To Caress My Day

It wasn’t Seth’s emphatic volume that finally garnered Avery’s attention, but the raw franticness in his voice. Never had she ever heard him sound so downright pitiful and helpless. Snapping her eyes in his direction, she saw a despairing disheveled-looking half-naked man who was on the cusp of having a mental breakdown over something that didn’t actually happen between the two of them.

Nevertheless, the severity of the situation made Avery straighten her back into action from where she’d been hooking her heels from the band around her ankle. Switching her objective of getting herself ready to depart his Las Vegas hotel room after staying overnight to now making an effort to console her ex-fiance before he threw himself out of one of his floor-to-ceiling windows. She couldn’t be sure if Seth was sober enough right now from last night’s drinking to comprehend what she was about to tell him, but she still had to try. In the same tone a parent would use on a petrified vulnerable child, Avery gently tried to walk him through what happened the day before. “Okay, listen to me closely, Seth. Last night you got REALLY drunk, as you’ve probably already established by now.”

“No, shit, Avery!” Seth snapped from where he sat on the couch across the room in nothing but his briefs. It had been a fright to his hungover system to wake up in such a near-nude state with his ex-fiance getting dressed across the room from him! The icing on top of this mess was that he couldn’t remember a damn thing from yesterday that could have led up to this moment where he was alone in his hotel with Avery Jenkins and they both had been naked…well, he was at least still naked. Avery had been in the process of getting dressed by the time he woke up.

Overlooking his attitude, Avery progressed on, wishing to be done with this so she could get back to her own room in an entirely separate hotel. “Right. Anyway, everyone pretty much got drunk at that new club in the Casino, you know the one in the basement? Well, me and that womanizing asshole, Aaron, was trying to help you to a cab because you were too hammered to walk straight. Out of nowhere, some chicks walked by and Aaron took off after them like some horny animal and left me there alone to deal with you. I got you a cab and brought you back here.”

“And!?” Seth aggressively spurred her on, needing to hear it all. A part of him wished she’d get to the goddamn point, specifically the one where they slept together. That had to be what happened last night, why else would they have woken up without their clothes on!?

“And nothing!” Avery snapped at him with a glare. Crossing her arms over her chest, she was beginning to regret lingering out of concern for his mental well-being when she could be grabbing a cup of coffee and dousing her own hangover in it. “I stayed for a couple of drinks, and we talked. You ended up spilling your damn drink on your clothes and for whatever reason took them off before you fell off the couch and onto the floor. Eventually, you passed out there and I left you to it.”

Well, that might have answered why he woke up in his underwear on the floor of his hotel room. But that didn’t answer everything. Glaring back at her, Seth gestured to her attire with a wave of his hand. “Oh yeah, what about your clothes? I woke up to you getting dressed in my room! What about that?”

“Seriously, Seth? We were engaged to be married once! How do you not know that I can’t stand sleeping in any article of clothing that isn’t made of the most elegant silks? Sober or not, I don’t fucking care!” Avery gasped at him. She was officially insulted now, and it wasn’t over the fact Seth thought they’d slept together, but because he would forget that she’d sooner have acid thrown in her face before she slept in anything other than the most expensive hard-to-acquire silks. “To think you ever knew me!”

Holy crap, she’s telling the truth, Seth realized! Avery wasn’t lying like he thought she was. He was an idiot to ever forget her ultimata to sleep in silk especially after she threatened to go on a sleeping strike after the airport lost their luggage on their vacation to Maui. It was a whole spectacle that had been scorched in his mind for years afterward! Exhaling loudly in comfort that he hadn’t cheated on his beloved Twigs with his ex-fiance, Seth felt the pounding of his heart begin to settle back down as he dropped his head into his hands. “Oh thank you, god!”

Watching Seth shudder with ease made Avery feel bad for getting short with him. The man nearly died from a panic attack thinking he had cheated on his mysterious girlfriend, and here she was getting irked with him. Sighing, she reached up to tuck her blonde hair behind her ears. “Look, I’m sorry for freaking you out, Seth. I swear to you I had no intention of sticking around and staying the night in your hotel room. I stupidly got too drunk to make my own way back to my hotel so I thought why not? It wouldn't hurt.”

