by R L Stephens
Chapter 2
Harry wasn’t sure how long he had lain in bed after Susan had left so abruptly, but as each agonizing moment had ticked by with less urgency as a sloth getting up on a lazy Bank Holiday he waited with bated breath for the police or hotel security to come banging on his door. In those anxious moments Harry decided that he wouldn’t have blamed Susan for making a complaint against him and after what he had done, he probably deserved everything that was coming to him. But, despite his expectations the knock never came.
Pull yourself together Harry, he eventually thought to himself as he lay there agonizing over what might have happened. Get up you fool, he thought trying to spur himself into action. His train back home wasn’t for another four hours or so and there would be more than enough time for a quick shower and a slow breakfast. Taking heed to his own words, Harry forced himself out of bed and dragged his reluctant body into the bathroom.
By the time Harry found himself starring at his own face in the mirror he had pulled one of those generic white dressing gowns that you usually find in high end hotel rooms. You're such an idiot, you know, he rhetorically said to his reflection not expecting any kind of answer, except perhaps for redemption in the chastisement of his reflection and by implication himself. What you thinking? Getting drunk and falling into bed with some strange woman, he then asked of his reflection as if the interrogation of this illusionary version of himself would produce the answers he sought.
As Harry had expected no answer came from the figure looking back at him as he himself had few answers to offer, other than he had been a fool to let things get out of hand like that. Pulling himself away from the reflection of his would be accuser and interrogator, Harry decided that a hot shower would be the order of the day. And so he turned the temperature up as much as he dared and turned on the taps controlling the shower.
Harry then remembered housekeeping and slipped out of the bathroom to make sure that the ‘do not disturb’ sign was still on the door handle from the previous night. Satisfied that his was the case he then returned to the bath where water was now full flow and starting to fill the bathroom with steam. He ran his hand under the water to make sure it wasn’t too hot Harry slipped out of the dressing gown and, after stepping into the bath, pulled the shower curtain fully around him so as to hide his body from any casual observers.