In the elevator, Katniss was chillin' in the corner, hit the floor button, and kept her eyes glued to the numbers going up, breathing all shallow-like.
Bella was right next to Tristan, cheeks all red thinking about what was coming. She bit her lip and took a couple steps to stand by Katniss. "Katniss, thanks for busting your butt today. Get some shut-eye when you get back."
"No biggie, Miss Astor," Katniss said with a faint smile. When the elevator doors slid open, she was the first one out, holding the door for everyone else, then trailed behind them.
Bella followed Tristan and gave Katniss a wink.
Bella was clearly hyped. Katniss hesitated for a sec before catching up, not really reacting to Bella's wink. After a few steps, they got to her room. "Mr. Forbes, if there's nothing else, I'm gonna bounce. If you need anything, just holler."
Tristan stopped, making everyone else stop too, all eyes on Katniss. Tristan's gaze got all dark as he looked at her and said, "It's late, time to crash. What could possibly come up that I'd need to call you?" His tone was playful, no real emotion.
Catching the teasing in his voice and knowing he was still salty about the room booking, Katniss nodded awkwardly and pushed the door open to go inside.
Bella's face went beet red. "Tristan, if you're pissed, take it out on me. Stop giving Katniss a hard time."
She looked down shyly.
Tristan, walking ahead, turned back, and no one saw the anger and mixed emotions in his eyes.
Nicholas yawned and strolled past Tristan. "I'm not gonna waste your time. I'm heading back to my room to crash."
His room was right next to Tristan's. After swiping his card and opening the door, he added, "I wonder if this hotel's soundproofing is any good. Keep it down, you two, considering I'm here all alone."
As soon as he finished, Michael walked over and booted him into the room. Nicholas yelped and jumped on Michael. "Michael, that's not cool. If Tristan becomes your bro-in-law and you two team up to mess with me, how will I survive?"
As they started goofing around, Bella's embarrassment eased a bit. She pulled out her card from her bag, swiped it, and went into her room first.
Tristan, tall and lean, glanced at the two who were play-fighting, a slight smirk on his lips. "Come in and hang out for a bit. It's still early."
Hearing this, Nicholas stopped messing around and looked at him in surprise, like he couldn't believe Tristan was still in the mood to chill.
Michael's eyes got all serious, and he exchanged a look with Tristan from about ten feet away.
The soundproofing in the resort rooms was just meh. Katniss could faintly hear the door closing next to her, making her heart skip a beat. After a bit, she could kinda make out Tristan's deep voice and Bella's playful words.
She turned and headed into the bathroom, took a warm shower, and then curled up under the covers on her bed. She started messing with her phone. George had sent her a bunch more messages.
Feeling kinda bad for hanging up on her earlier 'cause of his mom, he explained that he was a stand-up guy and not scared of his mom. He just found her nagging annoying.
His childish side was showing more and more. Even though they weren't exactly a match, Katniss kinda liked George's personality. She shot back a few casual replies and, thinking about the game they had talked about, she impulsively opened it to play.
Finding something to kill time was better than having her ears glued to the noises next door. If she couldn't hear, she'd overthink; if she did hear, it would just break her heart.
As soon as she logged in, she saw that George was already playing. No wonder he hadn't replied to her messages. She checked out the game, which had a bunch of different modes. Not knowing what she was doing, she decided to try the training mode first. Once she got the hang of it, she could join team matches.
But before she could start, she got a team invite from George. When she clicked in, all five slots were filled.
She could hear them talking in voice chat, and everyone was grilling George.
"Who's this? A noob? Are you kidding?"
"George, did you click the wrong button?"
"We're high-level players. Bringing a noob? Seriously?"
"Then you guys play. I'll take her in a separate game," George said. Katniss found herself kicked out of the room before she could even react. George invited her again, and this time, it was just her and George in the room.
Technically, the game didn't allow players with such a huge level gap to team up, but since George was the founder, creating a bug was a piece of cake for him. He directly started matching teammates and opponents.
"See? I ditched my buddies to play with you," George said in a slightly cool tone, "Even though I'm younger than you, I'm very considerate."
Katniss didn't know what to say for a moment. If she called him childish, he'd get pissed, but she couldn't bring herself to compliment him either.
