Chapter 5 A CRUEL TWIST

CORINNA

The alarm was aggressive.

I jolted awake and took in my surroundings.

I was still in the red room, wrapped in sheets that weren't mine, my hair loose around my shoulders, and except for the sheets, I had nothing on.

I tried to sit up and the ache hit me everywhere at once. A full-body soreness that started in my lower back and tingled at my joints due to the… many unnatural positions he had pretzelled me in last night.

“Mmn.” I couldn't help the smile, it came from somewhere I hadn't accessed in so long I had forgotten it existed.

“Wait…”

Zoltan was gone.

There was nobody in this room anymore, just a glass of water on the nightstand that I was certain hadn't been there when I fell asleep. Zoltan might've kept it there before he left. I didn't know. I told myself I didn't care.

One night. That was what I had agreed to. That was what I had wanted.

A tiny, treacherous part of me almost dared to disagree. Almost. But it shut up real quick when I saw the time on the alarm.

3:14 PM.

I sat up so fast my limbs almost dislocated.

“No. No. No. No.”

“I was asleep all morning?”

Damn.

I picked my clothes from the ground and dressed as best as I could, I ran my fingers through my hair without a mirror, a mistake I realised when I passed the window and caught my reflection in the glass. It was frizzy and definitely reeked of sex. And there, sitting bold as anything on the left side of my neck, a group of bluish hickeys.

Just great.

The lounge had transformed from a neon buzz to plain walls and cleaning service staff working on the clock. I did the walk of shame and walked out the door.

It was of no use though, they had seen the marks on my neck. I looked like a walking vampire advertisement.

They could put two and two together.

“You didn't do anything wrong, Corinna.” I murmured to myself, feeling a smile stretch on my face. Flaunt those hickeys.

I flagged a cab with one hand and dialled Millie with the other. She picked up before the first ring had finished.

“Corinna Adler. Start talking.” She squealed. “Give me alllll the tea.”

I laughed.

It was a free, bold kind of laughter, without reservation.

Millie went silent on the other end.

"Oh my gosh."

"I can't talk right now," I said, still smiling. "I'm late. Callum should be arriving soon."

"Go, go, go." Her voice had gone soft in a way it rarely did. "Go see your boy. But Cori" a pause. "I'm happy for you, I haven't heard you laugh like this in such a long time.”

"Don't make it a whole thing." I flushed.

"It's already a whole thing.” She half-screamed. “I'll meet up with you later babes, physically, I need to hear all the spicy details in real time. Did you use the backdoor? Did you pass out? Did he say your coochie belonged to him? Did you swallow his..”

I hung up.

The driver had his brow arched and all I could do was sink into my seat with reddened cheeks.

My front door was unlocked.

I stood on the landing and stared at it. I had locked that door last night, I never left my door unlocked, ever.

I stepped inside cautiously, expecting to notice signs of burglary when a hug came from nowhere.

"Mom. You're late!"

Callum.

I hugged him back so hard he laughed. I pressed my face into his shoulder, he was taller than I remembered, somehow always taller than I remembered. What was he eating to get this tall?

"I didn't think you'd be here yet…" I pulled back to look at him. He had Grant's features, skin tone, but my eye colour, and a grin so open and boyish that it always undid something in me. "Your flight…"

"Landed early." He held me at arm's length, that grin spreading. "Mom. You look… actually you look great." He tilted his head. "Well. You look great and also slightly..."

"I know about the hair …"

"I was going to say, exhausted. But now that you mention it…" he leaned in, eyes narrowing with the particular nosiness of a grown child who had not yet learned the boundaries of that role. "Mom. What are those marks on your neck?"

"I… that is from…."

He leaned closer.

“You smell like…"

I stepped back with a nervous laugh.

"I'll get the food. I made scones, and there's a full lunch, let me get the apple juice from the fridge."

"Mom. Are you getting some? Because I thought you were thinking about maybe getting back with Dad?"

Not this again.

I tugged open the fridge and grabbed the juice box. He was a sucker for all things apple, juice, candy, strudels, etcetera.

"How's Priya?" I asked. His fiancee.

Redirection was a skill I had honed across twenty-two years of motherhood.

It worked. His whole face lit up like a firefly.

"She's great, actually. She's in town, she wanted to meet Dad first before coming over to see you." He sounded proud in a way that made me genuinely happy for him, even if I was the last person to find out about his engagement. "Dad is excited to meet her too."

I kept my expression neutral.

"That's lovely."

"She'll come over soon. She really wants to meet you."

"I'd love that." I meant it.

"Speaking of meeting people…" Callum shifted on his stool. "My best friend picked me up from the airport. I told you about him, Elek? We met at college and he is basically the brother I never had." He paused. "He actually fixed your balcony door while we were waiting. The one with the dodgy latch."

“Oh.” I had been meaning to get that fixed. “That's really kind of him.”

"He's out back," Callum said. "Come and meet him. He's genuinely one of the best people I know, Mum. I think you'll love him."

I thought about the state of my hair. The marks on my neck. The whole state of my look right now.

"Callum, let me just quickly go and freshen up.”

"Come on, Mom. Just meet him for two minutes, he's right there." He was already standing. "You know what you always told me about first impressions? About how you should never make someone wait to feel welcomed?"

I had said that.

He was using it against me.

I set down the scones and smoothed my dress and followed him toward the balcony, composing my face into a warm and presentable expression.

Knowing Callum’s usual circle, it would probably be someone bookish, or cheerful, with an easy smile, a simple handshake and a name I could forget by dinner.

"Hey, man," Callum called with one foot outback. "Come in and meet my mum."

The balcony door opened.

The tray of cupcakes I was holding fell from my hand and clattered to the ground, staining the carpets with jam.

Because standing in my living room doorway, with my son's hand clapped on his sho

ulder was…

"Zoltan."

And Callum, my beautiful oblivious son, looked between us with a small frown and said

"Uh, you too know each other?”