Chapter 163

Theo wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think that’s the case,” he said slowly, taking his time over the words.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“Because if it really is a plot to discredit you, then what good does it do to leave us in a room naked together where no one can see? Whatever walk of shame we have to take to get out of this building isn’t going to be public enough to have a large-scale impact.”

“Yes, but if we’re seen coming out together, then people will assume the worst of us. And maybe even post pictures on the internet.”

Theo shook his head. “That’s too easy for us to get around. All we have to do is leave separately. And then it doesn’t matter who’s waiting outside to take pictures or whatever. Because they won’t have any proof on film that we were together.”

His face went white. “Unless they took it while we were still drugged. And that’s what leads me to think a smear campaign or maybe blackmail is the most likely scenario.”

“What if it was poison?”

Again, Theo shook his head. “I doubt it. Because if it was poison, whoever did it sucks at their job. We both woke up again, leading me to believe that we were probably given drugs and not poison.”

“So, how are we going to get out of here?” I asked with a whimper.

Theo looked around the room, though I’m not sure what for. The space was pretty much empty except for the sofa and a table. There weren’t even drink glasses on it or dinner dishes or anything else to indicate where we were.

If there had been a karaoke machine, I might have said we were in some kind of entertainment center. But with nothing to identify the location, I was at a loss.

“Turn around for a minute,” Theo ordered. “I need to stand up and use both my hands. And…” he blushed. “This isn’t how I would choose to have you see me naked. Besides, I’d rather you go back to Charles with a clean conscience.”

I nodded and shuffled around to face the other way. “Don’t you look either,” I warned him. “I don’t have an extra pillow to cover my backside. So, all I can do is sit on it.”

“I promise to be a gentleman,” he said.

As soon as I turned, I could hear him moving around. “What are you doing?”

He said, “Checking out the sofa.”

This was followed by more rummaging and then the sound of a zipper. The next thing I knew, fabric hit my back.

“What is what is this?” I asked.

Theo didn’t answer immediately, just the sound of another zipper replied, then, “I’m taking the covers off the couch cushions. We can use them to wrap around us. There’s three. I’ll use one on my waist, and we’ll fashion the other two into something you could wear front and back.”

“Oh yeah,” I snarked. “If I go outside in a sofa sack, that’s definitely not going to look shameful.”

“Well, the pillows on the back of the sofa also have fabric on them. And I have an idea what to do with those, too.”

“Okay, I’ll trust you.”

I heard him moving around and the sound of ripping fabric.

“Stand up,” he requested, “and drape one of the panels across your front. I’m going to put the other on your back, and I’ll try really hard not to look at your butt while I do this,” he promised. “Do you trust me?”

“I trust you,” I said.

I stood and draped the piece of fabric across the front of my body. Because it zipped all the way open, the piece of material covered from just under my armpits all the way down to nearly my shins.

“I’m ready,” I said.

He cleared his throat, and a moment later, I felt fabric draped down my back the same way. “I know this is going to be awkward, but can you hold this up here?” he asked.

I nodded and tried to keep the front piece there while also keeping my grip on the back. A moment later, he caught the zippers, aligned them together, and zipped up one side. Then he did the same on the other so that I was inside a tube of fabric.

A moment later, he reached around from behind me, lacing a roll of what must have been the torn pillow fabric underneath my arms. Using this, he covered the awkward edge of the top of the fabric tube and tied the lacing behind my back so that it kept the tube up on my body like a sack dress. The next thing he did was wrap another tube around my waist and then tuck the ends of both in so that it looked like I was wearing a belt.

“Now, the only piece that looks awkward is the bottom. But it might pass as some sort of designer dress,” he said. “If you like those weird sorts of designers.”

I looked down at myself and giggled. “It’s not completely disreputable,” I agreed. “Good job, and thank you. What about you?”

“It’s fine. You can look.”

I turned around and saw he had tied his so it kind of resembled a kilt with a zipper on the edge. Theo’s waistband was sinched in with another one of those pillow rolls.

“I couldn’t do as much for mine as I could for yours,” he said. “But at least everything that needs to be covered is covered.”

“Except your chest.”

I couldn’t help but admire all of the muscles that he had there if for no other reason than being with somebody who was that strong made me feel safe in an otherwise extremely vulnerable situation. But it wasn’t a bad image to have in my head, either.

Luckily for Charles, he was built just as well, and I found him even more attractive.

“You’ll need to let me go first,” Theo said.

He opened the door and peaked outside, looking in both directions and then gestured with his hand for me to follow. What we exited into looked like the interior of a club, but it was clearly after hours.

The bar was clean, the chairs were up, and everything was closed. I rubbed my head again. “I vaguely remembered coming and meeting Anthony someplace like this.”

Theo huffed again. “We did. I remember him taking you to a private room to do the interview and requesting that I stay in the main body of the club. But I don’t remember much after that. I know I felt safe to begin with. Because there was only one door in and out of the room Anthony took you to, the one that we just came out of. I wish I could remember the rest better. But after that, it gets so fuzzy.”

“That’s exactly how my brain feels,” I said, “fuzzy.”

“At least the place is closed,” I said, following Theo as he strode across the club towards the exterior doors.

“Hopefully, it’s not the kind that has a deadbolt on the inside.”

“Even if it does, can’t we just open it up since we’re on the inside?”

“Not always. Some of them require a key whether you’re on the inside or the outside.”

We reached the front door, and he let out a sigh of relief, gripping the deadbolt and turning it. The moment he did, an alarm went off.

“All right, now we get to run like we’re some sort of criminals,” he said, grabbing my hand and hauling me out the door.