A Mighty Need

Twenty minutes after Audrey had made the phone call to room service, the six full English breakfasts plus coffee she had ordered arrived. She had the butler who delivered it set four of the dishes on the table and to leave the other two on the cart. The butler poured the coffee for the four coffee cups on the table and also left the coffee pot on the cart as well, as per Audrey. He left with the tip she gave him and had Mike, Joey and Mike’s random girl join her to eat at the table while they waited for Noel and Dee to come out of the bedroom. They made small talk with each other as they ate because anything more would’ve been too much for their heads to wrap around with their mutual hangovers. Audrey learned that Mike’s female companion was apparently named Charlotte and had met him at the Camden Head last night and that Audrey had invited everyone back to her suite. Serge and Amy had declined the offer so they could go home to their sons and relieve Amy’s mother who was watching them. The few others that had been partying with them last night had gone their separate ways before Audrey put the offer on the table.

Joey said they had left the Camden Head around closing time at two in the morning, they got to the Savoy a short time later and had more drinks from Audrey’s mini bar. It was about another hour before Audrey, Dee and Noel disappeared into the bedroom suite, leaving Joey, Mike and Charlotte to eventually pass out where Audrey had found them.

What exactly happened after Audrey went into the bedroom suite with Noel and Dee was beyond her. She was curious as to how she wound up sleeping in the tub with a pillow and someone’s jacket. And, actually, when she thought about it, she was pretty sure the jacket was the waistcoat Noel had been wearing as part of his gothic vampire costume.

A few minutes after Audrey and the other three had begun to eat, the door to the bedroom suite opened and Noel finally sauntered out with Dee in tow. Both were fully dressed and only Noel seemed to look sheepish. Dee was rather nonchalant and smiled pleasantly at Audrey.

“You ordered breakfast for all of us?” Off Audrey’s nod, “Wow, that is well sweet of you.”

“Sorry there’s not enough room at the table,” Audrey remarked. “You and Noel can sit wherever you want to eat.”

“Thanks, cheers.” Dee grabbed one of the plates and sat down on the sofa. She then looked over at Noel and asked of him, “Noel, be a dear; can you pour me a cup of coffee?”

Noel just looked back at Dee, briefly over at Audrey and then poured the cup of coffee for his ex and making it however way he knew Dee still took her coffee. He handed the cup over and went about pouring coffee into the last remaining cup and adding as much milk and sugar as he liked before taking the last plate and sitting in one of the wingback chairs instead of opting to sit beside Dee on the sofa.

“That was some night, huh?” Dee asked; breaking the silence that had fallen after a few minutes of everyone focused on just eating. “I just love Halloween.”

“Yeah,” Audrey piped up. “I don’t remember much after a certain point last night. I don’t remember how we got back here or why I was sleeping in the tub.”

Dee laughed. “You were insisting on it. Said we were all your guests and wanted us to have the more comfortable accommodations. Plus, you were saying something about always wanting to try sleeping in a bathtub.” Balancing her plate on her lap, Dee took a sip of her coffee before saying anything further. “Noel tried talking you out of it and you kept saying no, so he gave you a pillow and tucked you in with his jacket.” Dee glanced at Noel. “Always been a sweetheart, this one.”

“Oh,” Audrey muttered. She didn’t feel like asking why the two of them had been at least half naked in her bed. It wasn’t something to just blurt out in front of the others. And it really was none of her business. As she told herself earlier, it wasn’t as if she had any claim to Noel or any reason to be jealous. She barely knew him.

After everyone was done eating, she offered her bathroom up to anyone wanting to grab a shower or at least freshen up before they went back to their homes.

Joey was the first to leave, opting to catch a train back to where he lived in Brighton and shower once he got home. He said it wasn’t the first time he left someplace wearing clothes from the night before even though, in this case, he was still in costume as Spiderman, sans the mask. Charlotte washed her face and Mike followed her out, offering to share a cab with her, after thanking Audrey for her hospitality and saying goodbye to both her and his brother. Dee had decided to grab a shower, as she had her Pierrot clown makeup still on her face, just badly smudged or half worn off, so Mike couldn’t say goodbye to her.

That left Noel and Audrey alone in the sitting room while she called for the room service cart and dishes to be taken away. She was beginning to putter around, cleaning up a few things despite the fact that there would be a maid crew in when she knew she would leave the suite at some point later in the day. She hadn’t forgotten that she was wearing her pirate costume and in the light of day she felt considerably embarrassed to still be wearing such a thing; more so since it was no longer Halloween. Noel, who had smudged makeup on his face just like Dee had, was watching Audrey moving aimlessly around, clearly trying to keep herself busy or distracted.

