I finally slump down on my couch. Pulling my favourite blanket around me. At first I wanted to go to a friend or something. Because people who have as much money as the Powell family know how to find you, easy. But I decided against it as there wasn't really somewhere else I could go and I didn't want to show up at a friend's house all weirded out like this.
I curl up on the couch. Nothing will ever be the same. I'm not even sure I'm okay with that. I went to the ball with just some loose ideas about what I wanted my night to be like. But none of those plans included having sex with a guy, or getting pregnant.
How does this even work? I want to look it up on my laptop but it's on my table and I don't want to get up. Instead I reach out, grab the remote and turn on the TV. If I'm not gonna do anything, I might as well have some background noise.
As I skip through the channels I see the hotel and stop. The sound is still off, but the texts and images on the screen tell me enough. This is about last night's ball. The woman keeps talking about something, on and on. The text on the screen keeps running down a list of names, confirmed Alpha's that were at the event and if they hooked up or not. At the end I see the name that gives me an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, "Maxwell Powell -> hooked up with human". And then there is an image, me yelling at Max, right before I got lost in the maze. It makes me blush, not just because of the memory of that stupid moment, but also because of what happened after. I guess that was the moment it was clear to everyone there that something was going on between us. Even if we, well I, hadn't figured it out yet.
The next message on the screen gives me a different feeling in my stomach, a very bad one. "Please contact us if you know who this man is."
Oh, god, no. I groan.
A few seconds later a loud knocking on my door makes me look up. "Eric, open up!" A deep voice calls out.
For a moment I'm scared that Max had already found me, but it's just a friend, Tim.
I drag myself from the couch as I call out. "Stop being loud." I open the door and Tim immediately comes in, not even greeting me.
He closes the door behind him and locks it. "There are people looking for you."
I sigh, pretty much aware of that already. I point at the TV. "I just saw
it."
"I tried to call you, but you're not picking up. Smart, sort of." He stalks
from one side of the room to the other, closing curtains and looking behind some of the pictures I have up on the wall.
"Calm down. I'm not in some spy movie. Sit down, you're making me feel ill." I sit down myself, trying to push down the feeling of needing to puke, again. I don't want to think about what happened this morning, but getting nauseous in the middle of the day doesn't have to mean anything, right?
"Sorry. Did you drink to much or something?" Tim kneels in front of
me.
I push at him. "You're too close."
"Sorry, sorry." He stands up and starts walking from one side of the room to the other. Then he stops, opening his mouth and then closing it, he lets out a deep sigh. "Why didn't you tell me that you were gay?"
"What?!" To be honest, I hadn't even thought much about that part of this whole mess. Potentially being pregnant was significantly more scary than the fact I had sex with a dude.
"Is that the reason the wedding was called off? I totally get it if it was. It's just... We've known each other for so long and you never told me." He pulls out a chair from the tiny table that takes up most of what is supposed to be my kitchen. The screeching noise makes me cringe, but it doesn't seem to faze Tim. "Why would you not say something?"
Oh, god. I don't actually want to think about these questions right now. "Because I didn't know either."
"How can you not know?" He sits down, tapping with his fingers on his leg instead.
"Because I've never been interested in a guy before." I try to wrap my head around the answer too. Haven't I ever? I try to think, but there is no point in my life that I had any interest in a guy, not even models or actors.
"Really? So the first time you go to a party you just miraculously find out that you're gay and then, in the same night, have sex with the dude?"
"I'm not gay." I think. The only guy I've ever been interested was Max, and it was something I've never even experienced before. Not like this. Not even with the woman I was about to marry. "I was interested in one man.
One man, one night. I have no interest in other guys." "Are you sure?"
"What is it with the interrogations?" I stand up, it's too cramped in here, I can't sit still. But I can't go out either, like Tim said, there are people looking for me, a lot of people.
"You think this is bad? Dude. You were aware who he was before you had sex with him, right?" Tim also stands up, trowing up his hands.
I shrug. "Not really. No clue. I only found out when I left."
"You, a straight guy, had sex with the richest bachelor in the city, who is openly gay, and you had no idea?"
