Finding her head nestled into Mike's chest, a pleasant calm greeted Alina as she awoke softly to the obnoxious trill of an unfamiliar phone alarm. She blinked focus into her vision and lifted her head wearily to see the source of the sound, a heap of their clothes and bags returned to the room. They had been placed opposite the bathroom, as if someone had slyly snuck in the front door and pushed the items inside before slinking off. The memories of the night before soaked into her mind and the shame of it twisted her stomach. It was a unique blend of embarrassment, disgust and anger. Running over it made her ill, and she had to be away from Mike. She pushed off him, but his arm was wrapped around her and it was too heavy to push off when her muscles still hadn't awoken yet. Her small fingers pressed lightly into his shoulder.
"Mike, wake up..." she spoke softly.
He stirred and met her gaze, surprised to see her so close to him, and realising he was holding her there with one of his arms. He flinched and released her in one motion, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. She knew he was contemplating what she had moments before, the events that had gotten them here. She too shuffled away from him, last night she had reasoned that she was too exhausted, and without clothes for either of them and no room key she had no choice but to sleep here with Mike. Waking up with him now, she knew she had done something wrong in going to bed with him. It somehow felt like a more intimate sin than the one they had committed in the shower..
Mike quickly moved out of bed to turn off the alarm, "It's 8:30," he noted. "They must have fucked with our alarm."
Alina nodded in acknowledgment, seeing him stood naked with his erection at full attention. She couldn't help from following it with her eyes. She could hardly believe she had taken it all inside her. She was that girl that slept with men on their team, another sickening thought. She didn't feel like herself.
"All our clothes are here!" He pointed out, flicking through the messages he had missed. He looked up at her and was taken aback by her staring at him. She averted her eyes from his groin, bringing herself back to reality and stretching in her lying position, pushing the covers off her with an outstretched leg. It pulled her slim body taut, drawing attention to her thin waist, round breasts and long legs. She looked so sexy amid the white sheets, begging to be taken again. He drew a slow breath, admiring her form with hungry eyes.
A sudden knock at the door shocked him back to normal, "Housekeeping!" Came a voice.
"Not right now!" Mike shot back, hearing the maid roll their cart elsewhere.The pause made Mike feel wrong for contemplating having Alina again, now that they weren't being forced to. This was a coworker, he made a rule about doing this sort of thing. Too complicated. Besides the fact she wasn't single.
"What kind of hotel is this!?" Alina asked, trying to think of anything other than sex.
"I dunno, it had great reviews... It's four stars!" Mike replied, suddenly he felt awkward. Alina padded over to him, and for a moment he thought she was approaching for a kiss, but instead she retrieved her clothes from a neat pile by their bags.
"Uh, I'll get dressed in here." She said, going into the bathroom and closing the door. It seemed peculiar given they had already seen each other fully naked, and woke up in the same bed, but Mike understood what this meant. It meant that despite a bizarre predicament, things hadn't changed between them, and once she came out of that bathroom fully dressed, they were colleagues, so he dressed quickly as well. He had taken a moment to inspect her underwear atop the clothes pile before Alina had taken it. The bra and panties were a matching set, dark green. It also went with her nail polish colour. The fabric was lacy and looked expensive, he was surprised that she would wear something so alluring, but he sensed that Alina had expensive taste. The idea of her in that underwear was somehow even sexier than she was naked.
"We should talk about last night." Said Alina, as she came out of the bathroom wearing form-fitting black work trousers and a white blouse.
"Yeah." Mike agreed, "Okay." He had no idea where to begin. They stood awkwardly as she put on her earrings, an uncomfortable silence forming.
"We shouldn't have..." Alina started, but she didn't mean it, and couldn't finish it. Before either of them could add any more, the room phone rang. Mike groaned and picked up the receiver.
"Shit," He said, "The cab is here." They realised suddenly that if they didn't leave soon, they would be late for their meeting. Together they scrambled to get their bags and belongings together, Alina hurriedly brushed her hair whilst Mike rummaged through his stuff to find cufflinks and his watch. As he joined Alina in the bathroom, they exchanged glances in the mirror. He realised how long it had been since he had woken up with someone, and how nice it felt. He had been single a while now, the occasional midnight fling to satisfy his cravings, but rarely liked any of them enough to stay the night. He'd had a dry spell of late, as he fell out of fondness with the casual cycle of meeting new girls.
They darted out the hotel room door, still rummaging through bags as they hopped in the car. After last night, Mike felt he should be talking to someone in the hotel. A manager or something, but their work priorities hadn't changed. This client meeting was extremely important, and he could come back to the hotel later. They dashed out the door into the taxi, and were whisked off to the client site. In the back of the car, Alina was fighting with the movement of the car to add the little makeup she usually adorned for work, some lipstick and a little mascara to emphasise her eyelashes. As if her wide glimmering blue eyes needed any help to draw more attention.
They arrived only a minute or so late, and with all the rushing they had hardly said a word to one another until the morning workshop was over. As Mike explained the context of what they were there to do, and the purpose of the session, everyone in the room looked to him, but Alina felt like she was staring. In his crisp blue shirt the only feature of his muscular body that was really visible was the broadness of his shoulders. Her eyes traced down the edges of his sleeves and noted how well his arms filled the fabric, it felt naughty to know what he looked like underneath. She shifted in her seat and forced her mind back to the task, trying to listen to what he was saying. She found herself just watching his mouth move, the shoe hanging off the toes of her foot as she gently swung it back and forth. She couldn't get the thought of him taking her out of her head, and she could feel herself getting wet. The way he had held her, pushed her against the glass and taken her roughly until she squealed with pleasure. Her skin felt hot. She never had thoughts like this, what had come over her? She jolted a little as her phone buzzed, a text from her boyfriend. She quickly flipped the phone over, as she noticed the people next to her glancing at the source of the sound. She felt a pang of guilt and shame roll through her. He would know something was off, she hadn't messaged him for nearly twelve hours.
"...after our sessions today, we then have some follow-up calls with IT tomorrow. Hope that all makes sense, Alina do you want to take us through the deck?" Mike finished, and though Alina had only tuned in at the mention of her name, despite not listening she was prepared enough to know what she needed to say next.
The rest of the workshop went smoothly, Mike marvelled at watching Alina work. She was relentlessly impressive, he hadn't met anyone who matched her ability to ingest information quickly. He could keep the client happy, paint the big-picture that got people invested to ensure collaboration from all the right parties, but Alina was all across the details. She had memorised the names and roles of everyone in the room, she referenced detailed notes of their requirements and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of all their current projects and timelines. She was efficient and precise, and when juxtaposed with the floundering unprepared members of the client in the room, it was all the more striking. Despite their best efforts, the meeting overran, though it was largely successful. Alina and Mike found themselves rushing to get to their next workshop in another room across the office. They still found it complicated to navigate this place, only exacerbated by all the files, cables and bags they had to bring with them.
By the time it had gotten to 6pm, they had hardly spoken a word to each other directly outside of presentations. As the attendees filed out of the room, thanking them for a smoothly run session, Alina looked over to Mike and they shared a look of exhaustion, followed by sighs of relief.
