them and they’re on the same credit card. But we have two rooms.”
A long pause followed, made more ominous by her deepening frown as she worked the keyboard. “I’m sorry,” she finally said. “We have a reservation for both of you in one room.”
Teddy considered calling Skyler, but it was already late in Chicago. “I guess you can put my room on my credit card until tomorrow, when we can get this straightened out.”
“But you don’t understand, sir. We’re fully booked. There are no other rooms.”
Shit. “Okay. Then can you recommend another hotel in the same price range?”
She sighed. “I can try, but it won’t do any good. There are three big conferences in town this week. The whole city’s at capacity—and even if I found something, the rates would be sky-high.”
Teddy and Romeo exchanged dismal looks. But Teddy was a professional, and he was going to meet Joyce Alexander in the morning, so he needed to act like an adult. Dammit. “Fine,” he told her. “But let me know if a room opens up. Maybe you’ll have a cancellation.”
“Of course. I’ll make a note of it.” She gave him a key too, but without the little paper sleeve.
Romeo and Teddy rode the elevator to the eighth floor in silence. I can handle this, Teddy coached himself silently. It was just for a couple of nights, and they’d probably be so busy that they’d spend little time at the hotel anyway. At least Romeo wasn’t throwing a tantrum about being stuck with him, which was a small surprise. And it wasn’t as if the guy was a chatty Cathy. Plus they each had plenty of work to do when they weren’t in a meeting. They could stake out their respective spots in the room, hunker over their laptops, and ignore each other. It would give Romeo a taste of what it was like away from the rarified air of a private office.
Yes, Teddy concluded as they trundled down the eighth-floor hallway, he could handle this. It was no big deal.
Then Romeo unlocked the door. They both entered—and saw the one and only bed.
Chapter Six
They stared at that bed for a long time, as if it might magically morph from one king size into a pair of doubles. Teddy moved to a different spot in the room, but that didn’t help either—still only one bed. And nothing changed when Romeo set his suit bag on a chair and scratched his lip.
Teddy used the room phone to call the front desk and was informed that no rooms with two beds were available. The clerk sounded slightly annoyed that he’d asked.
Teddy hung up with a sigh. “I could call Skyler.” Even as he made the suggestion, he knew it was useless.
“Skyler won’t be able to help.”
“Maybe...the clerk was wrong. I bet I could find a room somewhere.”
They whipped out their phones and tapped away as if in a competition. The outcome proved to be a tie: both dropped their hands in defeat at almost exactly the same time. The clerk had not been wrong. Apart from dodgy motels in the suburbs and a couple of suites with prices higher than the Space Needle, there was not a room to be found.
“Not even a manger,” Teddy moaned.
For some reason, that seemed to make Romeo angry. “It won’t kill you to share with me. I don’t have cooties.”
If someone had waved an honesty wand over Teddy’s head at that moment, he would have admitted that cooties were hardly his worry. His real concern was getting up close and personal with a coworker who annoyed the hell out of him—and was distressingly hot. Who had also recently proven himself to not be an asshole, at least when it came to helping mothers on airplanes and charming small children. But no honesty wand appeared, so Teddy scowled instead.
“I’m hungry,” he announced and headed toward the door.
It wasn’t raining, just sort of heavily misting, which still made extended walking unpleasant. Teddy and Romeo quickly agreed on one of the first restaurants they came to. It turned out to be an upscale steakhouse with a long gleaming bar, heart-stopping prices, and dim mood lighting. It was the last of these that bothered Teddy the most, but as they sat in their plush booth with menus in hand, he focused on the numbers beside the dollar signs. “I don’t know if this place is in our budget.”
Romeo waved a hand dismissively. “We skipped lunch, and Lauren’s springing for only