The Sibyl

by James Hold

  Chapter Seven

  “Rise and shine, doll!”

  I woke up confused until I realized where I was. We were still in New York. I was still sleeping in a strange bed. The drinks I’d shared with Elliot the night before to forget about Kathy Carter and Cyrus had done nothing to stop the whispers in my dreams. So I was surprised to see Elliot bounding into my room with a stack of thick folders in his hands as my alarm clock was starting to go off.

  “No, it’s too early.” I smacked at the alarm then buried my face into my pillows. “Go away.”

  “It’s just past seven.” Elliot sat on the bed, swinging his legs up with the folders in his lap. “We have work to do.”

  “Eli, you can’t just burst into my room anytime you want to.” I grumbled loud enough for him to hear me despite the pillows. “I could be naked.”

  “You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.” He was flipping through the folders until he stopped as if he was deep in thought. “Or do you?”

  Elliot chose that exact moment to pounce on me, tickling my sides until I was gasping for air.

  “Ok! Ok, I’m awake!”

  When he stopped, I opened my eyes to see his face was inches away from my own. I was still trying to catch my breath as Elliot brushed his nose against mine. He paused only for a moment before he kissed me.

  I can’t explain what it was like to kiss my best friend. What I can say is how I was surprised by my own reaction. I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck, forcing him farther down to deepen our embrace as a fire flashed through my veins. Elliot pressed himself harder against me until one of us groaned.

  I was so focused on what we were doing that I failed to hear the knock on my door until a voice carried through from the other side.

  “Ms. McRayne, are you alright?”

  I’m not sure which one of us pulled away first, but when Cyrus threatened to break down the door if I didn’t respond, our impromptu make out session slowed.

  “Gotta. Answer. Cyrus.” I murmured between kisses.

  “Ignore him. He’ll go away.” Elliot switched his focus away from my mouth to tracing the outline of my jaw.

  “Ms. McRayne.”

  “I’m fine!” I managed to call out as I intertwined my fingers into Elliot’s thick hair to get his attention. “Just getting awake.”

  Cyrus’ only response was silence. I shifted beneath Elliot to whisper in his ear. “I guess we really should get going.”

  “We don’t have to go today. Let’s take the day off. Be tourists for awhile.”

  I laughed loud enough to break the spell we were under. Elliot propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at me.

  “So what do you say? Want to skip the conference today?”

  “By god, do you even have to ask? Yes. I thought Connor wanted us to go to everything we could.”

  I wanted to ask him so many questions like what our actions this morning meant or how would this affect us in the future. But I didn’t want to ruin the moment. Instead, I turned onto my side and grabbed the first folder he had abandoned in his quest to tickle me breathless.

  “What’s all this?” I thumbed through the pages. There were pictures. Statements. I stopped when I came across what appeared to be a police report and whistled. “This is a lot of work, Eli.”

  “I know. David and the guys in Research have been scouting for locations for us to film the first season. Since you asked to have a choice in where we go, I had them fax everything they had here for us to go through today.”

  I nodded. “And these are our choices?”

  “Yeah.”

  Elliot got off the bed and went to the door to speak with Cyrus as I sat up. When he returned, we began shifting through the papers together, oblivious of the conference going on below us. I was sure Elliot planned this on purpose so I wouldn’t have to go downstairs after the events from the day before. He had room service deliver us breakfast. He talked nonstop about the abandoned places in the files spread out before us. When I glanced at the clock and realized I hadn’t gotten out of bed after being up for over three hours, I threw up my hands in surrender.

  “Enough already.” I interrupted him as he was chatting about the souls of mental patients. “I have to take a shower.”

  “There’s no rush.” Elliot tucked the papers he had in his hand back into the folder. “I was serious when I said we should be tourists for the day since you’ve never been to New York before.”

  “And I was serious when I asked if we should skip it. We can still make a majority of the sessions if we hurry.”

  “I called Connor this morning and told him what happened. Fortunately, he agreed with me when I said it was a bad idea for you to go.” Elliot handed me another folder. “In fact, he gave me two choices. We can either return home for a few days or leave straight from here to head out to our first location.”

  “So we’re not going back downstairs at all?”

  I was skeptical. After all, Elliot loved to be surrounded by all the nut jobs who thought like he did. But my friend was serious.

  I didn’t know if I should call him just a friend after our kiss this morning.

  “Not to the conference if that’s what you mean.” Elliot tossed the folder aside. “What would you like to do today?”

  “I’ll decide after my shower.”

  I was ecstatic over the opportunity to have my first free day with Elliot since this whole mess started. I didn’t give him a chance to respond. Instead, I rushed into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I stopped only once, making sure I closed my eyes as I passed the large mirror. It was still covered up by the huge comforter, so there was no way I could have seen anything. But I wasn’t going to risk anything ruining the day which had started so well.