The Rules of Dating My Best Friend's Sister(82)

“Daisy! It’s Holden. I think we have each other’s cell phones! Can you open the door?”

The third time I knocked, a door opened, but it wasn’t the one I was knocking on.

“People are trying to sleep, goddammit!” An older man yelled.

I waved. “Sorry.”

He slammed the door, and my shoulders slumped. I put my ear to the door, hoping maybe the commotion had stirred Daisy, but the only thing I heard was a loud-ass snore.

Fuck my life.

***

The following morning, I waited until seven o’clock before going back to Daisy’s room. I hadn’t slept yet again, and I was going out of my mind not having my phone and being able to communicate with Lala with everything she was going through.

Daisy had always been a morning person, so I hoped that hadn’t changed. I knocked lightly, not wanting to piss off the guy next door again. Thankfully she answered this time. She was still wearing the clothes from the night before and looked like crap.

“I’m sorry to bug you so early.” I held out her phone. “But I think we have each other’s phones. I must’ve taken the wrong one when I left your room last night.”

She nodded. “Yeah, we do. I was going to go down to the lobby and see if I could schmooze your room number from the front-desk guy once the Tylenol I just swallowed kicked in and took the edge off the pounding in my head.”

She walked inside and grabbed my cell, while I held the door to her room open and waited. “I didn’t realize it wasn’t mine when I answered it a few minutes ago. That’s what woke me up.”

“My phone rang? Who was it?”

“Lala.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my head. “Shit.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I told her you weren’t here, and you must’ve left your phone here when you helped me to my room last night, but she didn’t sound like she believed me.”

Awesome. Just freaking awesome. “Alright. Thanks, Daisy. I’ll see you later at checkout?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry for being such a lightweight last night. I hope I wasn’t inappropriate or obnoxious. Some of the evening is a little fuzzy.”

I forced a smile. “Nah. You were all good.”

Rather than go back to my room, I went downstairs and got some coffee and fresh air. I was going to need to be more alert than I felt right now for my conversation with Lala. Searching my missed calls, I found that she’d called twice last night and then again this morning when Daisy had picked up. Given my history with women, I knew it wasn’t going to look good. But I hung onto the hope that she and I had built some trust over the last two months. Though that hope went in the toilet when she picked up and I heard her curt tone.

“Yes?”

“Hey, babe.”

“Seriously, Holden? You’re going to hey, babe me like nothing happened? Or did your groupie forget to tell you I called?”

I shut my eyes. “It wasn’t a groupie. It was Daisy, our manager.”

“Who was in your bed…”

“No, she wasn’t in my bed. She was in hers. And I was in mine—not sleeping because I couldn’t contact you. I accidentally took Daisy’s phone and left mine with her last night. She’d had too much to drink, and I walked her to her room, where she proceeded to drop her purse and spill everything inside all over the floor. I picked her stuff up, and I grabbed the wrong phone.”

“Oh? I see. So you’re a gentleman, then?”

I didn’t have to ask if she was being sarcastic. “I’m telling you the truth, Lala.”

“Whatever.”

“No, not whatever. I’m telling you the honest-to-God truth that nothing happened. And I think you should believe me. I’ve not done anything to make you doubt my loyalty to you.”

“You don’t have to. Your history tells the story, Holden.”

I didn’t have any right to get angry. I knew exactly how it looked. But for some reason, her blaming my history for her lack of trust in me pissed me off. “How about giving me some credit, Lala? I know you think I’m a big manwhore because I have more experience than you. But not once have I cheated on a girl I was in a committed relationship with. I slept around when I was single. I know you don’t like to hear that, but I can’t go back and change it.”

“No, you can’t,” she said.

“As long as we’re on the topic of sleeping around, where did you sleep last night? Last we talked, you were with Warren and were going to call me back. My phone didn’t ring all day. Have you gone back to him? Are you done with me already? Did you get what you needed and I’m dismissed?”

“I can’t do this right now.” Lala sniffled. “My mom is in the ICU, and I can’t take any more stress.”

Oh fuck. I made her cry. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just…I feel so frustrated that you don’t believe me. Trust me, if you understood how much I think about you, you would not have any questions about whether I could be with another woman. I’m freaking crazy about you, Lala.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

“Can we start this conversation over?”

“I can’t right now. I need to go back inside for rounds in a minute. They just started when my phone rang, so I stepped out.”