All the Pretty Lies by M. Leighton

all this stuff on.”
    “This side,” I say patting the bed to my
left.
    “Those shorts need to come off,” he says
casually, giving me a little chill. “Then pull back the covers and
lie down,” he orders, depositing his load on the opposite side.
    I do as he asks. As I’m stretching out, I
feel the need to be accommodating. “Hemi, I can seriously sleep on
either side. Really, it won’t bother me if you need to sleep over
here.”
    “It won’t matter. I don’t sleep in the same
bed as anyone else, so I’m not planning on getting much
shut-eye.”
    “You don’t?”
    “No.”
    “Ever?”
    “No.”
    “Wh-why not? I mean…”
    He looks up at me and grins as he folds two
towels length-wise. “You mean, I’m a guy. I must sleep around.
Therefore I should be able to sleep on either side of a bed, next
to virtually anybody, right?”
    “That’s not what I—”
    “Of course it is,” he interrupts. “But you’re
wrong. The women that…occupy my space know to be gone before I get
out of the bathroom. I’m not really a…breakfast kind of guy.”
    “Oh,” I say flatly. I don’t suppose I’m
really surprised. He doesn’t seem like the
let’s-make-love-and-cuddle type. But, then again, I wouldn’t have
imagined he’d be so…cold either. “Have you never… I mean…”
    “Not in a long, long time,” he says,
arranging the towels under my leg then taking a washcloth in his
hand and dousing it with the vinegar he got from the convenience
store. He presses the saturated cloth to the angry red streaks and
dots on my right thigh. “You’re technically supposed to soak it,
but that’ll be hard to do considering where it’s at. Plus, we’d
need a lot more vinegar to fill the tub. So this’ll have to
do.”
    After he presses the compress to my leg, he
backs off and crosses to the desk. He returns with a leather-bound
book.
    “Where did you learn all this?”
    Hemi shrugs, his attention on whatever he’s
reading rather than me. “I spent a lot of time at the beach as a
kid. Picked up a few things here and there.” I don’t know if he’s
purposely trying to change the subject or if he’s just not that
into it, but either way, he changes it. “You hungry? I say we order
some room service for the impaired.”
    “I’m not impaired!”
    “Oh, sorry. ‘Challenged’,” he says, holding
up his fingers in air quotes.
    “I’m not challenged either! I can get up and
go to dinner just fine. Don’t let me hold you back.”
    “You’re not holding me back. I’m stuck in a
quiet hotel room with a woman in a bikini. How is this holding me
back?”
    I can’t help but smile.
    “I’m sure it’s hardly what you had in mind
for the day.”
    “Oh, I can definitely think of worse ways for a day at the beach to turn out.” His grin is
lascivious.
    I sit upright. “Oh, shit! Were you supposed
to work tonight? I didn’t even think about that when I called home.
Will you get in trouble?”
    “Calm down, calm down,” he says, scooting
onto the bed beside me. “I already took care of it.”
    “God, I hate to be such a pain in the
ass.”
    “Wellll, I wasn’t gonna say anything,
but…”
    I grab a pillow and lob it against his head.
Hemi laughs.
     
    ********
     
    My belly is full and it’s long past dark
outside. After reapplying vinegar compresses to my leg for a while,
Hemi made some kind of nasty paste out of baking soda and water and
slathered it on there. Even though I can’t really do much with all
that goo on my leg, I must admit that the sting does feel
better.
    Hemi gets up from where he was reclining on
the other side of the bed. “Mind if I take a shower? Get all this
sand and saltwater off me?”
    “No, not at all.”
    “You can take one in the morning, but for
tonight, you probably ought to stay out of hot, fresh water as much
as you can.”
    “Okay. I’ll be fine until morning.”
    Hemi heads for the bathroom, pushing the door
up, but not closing it completely. I’m sure