Thorne in the Side

Chapter 12

"Hello? Earth to Seth," Dean said, clicking his fingers in front of his friend's face. He then knocked his fist on the top of Seth's head. "Anyone in there?"

"Get off me, you dick," Seth giggled, shrugging Dean away.

"Stop being ignorant then, asshole," Dean fired back, only feigning his irritation. "We're trying to order food here, while you're sitting there looking like you're on a different planet."

"He's always on a different planet," Roman quipped, not looking up from the hotel's room service menu.

The three men had met up in Roman's room after the house show, intending to spend the night playing cards over a drink or two and a meal. Seth had been about as focused on his poker game as he had been on the rest of the conversation. His lack of focus had cost him about twenty bucks already. It was no good, he decided, he was going to have to go and talk to Lucy.

Since the moment she had kissed him outside of the women's locker room, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her, or stop tasting her on his lips. Part of him wondered if she had done it just to play games with him, but to counter that there was the look he had seen in her eyes over the table in catering. There had been desire on both sides of the table in that moment, he knew that without doubt.

Adding to his frustration was the fact that she had immediately walked into the women's locker room, denying him the opportunity to respond to the kiss, or even to talk to her about it. He was sharp enough to realise that had been a very deliberate on her part, as was her polite rejection of Roman's offer to join them for the poker night. Seth knew that she had wanted the kiss to be playing on his mind, just like it was, and she had wanted the ball to be in his court in terms of whether he made the next move. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be making that next move.

He was also sharp enough to see that Lucy was a very assertive person, who liked to be in charge of things. She wanted to be in charge of whatever this thing was between them. No, he decided, it wasn't going to go like that. Lucy had taken the initiative by taking him by surprise with the kiss. Now he had the chance to take the initiative back, depending on how he handled making the next move.

"Guys, I'm going to take off," he announced after reaching a decision, pushing his chair back from the table and standing up. "There's something I've got to go and do."

"Surely you can wait until later to jerk one off?" Dean asked, grinning. Roman laughed, looking up from the menu.

"Very funny," Seth said on his way to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

"What's up with him?" Dean asked Roman after the door closed behind their friend.

"You tell me?" Roman shrugged, returning to studying the menu. "He's hardly said a world all night."

"You don't think he had another bust up with Lucy do you?" Dean asked, lounging back in his chair.

"No," Roman said simply. "I might not be the best judge of character in the world, but I think it's safe to say that Lucy's not one to keep it to herself when she's pissed off about something. We saw that first-hand this morning. She was fine in the car coming back here, so no, it's not that. If Seth's still acting strange tomorrow, we'll talk to him about it." He tossed the menu across the table to Dean. "Right now, you need to decide what you want to order. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse."

Catching the menu, Dean started reading the list of items, a confused expression on his face. Eventually, he said, "I don't see a horse on here."

Seth had had the foresight to pay attention to the room number Lucy had been given when their group had checked into the hotel. With the kiss fresh on his mind, he had considered that it might prove to be useful information. Now, standing outside of room 503, he was glad of his own swift thinking. Having to text her and ask for her room number certainly wouldn't have had the same impact as just showing up at the door. Taking a deep breath for courage, he gave the door a firm knock.