I opened my eyes and slowly blinked them to adjust my vision. I was in my room laying on my stomach on the mattress and my eyes went to the side table at the clock.
8:24 am.
Turning to lie on my back, I groaned and cursed when my head throbbed. I sat on my bed and pressed the sides of my head with both hands, but nothing worked. I tried to remember how I ended up here and abruptly, flashbacks of last hit my head like a hammer.
Party.
Never have I ever.
Me getting drunk.
Then there were a few more which were hazy, but enough to make me drown in mortification.
Colton carried me to the car.
I vomited in the SUV and on Colton.
Then again, I vomited in the bathroom when we reached home. Someone was holding my hair and soothing my back.
“Fuck.” I groaned and clenched my hair tightly.
My eyes went to the clothes I was wearing. Someone helped me change too.
“Please kill me.”
I flinched when there was a soft knock on the door and it opened without waiting for me to answer.
“You’re up.” Caroline beamed and sat on the bed. “Here I bought you medicine. It’ll help with the hangover.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, taking the pill and gulped it down with the water. “I needed that.”
“Good.” She giggled.
“What?” I narrowed my eyes at her smile. She was giving me a look like she knew something I didn’t.
“Nothing.” She coughed, trying to cover her laugh.
“What did I do?” I sighed in frustration.
“Well... You did a lot of things. But they were cute.”
“Cute?” My face scrunched. “Callie, I vomited in the SUV.”
“And on Colt, which was hilarious.” She burst out laughing.
“How am I going to face him now?” I buried my face in my hands.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve done that a lot of times.” She snickered. “I’m sure Colton is used to it by now.”
“And the SUV?”
“Hunter took it to the Carwash.”
“It was his car, right?” I peeked through my hands and saw her nodding. “He must be pissed.”
“More like amused.” She smirked.
“Please tell me I said nothing embarrassing.”
“You were slurring, so we didn’t get half of it.”
“And the other half?”
“You told us the story of how you caught your parents doing...” She wiggled her brows. “You know what.”
Good, I didn’t babble the things I shouldn’t.
“Who changed my clothes?”
“Scarlett and I.” My brows rose in surprise.
I had no idea Scarlett was this helpful.
“I owe you two.”
“Oh, don’t sweat it.” She waved her hand in dismissal.
“What happened to the game?”
“Well... The majority were drunk.”
“I lost the game.” I leaned my back on the bedhead.
“Don’t worry. Hunter got you covered.”
“I don’t want him to pay. That guy’s got a serious problem with me.”
“No, he doesn’t.” She shook her head, making me frown.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because if he did. He wouldn’t have let you stay here.” She shrugged as she got up from the bed.
“But you got me here, so his opinion shouldn’t have mattered, right?”
“He owns this house. If he had said no, I couldn’t have done anything.” She walked out of the room not before saying. “I’m bringing breakfast for you.”
She left while I sat on my bed, gaping at what she just revealed.
Hunter owns this house?!
And he also got the SUV?!
What exactly does that guy do to make a fortune like this?!
I stopped thinking about him when my head thudded and trudged to the bathroom to freshen up. After finishing, I walked back to my room and saw Caroline sitting on the bed with a breakfast tray.
“Come on.” She patted the bed. “I also made you coffee.”
“You’re an angel, Callie,” I said, taking a seat, and she giggled.
My head felt a lot better after the medicine and I ate the breakfast she made for me.
“We should change the color.” I glanced up at her to see her looking around the room. “Blue is definitely not your color.”
“I don’t mind-“
“Wait a second.” She ran out of the room, and in a second she came back with a lot of booklets. “We painted my room a few months ago, and I had these color palettes with me. We can choose a color for your room!” She squealed and dropped onto the bed, making it bounce.
She looked like a teenage girl who was excited about getting her room painted with her choice. I didn’t have any problem since it’ll make no difference to me.
“Here.” She passed me one.
I turned the pages, and every color looked like different shades of gray to me and I scratched my head.
