morning to provide me with these thoughts. "You're the devil on my shoulder."
"And the angel in your heart, don't forget it. I got to go. I'll talk to you later, babe."
"Bye."
When I came back out of the room, Caleb was flicking through his phone and the counter was clean. Except for the bottle of vodka I remember I partially drank last night. I instantly felt queasy and the expression must have shown on my face as I took a seat because Caleb burst out laughing. "I decided to give you a little parting gift. I have another bottle if you'd want it."
"Go to hell," I muttered, eating my cereal as Caleb laughed harder, pushing the bottle closer to me.
"Queen lightweight isn't feeling so good, is she?"
"Caleb, you got five seconds befo-"
"She's giving me the countdown. Don't' want to literally go to hell." He took the bottle out of my sight, smiling before asking. "You have a headache?"
"It's faint, but I'll be fine."
"You sure? Because I got have medicine or something to help." He proceeded to get up but I stopped him with my voice.
"No, no, Caleb I'll be fine. Thank you, though. What about you? You okay?"
"I don't really get hungover," He put his spoon in his mouth. "I'm just a little tired but that'll be fixed as I move along with my day."
Lucky man.
"You don't hide your voice from me anymore, you know?" I told him, eyeing him as he sat back down and proceeded to go through his phone.
"Don't hide my voice?" He looked up, putting on a fake confused face. "How do you mean? It's not like I go mute every time I'm around you."
"That's not what I mean, and you know it."
He chuckled. "You like my voice. When I was a kid, I was bullied for the way I sounded. Let me at least start by talking normally in front of you of all people. Since you know, you think my voice is hot."
The small smile grew to a full out smirk on Caleb's face at that. Oh? He thinks he can faze me.
"When did I say that?" I played dumb.
"A couple weeks ago," Caleb shrugged. "Last night too. Multiple times last night."
Wasn't sure who Caleb thought I was, but I wouldn't be embarrassed by what I had said once sober and was true. And many times, drunk. But when the hell did I say that last night? I mentally sighed, I probably was gone last night. I stared right back at him. "I call it how I see it, handsome."
"Handsome?" He really didn't expect me to say that.
"You keep repeating things. Are you suddenly selectively deaf?" I tilted my head.
Caleb's lips parted at my words before shaking his head, his head down as he stirred his coffee. "Jesus, Octavia, you're going to boost my ego this early?" I heard him murmur loud enough for me to hear.
I shrugged, glancing around the kitchen, looking at the view from the open window of the blue sky and the buildings that surrounded the apartment. "I'm a little more honest in the morning."
Caleb's eyes were glued to his phone. "Interesting." He muttered, placing his phone up high to prevent me from seeing his face. He flicked through his phone through it all, probably aware that I stared at him so openly without any restraint or care in the world.
When i grew irritated by his sudden silence, I tapped him with my foot under the table to grasp his attention. Caleb's head didn't so much move at my touch.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
I tapped him a little harder and he didn't move.
Fine.
I took my foot and allowed it to trace up his leg, by his knee and as I shifted so that I could put my foot on his thigh, getting dangerously close to his-
Caleb grasped my foot in his hand, letting it stay on his thigh. Caleb dropped his phone with his other hand as his eyes flickered to my own. "Yes?"
"Good. I have your attention."
"Could've said my name."
"Saying your name is so boring, Romero. Haven't you heard that actions speak louder than words?" My double meaning lingered in the air and Caleb stared at me, his facial expression not changing in the slightest.
A second later, he chuckled at my words, releasing his hold from my foot so that I could place it back to myself. I proceeded to eat my cereal before I asked. "How did I end up with your sweater?"
"You got cold and as much as we admire the color of your top last night, it gets windier at 4 AM."
I covered a hand over my mouth as I yawned. "Thanks again."
"Anytime."
"Any plans today?" I asked.
Caleb ran a hand through his curly hair, making it wavier and looking more like the guy I see on set day by day. "I have to work."
"You have to head to the studio?"
"I have in-home work to do today," He explained, exposing the chain around his neck as he took it out from under his shirt and played with it.
I swallowed, my eyes not sure on whether I should focus on his fingers on the chain or his eyes. But he was staring at me like that, I had no other choice but to stare right back. "Like what?"
"I have three deadlines for scripts that I haven't exactly been focusing on. But I can deal with those after I drop you off."
"It's fine, I have a driver," I quickly finished the rest of my cereal. "Or I can get an uber or something."
"No, no, I'll take you home." Caleb grabbed my bowl, placing both of ours in the sink.
"Caleb-"
Caleb fished his car keys from a bowl on the counter. "I'm taking you home."
"But you have work to do."
"You live close." He said.
"Caleb."
"Octavia." He shot back.
"Romero."
"Ugh," Caleb gave me a soft smile, his hand reaching out to cup the side of my face. I froze at his actions, my lips parting slightly as he said, "How, how can anyone say no to you?"
He dropped his hand, the soft smile disappearing as he obnoxiously got in my face and said, "This is how. No. I'm dropping you off."
"Dick."
He grabbed the bottle of vodka, shoving it in my hands as he walked out of the kitchen. "Can't forget your parting gift from casa Caleb."
