“I shouldn’t have sent that email,” Raven thought and threw her phone back on the pillow next to her.

It had been over two hours now and she had been refreshing her email to check for a reply every single minute. It was driving Raven up the wall. But she had done this to herself, she knew.

After Nathalie had been so eager to leave, Raven had made it up to her room as fast as she could. Stepping into her hotel room, Raven had let out a long, frustrated breath.

“What am I going to do all night?” she had thought.

She had thrown her coat over one of the chairs by the table. She had noticed that the hotel staff had made her bed. It had creeped her out a little, as it always did, and she had made a mental note to let them know she didn’t want them to do this.

Raven preferred not to have strangers sneaking in and out of her room when she wasn’t here. This place felt weird enough already. She didn’t need a reminder that even this space wasn’t hers.

She sat down on the bed and looked down at her legs. Nodding slowly, she willed herself to untie her shoes. Raven got up, legs heavy, and put the shoes away in the small hallway of the room.

Any appetite she might have had earlier had evaporated as soon as Nathalie had left. Maybe it was a good idea to rest on the bed for a while first. Her feet were tired.

Making quick work of taking her clothes off, Raven slipped under the covers. She shifted until her head was comfortably resting on the pillow, with her braids pulled back so they wouldn’t get in the way.

“What am I doing here?” she whispered to herself, pulling the cover to her chin.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, hoping sleep would come and take her away for a few hours. She chewed on her lower lip as she waited. But her mind was too busy to relax, and it only had one thing it wanted to focus on: Nathalie.

Images of Nathalie flashed before Raven’s eyes. Nathalie pointing at beautiful buildings. Nathalie leaning back on a wooden bench, laughing and wrapping a strand of hair around her finger. Nathalie sipping the mocktail at lunch.

Raven’s mind kept going back to those few intense moments at lunch. She had openly enjoyed the flirting and banter with Nathalie. She knew she would have gone too far if that moment hadn’t been interrupted.

And still, she couldn’t help but revisit it over and over again. What if the waiter hadn’t walked up at that exact time? What would Nathalie have said? And what would Raven have told her in reply?

Raven opened her eyes and glanced in the direction of her phone. She had thrown it onto the bed while undressing and had made a point of ignoring it. Now, she was tempted to check if Nathalie had sent her a message since she had left.

“Seriously, why on earth would she be texting you?” Raven asked herself.

She reached for the device anyway. After a tap on the screen, she saw that no new messages were waiting for her. It caused her chest to tighten a little. Had Nathalie completely forgotten about her after such a wonderful day together?

The next thought made Raven’s heart flutter. “I guess I could…”