Leaving the bathroom

The shower was well needed. Cleansing you and clearing your head slightly, especially when you gave yourself a jolt of cold water towards the end.

Your mind is still swimming as you try to figure out your next course of action. The voices had calmed down from the other side of the door, but Ray is probably still out there.

You could confront him, get angry and tell him to back off. You could just try to escape as fast as possible, whichever way you can. You could just go along with whatever he wants… you shake your head, why in the world would you consider that last one as an option?

Confronting him, well… you glance at your naked feminine body in the mirror. You’re alone with him in a hotel room with no fast way home. This really doesn’t seem to be the time or place.

So the best answer is to get home right now. The question is how? With a sinking feeling, you remember how limited your clothing options are. As for the ride home? You have no money on you, everything you have is in your purse.

Your purse! Through the swirl of memories, you remember Ray taking it with you to the room, it should be in the next room!

So get the purse, order a taxi... Even better, get EDNA to deliver a spare change of clothes. She's done that before.

And Ray?

Stall him, heck say you’ve got a headache. No! Wait! You tried that before, he’ll just take that as an excuse to give you another pill. Argh.

You face the door, your stomach doing flips. You can’t just go wait for a perfect plan, you’ve gotta go forward with what you’ve got. You pull on the hotel provided dressing gown and slippers so you’re not completely naked.. Your new longer hair was heavy with water, so you wrap a towel around it. So that you don’t look too dishevelled when leaving, you dab some toilet paper in soap and clean up some of the more egregious smears in your makeup.

Taking another breath, you step towards the bathroom door. You unlock it. This is it. You open it, and step out into the room.

"Looking good! Leaving the collar on is a nice touch!" Ray smiles as he lowers his newspaper. You look at him. He's sitting there on a comfy chair with a champagne bottle and two flute glasses on the table in front of him. The room must have a second bathroom since he’d gotten cleaned up himself. He was looking fresh as ever, even in a hotel gown. You’re jealous that it all seemed so easy for him.

Your eyes dart around the room and quickly find your purse a narrow table by the window. You walk straight towards it, pull it open and yank out your phone.

You have a moment of hesitation. You are asking EDNA for help after all.

“Looking to call someone? Don’t worry. If it’s work related I’ll take care of it.”

“I’m not…” you decide to be firm, “I’m leaving.”

“Leaving?” Ray seems surprised but his next words were calm. “Awwww, baby don’t be like that, what’s wrong?”

“I’ve just… had enough.”

“Enough of what?” He raises from his chair and slowly approaches. “Was I a bit too much for you? A bit too intense?”

You grimace, and nod, before returning your attention to your phone, not really seeing what it's showing.

“Oh honey, when you left such a big invitation, I went in without hesitation, but I see I scared you.”

He’s right next to you now, he puts a finger under your chin, and tilts your head up so you’re now looking in his eyes.

“I can be a bit overwhelming, but you don’t need to worry about anything. You can just relax. We’ll order dinner and have a nice meal right here.”

“But I can’t stay…” you say, shaking your head.

“Why not?”

“If I stay we’ll have… we’ll have… have….”

“Sex, Jane. It’s called sex. We’re both adults here. In fact, we just had it.”

You mentally stumble and nod, blushing hotly.

“Jane, what we had in the elevator was wonderful, superb. I very much appreciate that, and you! But we don’t need to rush to repeat things unless you want to. If you don’t want more sex tonight, that’s fine with me. I just want to spend more time with you. I’m happy just to look into your eyes.”

You look into his eyes in return. Disarmed. He has an expression of complete assurance, and even sentimentality, as he looked at you. You by contrast were a wreck. He took sex off the table, which should make you feel better and safer in his company, but somehow you were nervous in a completely different way you couldn’t put your finger on.

You look back at your phone, then back at him, then your phone, then him. You’re not sure what to think.

Without a word, Ray puts one arm around your shoulder and with the other he takes the phone out of your hand and drops it back into “your” purse. Then he guides you to your seat by the table and before you know it you’re sitting down at the table with a champagne flute in your hand.

Ray sits across from you, a strong assured smile on his face as he reaches over with his own champagne glass and taps it off yours with a ting. “To us!” and then he takes a sip.

Through nerves, reflexes, or just pure need, you take a sip yourself. The moment you do, you panic over whether you’ve let too much **** into your system.

“I need water,” you spurt. You need to dilute whatever **** you have or it’ll get even harder to think.

Ray nods, “Sounds good,” he slides a hotel menu in front of you, “anything else you want to order?”

You place the glass down and pick up the menu. Food would also help with the **** and… you think of the tension in your stomach... could part of that have been old fashioned hunger? You start to look through the menu...