I woke up the next morning in my own bed, and I wondered how I got there. Dan must have carried me, but how had he known my room, anyway? I didn’t really remember him waking me up long enough to get me to tell him, but it could have happened.I couldn’t help my face flushing red, with embarrassment and pleasure as I thought about yesterday. I couldn’t help thinking what would have happened if we had gotten caught. But, it had felt too good for me to really regret it.Just somewhere more private next time. There was no need to tempt fate.I felt it was a pretty good morning, and my spirits were up. I took a quick shower and changed my clothes, then went to the kitchen to make some breakfast for the two of us. Neither of us had talked about what was going on between us, or when Dan would be leaving, but I couldn’t afford to think of it myself.The past couple days had been the most excitement I’d had in a while, and I was nowhere near ready to see it end.“Anybody in here?” Dan called n

I woke up the next morning feeling achy. It was different, but it felt better than how I’d been after he’d taken me for the first time. I could almost imagine I was still in the afterglow of that last orgasm.I’d dreamt of yesterday, and as I woke up, I realized the difference between the first and the second time we’d had sex, a difference I very much hoped was real. While the first time had been pure, carnal fucking, something we’d both wanted, the second time had felt like making love, or what I thought it would feel like, anyway, in those nights I would lay awake fantasizing.It had me just a little bit excited.I stretched my body out, then blinked my eyes open. I frowned when I realized something I should have already. I rolled over just to make sure. I was alone.“Hello?” I called. “Dan?”There could have been plenty of reasons he’d left the bed. Maybe, he’d gone to the bathroom, or, he was trying his hand at cooking again in my kitchenette. Or, he’d gone back to his own room b

I looked around what used to be the hotel lobby, and felt like I could have cried. Dad was long gone, and I was alone.Finally, I was ready to close it up.Well, saying I was ready might be a bit of an overstatement. I was closing up, but it was more because I didn’t have much of a choice, than because I wanted to.After Dad left, I’d tried to hold on, before I realized I couldn’t. The next thing I tried was selling, but that wasn’t any easier. I’d been trying for months, and still nothing.I couldn’t keep it, though. Not even for my brother’s sake, after Dad had given up on it. He knew all the business side of things, all I ever did was clean and cook and take care of the guests. That was not enough to run the hotel. Not to mention the fact that Dad didn’t leave any money for running the place, like he was silently encouraging me to close up.Damn you Harry, I thought to myself, using my dad’s name for the first time in a while. This place is supposed to be your fucking responsibilit

“Now what?” I asked after a long silence.Dan sighed and started pacing. He looked about as bad as when I’d seen him for the first time, a thick beard on his face and his hair overgrown and left unkempt back in the clinic, but now he looked a little bit better. Even though he was in a rumpled suit. It was how I’d recognized him, actually, though he’d changed suits and had at least taken a shower since then.“I don’t know, Scarlett,” he admitted. “I mean, I do understand your situation, at least a little bit. But you have to understand that I don’t think I can take care of a baby, either.”Again, the fear that he would dump the baby on me was back.“I’m sorry about that, but I can't, either. And I don’t want to give him up for adoption. I was…thinking I could try school again or something. I’ll probably get a crappy job where I can earn enough money to at least take some classes at a community college, then look for something better afterwards…”But it wasn’t as if life was so simple.

I woke up in a large bed, alone, and for a moment, I was disoriented. Until I remembered I’d moved in with Dan. It had been a few days already.Everything had happened so quickly. There wasn’t anything left in the hotel anyway, so after he’d called his friends to pick us up, I’d locked it and we’d left. I still had to do something about it, but I had time and a place to think.Dan’s house was bigger than I’d expected, big enough for our little family of three. He’d told me he hadn't planned for a family any time soon, but he had a couple guest rooms. He was letting me sleep in his room, while he took one of the guest rooms. His friends had bought a crib for Makas, and when we got back, they’d helped to turn the extra room into a nursery where he slept.I didn’t like sleeping alone, and I didn’t like the idea of the baby asleep in a room on his own, so he was in a crib just a few feet from the bed. I got up and walked over to him, smiling down at him when I found he was still sleeping.