Girls go for pink colors.
I searched for shade names with something pink in them.
“How about Fussy Pink?” I showed her and she shook her head.
“Too childish.”
“Pink Flamingo?”
“Too dark.” She pointed at the color and grinned. “How about loveable?”
What the fuck is the color of loveable?
“Um.” I bit my lip.
“Or... Party time?”
If I get my room painted with a color, I didn’t know. Every day I’ll die out of curiosity to know what it looked like.
“How about...” I darted my eyes to look for something I can get the idea of. “Tuberose?”
Since it’s rose, it’ll be a shade of red.
“I like this.” Caroline gave me a toothy grin. “Then it’s decided.” She jolted up from the seat as she gathered the booklets.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the store to buy them.” She said. “You wait here. I’ll be quick!”
What? We are painting today?
My question was answered when, an hour later, Caroline came into my room with the paint buckets and Colton.
I apologized to Colton for last night and he just laughed it off, saying it wasn’t his first time. Earlier I was freaking out about facing him, but I felt relieved when I saw him being his usual self.
We gathered the furniture in the middle of the room and wrapped the plastic sheets that Caroline had on them.
“Nice choice.” Colton praised me when he saw the color, and I gave him a shrug.
From then, the three of us began painting the room. Colton used the ladder to paint the upper area while Caroline and I did the lower.
After completing the first white coating, we took a lunch break and let it dry, then went back to the other. It was fun doing it even though I had no idea of the color, but the smell of it reminded me of the time I used to paint. Colton and Caroline also came up with stupid things to talk about passing the time as we painted.
Around six in the evening, we were done with half of the room. Caroline went to make dinner, leaving Colton and me. I stood in the corner and dragged the brush slowly to fill the corners.
“Have you painted before?” Colton asked out of the blue. “You handle your brush well.”
“I used to.” I shrugged and dipped the brush in the paint.
“You’re a real mystery.”
“I’m not.” I frowned and turned towards him.
“I beg to differ.” His lips twitched upwards. “I mean after what you revealed last night-“
“What did I say?” Horror took over me, and I quickly took a step toward him.
“A lot of things.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t you remember?” He gave me a fake, concerned look.
“Colton, what did I say?”
Caroline told me already and there wasn’t anything serious I blurted.
“You told me you have logical explanations.” He smirked, and that’s when my brain clicked.
He’s talking about the game questions.
My shoulders relaxed, and I watched him wiggling his brows, waiting for me to say something.
“Everyone likes erotic romance.” I shrugged and crossed my arms, keeping the painted brush on the side.
“Sex positions?” He raised his brows.
“You know how they mention it in the books. I wanted to see what they are to get a clear picture.” It wasn’t like I googled that for myself. “It was pure research.”
“And the other thing.” He took a step towards me.
It was about a year ago at the wedding of my distant relative. A cousin of mine had her periods early, and she had nothing on her. Her underwear was also soaked. I gave her mine, and we put a lot of tissues on it. It was a dreadful day for both of us. She was scared that she might leak while I was worried that I might flash someone.
“Going back in the memory?” I got out of my trance and looked up to see Colton watching me with amusement.
“I will not tell you.” I huffed.
“Why?” He took another step and was now standing only a foot away.
“Because...” I gulped and tried to step back, but my back hit the wall. “I swear to take this secret to the grave.”
“I’m having a lot of ideas-“
“Don’t,” I warned him. “Think about something else.”
“It’s really hard.” My eyes widened, and they darted down. “Not down there.” He chuckled. “You’re a naughty girl.”
“Stop teasing me, Colton.”
“Or else what?” He leaned closer and my heartbeat sped up. I wasn’t used to guys being in my personal space, and he was making it hard for me to breathe.
“Or else I’ll do this.” I flickered the brush in my hands and splashed the paint on his face.
He took a step back in surprise and touched the paint on his face. “Now you’ve done it.”