The game kicked off, and Katniss followed George's lead, picking a character and trailing behind him like a lost puppy. She had no clue what she was doing, with all sorts of game sounds blaring from her phone, leaving her totally confused.
Even more amazingly, in her dazed state, they won eight games in a row! Suddenly, it all felt super boring. If it weren't for killing time, she wouldn't touch this game again.
"Alright, it's getting late. You should hit the sack," George said after finishing a game, not starting another.
Katniss was a bit surprised. She had thought George would want to keep playing to show off his skills. "Okay, you should get some rest too, or your mom will nag you to sleep."
She said it casually, but it made George mad. "I'm old enough to decide when I sleep. My mom doesn't control me!"
Katniss could only respond helplessly, "Fine, then I'll go to sleep. I'm afraid my mom will nag me to sleep, okay?"
As Katniss exited the game, she could hear George about to say something in a very disdainful tone. Luckily, she exited quickly and didn't catch it clearly. She tossed her phone aside with a sigh but found herself unable to fall asleep no matter what.
Her nerves felt like they were on overdrive, keeping her wide awake. Tossing and turning until midnight, her stomach started growling, but she still couldn't sleep. She could faintly hear some commotion from the next room, with no one speaking, just soft noises. It left her feeling all tangled up inside.
She couldn't help but imagine Tristan and Bella sleeping together; the image haunted her like a bad dream, tormenting her throughout the night.
By five in the morning, she couldn't take it anymore. She got up, washed up, and to hide her tired appearance from a sleepless night, she put on some light makeup. She left her room and headed straight to the restaurant to grab some breakfast.
Even though it was early, a bunch of company employees were already having breakfast, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to have fun.
Seeing her come down, they quickly made room for her. A group of people sat down, chatting and laughing, and Katniss learned that they planned to go hiking behind the resort today, which would take at least half a day.
"Katniss, are you guys going?" someone asked, "When we talked about where to go the other day, Mr. Forbes didn't seem into hiking, so he turned down Miss Astor's suggestion. But it's polite to ask."
Katniss nodded and took out her phone. "I don't know if Mr. Forbes is awake yet. I'll shoot him a text to ask."
She shot Tristan a polite text explaining the situation, thinking he might still be knocked out. To her surprise, he replied almost instantly.
Tristan: [Not going. Didn't sleep all night, feeling tired. You stay too.]
All night? No wonder he's beat. Katniss frowned slightly and looked up at the group. "Mr. Forbes isn't going, so I'll stay behind to be on call. You guys go ahead."
Someone tried to persuade her, "Katniss, you don't need to stay. Mr. Forbes probably stayed behind to be with Miss Astor. They don't need you around. If anything comes up, there are hotel staff."
Katniss shook her head. "No, you guys go ahead. I'm not into hiking. Come back early. If you need anything, just tell the hotel staff and charge it to the company."
The group didn't push further and started eating. With so many people, it took until seven for everyone to finish breakfast.
Katniss, dressed in a light purple tracksuit with her hair loose and fluffy, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window watching them head off in groups to hike. Once they were out of sight, she turned to go back to her room to rest.
But Tristan didn't give her the chance. He called, and when she answered, his voice was hoarse, lazy, and satisfied. "Bring breakfast up."
"Okay." Katniss barely responded before the call was hung up. She put her phone away and went back to the restaurant, picking out some breakfast items according to Tristan's taste. She also remembered Bella was there.
She had to pick another set of breakfast items according to a typical girl's taste and brought them upstairs together.
Standing at Tristan's room door, she took a deep breath before knocking. She pushed open the slightly ajar door and walked in. The room was dimly lit, and she could barely make out Tristan sitting on the sofa, wearing only dress pants, his upper body bare. The bite mark on his shoulder was still covered with gauze. His chest muscles were strong, his skin healthy, and he looked at her lazily, exhaling a puff of smoke from his thin lips.
She had seen this scene many times. He liked to smoke after sex. Although she hated the smell of smoke, she loved the way he looked when he smoked, always sneaking glances at him while getting dressed.
But this time was different. He had smoked after being with Bella. Suddenly, the smoke in the air felt like sulfuric acid, corroding her airways, making her extremely uncomfortable.
Her face was a bit pale, but in the dim light, Tristan probably couldn't see it. She took a deep breath and placed the breakfast on the table. "Mr. Forbes, your and Miss Astor's breakfast."