The drive back to the villa was quiet and that was much needed as the headache I had somehow got more intense. Caleb slowed the car down to a stop as he went further down the driveway near the front of the house.
"Last night was fun," He told me, before reaching into his pocket and pulled out a candy. One of the candies I had had in my pocket from last night. He offered it to me like I wasn't mine in the first place but I took it nevertheless."Text me later, we need another day to discuss Olivia."
Olivia, his character who he decided to base off of me. We've spoken of his story time to time and I fed him ideas whenever we had the chance but last night the topic of his story never came up. I blame it on the alcohol.
I unwrapped it, plopping it in my mouth, "Olivia's hungover." I replied, referring to myself.
"Yeah, but I like hungover Olivia almost as much as drunk Olivia."
"I'll see you at work."
"You're bringing vodka tomorrow to work, yeah?"
"Mention alcohol one more time, Romero. I dare you." I threatened.
"Lightweight." Caleb muttered.
"Again," I shifted the backpack filled with my clothes from last night on my shoulders. Thank God for a sister who understood my fashion sense, I thought, looking down at my outfit before glancing up at Caleb. "Who threw up?"
"Bye October."
I gave him witty smile, heading out of the car. "Bye, loser."
"How childish."
"You want childish? I'll throw a tantrum on your car."
"On my car?"
I was already starting to climb on the hood when he ran out of his car and pulled me off. "Okay, okay, you're crazy."
I caught a glimpse of a bruise on Caleb's arm and my eyes widened. I spent a lot of time looking at Caleb's tattoos. Thus, it wasn't hard to identify when something was different on the canvas that was his arm. Right above the pen on his right forearm that solidified the sleeve tattoo of his arm was the bruise. I reached out to his arm, an eyebrow raised. "What the hell happened here? Is this from last night?"
Caleb cleared his throat, a huge grin on his face. "You really don't remember certain things from last night. You gave me this."
"What? How did I hurt you?"
"You didn't hurt me," Caleb said, leaning against the side of his car. "You claimed that you gave the best hickies and didn't want to leave evidence on my neck, so you gave me one on my arm."
Jesus Christ. I hate myself.
This is pure proof of me not being a good Octavia. Someone, anyone, any little thing of the universe, give me a video of everything I did last night. And then make me watch it again to torture myself so I never act stupid again when I'm drunk. Please and thank you.
"But it's not like we..." I trailed off and he immediately understood what I was saying.
"No, no, no, it was a joke," Caleb ran a hand through his wavy hair, a slight smile on his face. "But, uh," He held up his arm, inspecting the bruise. "Pretty sure you weren't joking about giving the best hickies. Might want to try it out on my neck next time, huh?"
He playfully winked and I held my breath. His words weren't expected but they gave me a sudden drive and greenlight. Putting my hand gently on his neck, I pulled Caleb close to me, my lips almost against his neck when I whispered, "Maybe later."
I winked back and he appeared stunned for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, but I diverted my attention, looking up at the villa as if that little conversation never happened.
Sydney was right. Might as well let him know what he could have.
Besides, flirting? My game.
It seemed to be Caleb's game too.
"Good luck with your scripts, I'll see you tomorrow, Romero."
"Bye Octavia." He twirled the keys in his hands again before entering his car and driving off.
When I walked inside the villa, I found Naomi sitting down on the living room couch, her glasses on. They always made her look mature, they suited her 'I'm going to be a lawyer' look. She eyed the bottle in my hand.
"How was your night?" She asked.
"I'm hungover, let's leave it at that," I took a seat on the staircase and she sat in front of me. "How was yours?"
"It didn't go great?" She asked.
"How was yours?" I asked Naomi again, referring to the woman I had last spotted her with at the party before I left with Caleb.
Naomi shrugged. "Got her number. You and Caleb, had a wild night, huh?"
"No, no, no," I shut down what she was suggesting, dropping the backpack on the couch. "We just hung out and I slept over. Thanks for the clothes by the way."
"Hung out." She put air quotes around those words. "When I showed up at his place, I found you all cozied in his bed and him with his arm around you."
My eyebrows rose at her words. I never really questioned my environment when I woke up. Yes, it was in Caleb's bedroom, but I should have made a notice at the fact that the duvet that had been around was not on the other side. As well as the indent in the sheets. It should have clicked that we really did fall asleep together talking as he had said.
I shrugged it off, heading towards the dining room. "Caleb should lock his doors. But anyways, where's Angie?" I questioned, wanting to talk to her.
"Client's house," Krystal answered, looking at me. She sat at the table in sweats, her head on the table as he flicked through his phone. "You should've seen her when she woke up. I'm surprised she got up early." Great, I was going to have to ask her another time.
I glanced at my sister and one of my closest friends. "Okay, whoever is slightly feeling gross and or is hungover say me."
"Me." They both said.
"None of you are going outside, today are you?"
"The windows are shut; the curtains are activated. I'm not going outside." Krystal said, closing her eyes before opening one. Her gaze fell on the bottle of vodka in my hand. "What kind of a night did you have?"
I let out a little laugh, turning on my heel to head towards my bedroom."An interesting one."