"Let me help you." Randy reached to take Cammy's suitcase from her hand. She already had her son, a diaper bag and his car seat in her hands.
"I can manage. Just leave it here and I'll come back for it."
"Cammy."
"I said I got it." She snapped.
Randy stood back. He did not remember Cammy as an outspoken woman. Maybe it was only him. After what he had done to her in the hotel years before and then on the side of the highway … and to make it worse he had told her he had used her to anger Gabby. Cammy was acting just as he deserved her to treat him.
"I'm sorry." He looked at his feet as she walked across the parking lot and went into the lobby of the hotel. She never looked back.
He sighed and grabbed his duffle bag and grabbed her suitcase. He would at least take it to the lobby and a bellboy could help her take it to her room. Why he cared he didn't know or perhaps he still felt guilty.
"That's the cheapest room you have?" Randy stood behind her at the front desk and listened. "Come on, it's late and I know you're not going to fill all your empty rooms. Don't you discount …"
"Normally, yes Maam, but our rooms are filled with fans for the wrestling show that's coming to town. We only have a few rooms left and the manager said no discounts on rooms tonight. I'm sorry."
"Excuse me." Randy stepped forward. "I have a reservation …"
"What's the name sir?" He gave her his name and placed his credit card on the desk. Cammy moved to the side and had begun to collect her bags.
"Put the lady's room on this card as well."
"No, don't put my room on his card." Cammy spoke up glaring at him hatefully.
"So, you and your kid are going to sleep where? The street? I saw a box by the dumpster that looked like it would be comfortable." Randy took his card back from the receptionist along with two room keys.
He knew she couldn't turn him down.
"You're an ass." She snatched the key from his hand and bent down for her bag again.
"I've heard that a time or two." He took her suitcase from her hand and handed them to a bell boy along with a tip. They headed to the elevator and were silent as they rode it high in the hotel.
"Good night." Randy said when the door opened on his floor. She didn't reciprocate, her eyes still shooting daggers.
"Well, screwed that up." Randy threw his duffle down on the bag. Every now and again he had thought about Cammy and the night they had spent together and he had allowed himself to daydream scenarios in which she wasn't married. Sometimes she was divorced, sometimes a widow and others never married at all, but what he would say to her was always the same – I think about that night a lot, Cammy. I have feelings for you. Can we go out sometime? But he didn't say those words when the daydream became reality. He acted like a jackass and told her what he had never meant for her to know.
An hour later there was a knock on his door.
"That was fast," he said expecting it to be dinner he had ordered. Pizza, wings and beer. A big no-no in the strict diet he followed, but he binged when he felt like he did that night.
"You're not room service." He said after opening the door and seeing Cammy standing there with her child sleeping on her shoulder.
"I doubt room service delivers that Randy."
"Sarcastic. Mmm. Damn I miss that woman who used to stare at the floor." Randy spat. "What do you want?"
"I need to borrow your laptop." She walked into his room before he invited her in.
"Please barge right in."
"You're the one in the company staying at this dang overpriced shack. I can't just send this stuff on any computer."
"What are you sending?"
"I'm not sending anything. I have to go everything the other writers …"
"Here take it with you." Randy said giving her the bag and then turning to sign the bill for the bell boy who arrived in the open door with his dinner.
"Thanks." Her tone was just as hateful as his. She slung it over her shoulder and began to leave.
"Wait." Randy softened his voice and reached out to touch her, but pulled his hand back.
"What?"
"Will you just sit down?" He gently took Nicky into his arms and the little boy stirred. Randy bounced him slightly as he walked to the bed until his little head lay down on his shoulder. He lowered him to the bed and then covered him with the blanket. Cammy had a strange expression on her face when he turned back to her. "He walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. "We need to talk."
"I'm not really in the mood to hear anymore about how you wanted to make your wife mad."
"Stop." Randy said. "Just listen. Yes, that's what it started as. That was what that night was about and I'm not making excuses for it. But I enjoyed being with you and after … We have to work together alright."
"You're right. Randy I'm just tired. And I guess a little sensitive. Thanks for lending me the computer. Can we just put the past behind us?"
"Forgotten." Randy agreed sadly.