Still caught up in his relief that he didn’t cheat on his girlfriend, Seth forgivingly waved her apology off with his hand before leaning his entire body back into his couch. Instantly, he relaxed into the cushions and closed his eyes peacefully to the pounding of his hangover. “It’s okay, Ave. I totally get it now.”

“Nothing inappropriate happened between us at all. You’ve got nothing to stress about.” Avery vowed to him once more, hoping it would sink in like an anchor so he’d remain calm. Executing what seemed to be almost impossible to achieve, she rose from the couch she was perched on and smoothed her hands down her maxi dress. In much better spirits now, Avery decided to make a joke. “And I won’t tell your ‘Goddess’ about it either.”

“Goddess?” Seth repeated curiously, his eyes opening to arch a brow in Avery’s direction.

“Yes, the Goddess you’re in love with and plan to ask to marry you.” Avery reminded him with a smile, her hands on her hips as she turned to face him. “At least that’s what you told me last night.”

And just like that, Seth was hurtled right back into panic mode all over again. Eyes snapping wide open in horror, he went sickeningly pale as he sat himself up on the couch.

By god, Avery was talking about Twigs!

No. No, Seth wasn’t about to let Avery see him sweat this. Not if she was once again probing for answers like she had when they first ran into each other at the Casino yesterday. Playing along, he lets out a chuckle and nods in agreement. “Uh, yeah. I remember that.”

Avery giggled before collecting the rest of her things on the counter of the bar area of Seth’s room.

Biting his bottom lip, Seth watched Avery move around his hotel room. He had to figure out a smooth inconspicuous way to go about grilling her on how much she knew about Twigs. From the beginning, he had been hell-bent on keeping her existence out of the media’s clutches and had been doing a booming job so far. But now Avery might know about her, and he didn’t know if he could entrust her with that knowledge. Or if he ever would. “D-Did I get around to dropping her name last night by any chance?”

Grabbing a hold of her matching purse, Avery rolled her eyes at him and gave him a look of dissatisfaction. “No, you stubborn ass! Even drunk out of your mind you refuse to relay any kind of diminutive details on her. I literally got nada to go on, thanks to you.”

Once again, Seth’s body sagged back down onto the couch in a state of alleviation. Thank god, he didn’t give away anything about Twigs to Avery. Somehow, even in the deepest pits of intoxication, he had known not to run his mouth when it came to his girlfriend. And he couldn’t be more proud of himself.

At the mention of Seth’s secret girlfriend who has only been anointed Goddess so far, Avery’s curiosity was now back to drill for more info on her. Leaning against the bar counter, she narrowed her eyes on her ex-fiance and asked. “Is this Goddess of yours an actual person with a real name other than Goddess? Now that I think about it, I’m starting to think you made her up with all your drunk talking.”

“It was drunk talk. At least her nickname ‘Goddess’ is.” Seth verified, permitting her this tiny truth.

Nodding, Avery decided to check on the time on her wristwatch. It looked like she was running late with meeting up for breakfast with the ladies of the Bachelorette party. “Well, I gotta head on out of here now. It’s time to meet up with my party girls for some grub and gossip.”

Being the gentleman that he was, Seth tried to rise up off his couch. “Let me walk you to the door.”

“I can let myself out just fine. I’m a big girl.” Avery told him while holding up a hand to delay him from getting up and possibly falling over like before. Making her way out the door, she stopped to poke her head back inside and smiled at him. “See you around, MacFarlane.”

“See you, Ave.” Seth waved goodbye to her with a genuine smile. He watched her close the door and then listen to her leave in silence before collapsing across his couch from the fatigue of just trying to be physically, mentally, and emotionally active this morning. Not to mention the almost cheating scandal with his ex-fiance and accidentally blabbing over his girlfriend whom no one knew about. With his arm over his forehead, he made a pledge to himself that he would NEVER drink that much ever again.