“Audrey,” he muttered. He stood up and walked over to her. “Are you mad at me?”

She turned and looked up at him, giving him a tentative glance before smiling faintly and shaking her head. “No, of course I’m not mad. I have no reason to be mad at anyone.”

“I just thought, because of last night and how you saw Dee and me this morning…”

“So, you slept with your ex,” Audrey shrugged with a somewhat forced laugh. Whether he could tell it was forced or not, she didn’t know. “I highly doubt you’re the first person to do so.”

“I didn’t sleep with Dee, though.”

Audrey stopped puttering and gave Noel her full attention. “But you were both topless, in bed together,” she commented, giving him an unconvinced look.

“Yeah, Dee tends to take her shirt of when she’s going to bed after having one too many. I…yeah, I was naked, but in my defense I was also drunk and sometimes I sleep naked. I know it looked like Dee and I fucked and at first I thought that might have happened, too, since I don’t remember anything since the bar. I asked Dee when she woke up and she kinda just laughed in my face and said we didn’t do anything.”

Audrey flashed him a somewhat bemused expression and shook her head. “I don’t know why you feel the need to explain yourself to me. Whatever happened or didn’t happen is none of my business.”

Leaning sideways against the wall, he shrugged. “I dunno. I feel like I should; like I owe it to you. I mean, after last night and all, if I was gonna wind up in bed with anyone it would’ve made more sense if it was you.” He flashed her a bit of a grin and reached out to touch the ends of her hair.

Audrey caught his eye and felt a bit of blush rising to her face. “Well, nothing like that did happen.”

At that moment, Dee walked out into the sitting room, showered and dressed once again in her Pierrot costume and drying her hair with a towel. “That’s a fantastic shower you got in there. Thanks so much, again, for letting me use it. I feel like I just washed away ten pounds of face makeup and sweat from last night,” she chuckled, then stopping a little when she saw a slightly tense moment between Noel and Audrey. “Sorry, did I interrupt something?” she asked, looking between them.

Audrey shook her head. “No, just talking.” She looked up at Noel. “It’s your turn for a shower if you want one.”

“I’ll just wash my face so I don’t scare any children. I’ll shower once I get home.”

Dee nudged Noel when he began to walk past her. “Wanna split a cab, love?”

He gave her a nodding glance before heading toward the bathroom. “Yeah, sure.”

Dee and Audrey smiled at each other; the latter taking a seat on the sofa with her cell phone which she had found resting on a table near the window. Dee sat down across from her in the chair where Noel had eaten his breakfast and the two of them made some small talk. Since it was only just Dee and her in the sitting room, Audrey had no qualms hiking up her costume’s skirt enough so that she could roll her fishnet stockings down. She had them lowered to her knees just as Noel returned fresh-faced into the room. He glanced at her and then looked away, either actually looking for something or pretending to in order to avoid staring at Audrey’s bare legs.

“Have, uh…you seen my phone anywhere? It’s got a picture of me on the case.”

“Try under the bed. I knocked my phone off the side table the other night while I was sleeping and found it under the bed the next morning,” Audrey suggested as Noel slipped back into the bedroom.

“Yeah, found it,” was his response, sounding strained as he must have said it while leaning over. A moment later he was back in the sitting room, brandishing his phone. “Found my fangs, too.” The latter items he tossed into the nearest waste bin.

“Why’d you throw ‘em out? You could’ve used them again,” Dee spoke.

“Not after they spent the night on the floor with my saliva and dust bunnies congregating with bacteria and the devil.”

Audrey chuckled. “You mean Mike?”

“The dust bunny devil, not the little one,” he answered with a chuckle of his own. The heaviness in the air between them seemed to dissipate a little just then and they looked at each other with smiles. “We should get going so you can shower and go about your day,” he suggested.

“How long you in London till?” Dee asked Audrey.

“I fly home next Thursday.”

“We should grab dinner sometime before then.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

As before with both Noel and Bruno, Dee and Audrey swapped numbers. Dee got up and located her purse and put her shoes while Noel sidled up beside Audrey. “If I don’t hear from you in the next couple of days, I’ll just see you on Tuesday at Riverside.”

“Oh, yeah, okay.”

“What are your plans for the weekend?” he wondered, seeming to drag out the goodbye.

“Uh, I was originally going to take a day trip to Stonehenge today but I think I’ll save it for Sunday. Tomorrow I’m going up to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Shakespeare’s birthplace and whatnot. I’m gonna be the ultimate tourist this weekend.”

“I can’t remember the last time I went to Stonehenge. I love that place.”

“So why don’t the two of you head there together?” Dee piped in, making her way to the door. “No reason why Audrey should have to go alone. That’d be boring.”

