“Well, there’s a restaurant here at the hotel,” I replied.
“K, sounds good. It’s almost ten now, so what time should I meet you?”
“Mmm….probably at like eleven.”
“Cool. Text me the address and I’ll call when I get there,” she replied.
I hung up, got the hotel address off a brochure perched over on the dresser, sent the info to Angel, and then turned to look at AJ. He sat motionless on the edge of the bed, staring off into space. Naturally, my first thought was to go comfort him, but I was beginning to think that whatever secret he was holding back was pretty big. Maybe he had good reason to be keeping it to himself. I thought that I might’ve figured it out, though. The only thing that made sense to me was that his parents were having trouble and his father was at fault; maybe Mrs. Hahn had even left him. I watched AJ closely as I passed to go to the bathroom and he didn’t move an inch as he daydreamed. When I finished showering, I dressed quickly and returned to find that sometime while I was away, AJ left the room. I didn’t question it, assuming that he had another call from his father.
My phone rang and I checked the time before answering……10:52.
“Hey, Angel. You here already?”
“Yeah, you guys on your way down?” I could hear the excitement in her voice and I smiled. I looked at the time again and couldn’t decide whether to go down to meet her or sit in the room waiting for AJ.
“Yeah, I’ll be down. Just give me a few minutes.” I hung up and paced in front of the window thinking AJ would walk back through that door any second. The longer I waited, the more I began to suspect that something was up. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my gut told me so. To put an end to my suspicions, I finally decided to call AJ’s cell. When he didn’t pick up, it made me even more anxious. After another minute, I pulled a piece of paper from the notepad on the nightstand and proceeded to write a note telling him to meet me down in the lobby whenever he got back. I contemplated for one more second and then got my shoes on.
I’d already started focusing my attention on hurrying downstairs to see Angel, so my heart skipped a beat when I opened the door to find a large, dark-haired man leaning against the wall adjacent from our room. He smiled at me as if we’d met before.
“How are you this fine morning?” His voice was gruff and raspy when he spoke, staring down on me. He weighed a good 350 and stood at about 6’5”.
“I’m good,” I replied dryly as my eyes drifted longingly in the direction of the elevator. When I moved my feet to turn away, I had to convince myself not to run. I mean…it wasn’t like this guy had done or said anything out the way; he just gave off one of those vibes.
AJ’s silhouette made me sigh with relief when he rounded the corner and started down the hall toward me. He hadn’t noticed either me or the large man yet because his eyes were still trained on the screen of his phone. As if he heard me yelling his name telepathically – which I was totally doing, AJ lifted his head. His steps halted when he glared over my shoulder at the man. Neither one exchanged a word, but I got the distinct feeling that they weren’t strangers to one another. I looked back just as the man trudged away slowly with a sly grin still on his face. AJ’s eyes followed him until he disappeared around the corner and then he turned to me and asked, “Did he say anything to you?”
My only response was to shake my head ‘no’. Something was definitely going on and I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t linked to whatever was bothering AJ. This made me reconsider my original theory about marital problems between the Hahn’s. This seemed much bigger than that.
I looked into his eyes and wanted to blurt out all of the questions that were jumbled in my head, but he seemed so guarded that I couldn’t even get up the courage. Without another word he took my hand and led me toward the elevator.