My heart was quivering as I slipped into my room, pushing my back to the door in an effort to ward off anything that might try to come inside.
Slowly, I sank to the ground, slipping until I was in a crouch. But when I did, when my body collapsed in on itself, my forehead brushing my knees, I sagged.
The cold came.
Loading me with a chill so intense that I knew this was the kind of cold that could kill a person.
Here I was, early spring in a sweltered Boston, and I felt like I was in the middle of a snowstorm in Montana.
Knowing that if I lay here, I could freeze without a blanket, I crawled to the bed. It hurt. My hands ached, my bones throbbed with the chill permeating me, and I just felt like I was one big, throbbing ball of snow.
Getting onto the bed was a nightmare, and it involved a lot of me crawling, falling, rolling into a ball, almost passing out again, before finally building up the courage to throw myself across the floor in increments. When I eventually made it, I cuddled up against the covers, drawing the duvet around me so it sheltered me from the coming storm, and then, I passed out.
Praying the worst would be over by the time I woke up.
THEA
When Lori slapped my back, I squinted up at her. “What?”
“Time to get up.”
I huffed. “Fuck that. Coach said I can sleep in today.” I highly resented that we were sharing a room, mostly because she was a morning person and I totally wasn’t. Years of getting up early, of training, hadn’t changed who I was by nature.
I loved the night, but unfortunately for me, pools closed then, and coaches refused to work at two in the morning. It was, in my opinion, very short-sighted of them.
“I want to go out.”
I huffed again. “Then go out.”
“I want to go out with you,” she clarified, and I grabbed my second pillow and covered my face with it by way of an answer, which she instantly heaved out of my hands and hit me over the head with.
“Where to? Can’t you go alone?” I whined. Seriously, there was one day every three weeks where Coach let me rest on the regular, and that he was giving me today for a rest was a minor miracle.
“Alone? In a foreign city? In a country where I don’t speak the language?” She gave a mock gasp. “You’d be so cruel as to let me go out there alone?”
“It’s Tokyo,” I pointed out dryly, “not downtown Venus. I think you can manage.”
“Well, I don’t. Anyway, it’s more fun when we’re together. Remember London? We had an epic time.”
I winced because she wasn’t wrong. London had been epic. Blowing out a breath, I twisted around in bed and glared at her. “Couldn’t we have gone out later?”
“Are you seriously still moaning?”
My lips twitched, but with another huff, I clambered out of bed, trudged over to the set of drawers I’d claimed as my own, grabbed some clothes, then headed into the shower.
There was no point in waiting around, not when Lori had somewhere in mind—which she did. I knew her well enough to know that. These trips of hers were always meticulously planned.
When I was feeling a little more alive and cleaner, I dressed and headed out after simply brushing through my hair. I didn’t bother wearing it up, just let it swing loose down my back. I wore tiny Creole earrings, no other jewelry, a pair of slim-fitted tailored shorts, and a white tee with navy sandals.
When Lori studied me like I had egg on my face, I scowled at her. “What’s wrong?”
“How do you do that?”
I blinked. “Do what?”
“Go in there a vagrant and come out looking like a supermodel.”
“Isn’t that what everyone does?” I dismissed.
She snorted. “Nope. Look at you.” A grunt escaped her. “It’s a good thing we’re friends.”
My lips curved as I grabbed my purse. “I wouldn’t have said that fifteen minutes ago.”
Snickering, she looped her arm through mine and muttered, “Come on, let’s break free for a little while.”
“I have to be back in the pool by three.”
“I know.”
“You planned this around my schedule?” I groaned as we headed out of the bedroom and into the hall. “What takes so much organization?”