Noel had looked over to Dee then back to Audrey, who shrugged. “If you want the company, I’m game.”

Audrey nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’ll text you about when I was planning on leaving.”

“Okay,” he smiled. “Have fun tomorrow.”

“Will do,” she said back to him and then to Dee, “I’ll shoot you a text, too, about dinner; maybe Monday or Wednesday?”

“Monday works for me,” Dee smiled. “Thanks again for letting us crash here and for the shower. Sorry you had to see my tits.”

Audrey laughed heartily. “Not the first time I’ve seen a pair that didn’t belong to me.”

“That’s a conversation I think I might want to have with you at some point,” Noel quipped, which was met by Audrey giving him a playful shove as he and Dee stepped out into the hall.

“You wish.”

“I do.”

“Bye, guys.”

“Bye, Audrey.”

“See ya Sunday,” Noel added, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek and this time it didn’t seem out of the blue.

Audrey watched them saunter off down the hallway to the elevators and gave them another wave before closing her hotel room door. With her back upon the surface, she let the last few minutes roll around her head and then pushed off, deciding to head off to take a nice, long shower.



The trip to Stratford-upon-Avon wasn’t all that great. Audrey had booked the trip prior to coming to London through a tour company and shared a seat on a bus beside an old woman who fell asleep and snored during the entire two hour trip. Then when she arrived, she went first to go to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, only for there to be long lines and parents bringing their unruly kids who clearly were too young to enjoy or understand where they were. Visiting the family home of Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway was slightly more enjoyable. She figured not many people cared about who Shakespeare’s wife was. He was the star, so to speak. She had her camera with her and took photos of everything like a typical tourist and grabbed a meal Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna. She walked around a while longer and met up with the others who had taken the bus at the designated meet-up location at five, returning back to the bus drop off by seven and then cabbed it the rest of the way to the Savoy. By that time, Audrey was tired and felt gross from a day of walking around and riding a bus so she remained in the suite for the rest of the night where she ordered a small dinner from room service. The motion of traveling by bus had given her motion sickness, something she rarely if ever suffered from, preventing her from enjoying any food for the rest of evening but she knew she needed something to tide her over until the morning.

After eating she must’ve fallen asleep because she woke up to her cell phone ringing and looked at the side table to see it was after midnight.

“Hello?” She hadn’t looked at the number.

“Hey, did you get to meet Shakespeare’s ghost?”

Audrey sat up and pulled her phone away from her ear to check the number. She couldn’t recognize the number. It was Noel.

“Oh, Noel. Hey.”

She could hear him laugh on the other end. “Were you expecting someone else?”

“No, I was asleep. I didn’t recognize your voice.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologized. “I was just wondering about tomorrow. I didn’t hear from you at all. Are we still on for it? I mean, it’s alright if you changed your mind.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I did mean to call you, but I was so tired from today and as soon as I had something to eat, I was down for the ten count.” Audrey ran a hand through her hair and sank back down against the pillows. She realized she had left the television on so she turned it off, and then turned to stare out the window. “I was planning on renting a car, actually. I thought I’d give driving on the wrong side of the road a try. Unless you wanted to drive the rental, that is.”

“Yeah, I don’t drive. I know how, but barely, so I don’t,” he said. “What time tomorrow? Do you want me to meet you at the hotel? Or, since you’re renting a car, I can text you my address and you can pick me up.”

Audrey considered both options. “I suppose it would be more interesting to come pick you up.”

“I’ll be waiting on the sidewalk like a common streetwalker, in that case, so it’s easier to find where I am.”

“Will you have your thumb out like some sort of hitchhiker, too?” Audrey giggled.

The gruff Cockney accent that suddenly came from his voice was almost like purring in her ear. “Aye, the ‘itcher'll be there alright, ya lovely slag. I’ll be dressed in me finest clothes, I will.”

“Will ya really, sir?” she asked in her own English accent, trying to envision Eliza Doolittle.

“Ahh, I didn’t realize I was talkin’ to a fancy English bird,” he contined with the gruff Cockney accent.

Audrey laughed a bit once again. “Is noon a good enough time for you?” she asked, returning to her normal voice and he did the same.

“That sounds alright. Let me text you my address and I’ll let you go so you can go back to sleep. Get your beauty rest.”

“Yeah, I need it.”

“You really don’t.”

She had caught his meaning in what he’d said and smiled. They bid each other goodnight after that and a few moments later her phone buzzed with a text message. Reading it, she saw it was his address he had promised to send, smiled again and turned off her phone for the night. She used the hotel’s bedside phone and called down to the front desk to ask for a wakeup call for nine in the morning before tucking herself properly into bed and falling asleep.