'And found out you were pregnant with his child before you even knew
his full name.' The thought goes through my head, but I shrug. "I was trying to hook up with his friend, Alexia. She was wearing a very revealing red dress."
"You're not even kidding, are you?" Tim looks at me, puzzled.
"Nope." I feel slightly awkward. Maybe I should have checked out who were going to show up at the party. But what is the chance that the richest single dude in the city finds you when you're hiding away from the party at the outskirt of the garden? Probably one in a million, and it happened to me. He found me, while he too was hiding from the party.
"Oh, fuck this. Let's talk about something else." Yay for his short attention span. He sits down in front of the TV.
Then two things happen at the same time. The woman on the TV starts to act very enthusiastic as a blinking message on the screen announces that they will reveal the name of the mystery guy in a few minutes, and there is loud banging on the door, again.
***
"Eric, open the door!" Max's voice is not to be missed.
Tim looks up at me, his eyes big and his mouth slightly open. Then he gives a quick nod, stands up and opens the door. "There is no-one here-"
But before he can finish his sentence Max already barges into the room. "We need to talk." He looks right at me.
"I think you need to leave." Tim steps aside, out of reach of both of us. Max turns to him, annoyed, but Tim hold up his hands.
"They're about to name the mystery guy you went to your room with last night. If you don't want to be swarmed with reporters on your way out, you need to leave right now. Both of you, together." He shrugs as we both look at him. "I was gonna take him away for a while if they figured out who he was. But if you're here, it's better if you take him with you. Sooner, rather than later."
My brain is finally catching up on what Tim means. "But I need to pack clothes, things."
"The guy is right. If they are about to out you, we need to leave. Now." Max grabs my arm and pulls me towards the door.
"Wait!" I try to resist him, it's hard, but he stops right before we're out of the door. I grab the keys from my table and hand them to Tim. "Can you grab me some clothes and stuff and get them to me when the vultures have left? And then lock up tight. Call me and we'll figure out a place to meet." I also grab my laptop, not leaving without that. "Now I'm ready to leave."
"I'll get onto that." Tim nods. "Good luck." "Thanks." I turn to Max. "Let's go."
Max rolls his eyes but then smiles. "Finally."
We quickly get down the stairs. Outside, a car is waiting. We get in the back and someone starts to drive as soon as the door closes. As we get to the end of the street I can see a news van turn into my street while we're waiting for the traffic lights. We were just in time.
I lean back against the seat, the laptop now easy in my lap. I let out a deep sigh.
"Sorry for putting you under this much stress." Max's voice is soft and when I look at him he tries to smile. "I should have known it was a bad
idea, I shouldn't have taken you to my room last night."
A hollow feeling takes over inside my body. I was a bad idea. I bite on my lips, preventing myself from speaking because nothing good will come out right now.
Max puts his arms around me and pulls me close. "That came out all wrong. Oh, god. I meant that I should have met up with you elsewhere. It was the wrong location to start something like this, too much media. Too many people who try to make even more money by selling gossip and pictures from the event to the media." He puts his lips very close to my ear and I shiver. "I don't think what happened between us was a bad idea. I would never be able to think that. What happened was... magical." He stops for a moment. "But it happened in the wrong location. Too public to start something this private."
The dark feeling goes away just a little bit, but it still lingers some. It clears my head though. So much has happened that I had so little control over. "We need to talk about what happened."
He nods. "We do. But for now... let's wait with that until we're at my place." He angles my face upward and gives me a short kiss on my lips before he lets me go. He moves in his chair and looks out the window.
That was... Max drives me crazy. Holding me, then letting go, kissing me, then moving away. I get it, I'm not even sure about my own feelings, but his constant going back and forth doesn't make it any easier. It makes figuring out my own feelings even harder.
Max curls his hand up and relaxes it in a slow tempo, while laying it on his leg. I reach out, sliding my fingers between his, curling them up with his.
He looks at me for a moment and then smiles softly. He might be as nervous as I am, even if it is for different reasons. This is just all so weird.