“Colton.” I looked at him, terrified, when he extended his hand towards his brush. “No.”
“I can’t let you go away that easily.” He gave me a sinister smirk and picked the brush.
“No!” I squealed and ran towards the other side.
“Come here!” He followed me as I ran in circles around the furniture in the middle of the room.
“I’m sorry!” I screamed, but he wasn’t giving up.
“No apologizes accepted.” He gave me a toothy grin and launched.
I turned the other way, but the asshole was fast with his big legs and was already standing there. I tried to whirl on my heels, but it was too late.
“Gotcha!”
The next I know I was on the floor with him on top of me and painting my face.
“S-stop!” I should've been angry. Instead, I burst out laughing when the wet paintbrush dragged on my neck, making me tickle.
Colton stopped and slowly my giggle died. I peeked at him to see a huge grin on his face as he observed me. He put his hands on either side of me and leaned closer to my face.
“You have a beautiful laugh.”
My body went still and heat crawled up my neck. I opened and closed my mouth, stunned, but nothing came out. Colton didn’t move until we heard someone clearing their throat loudly.
Our heads whirled toward the voice and saw Hunter leaning against the door frame.
“Callie insisted I should help you guys since she’s busy cooking, but...” His eyes darted between us. “I don’t think you need a third person to intrude.”
“Come on. We were just messing around.” Colton said as he got up like it wasn’t a big deal while I was blushing chaos.
“I’ll go clean,” I mumbled, getting up.
Colton only had a few splashes of drops while my entire face and neck were covered with paint. I cautiously walked past Hunter, who hadn’t moved from his spot and walked out of the room. I felt both of their gaze on me but I dismissed them and ran to the bathroom.
Splashing water on my burning face, I cleaned the paint and waited for a few minutes to calm my heart, then walked back to my room. Colton and Hunter were painting the remaining walls while talking about some match. I picked up the brush and quietly stood in the corner, resuming where I left off because of Colton.
“I need to pee,” Colton whispered to Hunter and hurried out of the room.
I didn’t dare to turn and continued to brush the wall. I thought of what Caroline told me in the morning and maybe this was the right time to talk to him about it.
“I’m sorry about your car.” From my peripheral vision, I saw him pause. “And I’ll pay you the bet money.”
There was no way I was taking money from him. He remained silent for a second, then I heard him sigh.
“Fine.”
That’s it?
I’m glad he didn’t argue and we fall into silence until he said.
“Why are you doing that?”
“What?” My brows knitted and I finally looked at him.
“You already have painted it white. Why are you doing it again?” My eyes widened and I read the paint color on the bucket I took the brush from.
Fuck!
I didn’t pay attention to it when I entered and began painting the wall white again instead of the Tuberose.
“I... I thought it needed a little more white here.” I mumbled and quickly changed the brush.
“Do you remember your puke color?”
My face scrunched in confusion, and I glanced at him. “My what?”
“Last night in the bathroom.” He scrutinized me with his gaze, and that’s when I remember.
He was the one holding my hair back when I puked.
“What color is my puke?” I asked him.
“Can’t you see?” He furrowed.
“It looks gray to me.” I giggled. “But it’s not bad living a colorless life.”
I only remember a faint memory and nothing after that.
Meeting his observing gaze, I shrugged. “I was drunk. I don’t remember half of the thing I did last night.”
My lame attempt didn’t convince him, and he squinted his eyes at me. I tried not to get affected by his piercing gaze, but it wasn’t easy. Colton saved me when he entered the room, and we continued with our work.
After another hour, we completed and went downstairs when Caroline called us for dinner. When the paint dried, Colton and Hunter helped set the furniture back in their place.
“Hope you like the new color,” Caroline asked, and I observed the room.
It looked exactly like it was before to me but I couldn’t say that and break Caroline’s heart. I didn’t get why she insisted on changing it, but whatever her reasons were, she wanted me to feel at home.
“Thank you, Callie.” I gave her a genuine smile. “I love it.”