As soon as Somalia had opened her almond-shaped brown eyes, she instantly regretted doing so. There were lashes of blinding, sharp pain stabbing at her retinas and the top of her head. She groaned and felt the pain become worse.
'It even hurts when I groan...shit,' she thought as she lay in her bed with her eyes closed.
She slowly rolled onto her back and heard her stomach grumble. "Sorry," her voice croaked. She had lain on her back for a few minutes before she felt the tell-tale signs that she needed to vomit. She gingerly slipped out of the warm and comfortable bed to go the adjoining bathroom, to spew out the contents of her stomach. Afterwards, she decided to rest on the bathroom's floor, next to the toilet.
The feeling of being suspended in the air was what woke Somalia up from her sleep. She started to struggle and stopped, when she heard "Stop moving. I am just carrying you back to your bed." The voice sounded familiar to Somalia. She couldn't see the person's face, due to the fact that her eyes were closed. Her head was hurting too much and she didn't want to do anything else to agitate it even more. She thought about the voice. It was too masculine and too deep for it to belong to Gumby. Plus, Gumby, despite being a curvy woman, was too petite of a woman to be carrying Somalia's body. This person had to be a stranger. So, she resumed struggling again.
"Big Roe," said the voice and she stopped.
'Who is he? I know him, I know that for sure.'
Suddenly, memories of what happened on the night before ran through her mind. There were memories of the tour, the restaurant, meeting up with a few members of The Crew, seeing Tristan again, going to the club, drinking like a fish and then the memory of waking this morning.
"Tristan?" she groaned, her throat feeling raw and sore, as if she swallowed a bundle of Brillo pads.
"Yes?" she heard him say, softly. Then she felt the softness of her bed and the warmth that were running off of his arms disappearing.
"What are you doing here?" she found herself saying.
There was no answer from him, so she repeated her question. Again, she was met silence, so she opened her eyes, reluctantly. There was no pain. In fact, her headache was gone but she felt a bit queasy in her stomach. She found herself lying in her bed, in her bedroom of the rented out hotel suite. She sat up and took note that she was still wearing the dress that she wore last night. She was barefoot and her hair was everywhere, so she knew that she had a serious case of 'bed-head'. She was alone. Her bedroom's door was opened. She peered out of the room, past the living room and into Gumby's room. From what she could see, Gumby wasn't in there.
'Where in the hell did she go off to?'
"Oh, God, I am never drinking again," she declared as she leaned against the mounds of pillows that were positioned behind her. She slipped her long, bronze-colored shapely legs from underneath the sable-lined comforter. "I don't know how those college kids do it," she said to herself. She ran her fingers through her long, thick hair. "God, what time is it?"
"It's 4:15" she heard being said.
It had come from the left of her. She glanced over, to where the bathroom's entrance, to find a half-naked man with a towel wrapped around his lower body. It wasn't just any man. It was Tristan; the person who's partly responsible for her drinking on the night before.
"Oh goodness" she groaned as she closed her eyes as she rested her head against the headboard.
"Well, good afternoon to you too," he said. He walked to the front of the bed and stood there. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.
"Like I was beaten with a sack of nickels," she stated, in a groan.
Tristan chuckled at her colorful description. "That's very funny."
"Glad to know that I can amuse you," she groaned, before staring at him. "Where's Gumby?"
"Who?" he asked her.
"She's my sister-in-law. She is the Asian chick that I was with last night. You can't forget her. There aren't too many big-booty, loud Asian women running around here."
"Oh, she had gone out to get you some stuff that she thought that would make you feel better. Also, I asked her to get a few things for me, so she might be out for a while," Tristan informed her. "Do you want me to get you anything?"
"A glass of water would be nice," she croaked out.
"You got it, Roe" he said to her.
Then, he went to fetch a glass of water. He returned a few minutes later with a glass of cold water. He gave her a glass of water and she downed the contents in one drink.
"Thanks," she said, with her voice now clearer than before. She placed the glass on the nightstand that was to the right side of her bed.
"You're welcome," he said to her.
"Now tell me..." Her dark brown eyes focused on the towering, semi-wet man that stood at the foot of her king-sized bed. "...what in the fuck are you doing in my room?" There was an edge to her voice and she was sure that he could feel the anger rising off of her body.