Elodie couldn''t help but furrow her brow, lost in tangled thoughts for a while. She nced at Esmeralda. "You were in my room? Are you sure you''re not mistaken?"


    After all, Esmeralda had been drinking quite a bitst night.


    Alexander caught their exchange in the rearview mirror and chuckled. "What''s this? Partied too hard and can''t keep your stories straight?"


    Esmeralda immediately sat up straighter. "No way! Sure, I had a lotst night, but I was sober this morning. I even checked the room number before I left. I couldn''t have gotten it wrong-I mean, my eyes and brain can''t both break down at the same time, right?"


    She squinted at Elodie, putting her hands on her hips. "Elodie! You really didn''t go back to your room? Where''d you sleepst night?"


    Elodie hesitated, momentarily at a loss for words.


    Suddenly, she realized something wasn''t adding up.


    She couldn''t have made a mistakest night.


    She had definitely gone back to her room.


    "Where else could I have been?" Elodie leaned back in her seat. "Did you see anyone go into my room yesterday?"


    Esmeralda looked even more confused. "How would I know? I was passed out. Wait-did you actuallye back?"


    Elodie fell silent, her mind spinning.


    She couldn''t stop herself from sinking deep into thought.


    Alexander seemed to pick up on her unease. "Is something wrong?" he asked.


    Elodie pressed her lips together, then finally shook her head. "It''s nothing." How could she exin something she wasn''t even sure about herself? The whole situation was starting to trouble her.


    Where had things gone wrong?


    If Esmeralda was certain she''d been in 6103, then what about the room Elodie had woken up in this morning?


    The real kicker was Patricia''sment: yesterday, she''d said that Watts had gone looking for Elodie in 6103.


    But if Elodie hadn''t been in 6103, then what on earth had happenedst night?


    Was there some sort of mimunication? Had she missed something?


    Was it really Watts she''d been with, or... someone else?


    The whole thing was turning into a mess.


    It didn''t make sense anymore.


    If it was Jarrod, well, Sylvie had already made a dramatic point of telling Elodie that she and Jarrod were together. If it was Watts, Elodie hadn''t even been in 6103, and besides, Watts had been acting


    strangely toward her this morning.


    She couldn''t figure it out.


    Something that should have been simple to resolve was now a maze of confusion.


    Could it be someone else entirely?


    A headache started to throb at her temples.


    She hadn''t expected things to get soplicated.


    Even her own statest night felt off.


    She''d had the asional ckout from drinking before, butst night-it had been different. The difort was sharper, unsettling. Thinking back, she felt almost as if she''d been manipted, acting in ways she couldn''t quite exin.


    Alexander dropped Esmeralda off first. After a moment''s thought, Elodie said,


    "Alex, can you let me out here? I''ve got something to take care of.”


    "What''s up? Is it serious? I can go with you if you want," Alexander offered, ncing back.


    “No, it''s fine. I can handle it myself." Elodie shook her head.


    Esmeralda groaned about her headache, so Alexander pulled over and let Elodie out first.


    She watched his car drive away before hailing a cab and heading straight to the hospital.


    Cautious by nature, she wasn''t about to take chances.


    She couldn''t remember a thing fromst night, so it was better to be safe and get checked out.


    Just in case—no sense risking an infectious disease.


    She ran a full panel of tests formon infections, and only after the all-clear did she finally breathe easier.


    She''d thought about getting her blood screened for any strange substances, but realistically, it was already toote for anything to show up.


    Back home, she still couldn''t make sense of what had happened.


    If only she knew the truth-then she could actually do something about it.


    In fact, for one crazy moment, she almost wished it had been Jarrod. At least then


    she wouldn''t have to jump through hoops to figure things out.


    But since she couldn''t untangle it, Elodie decided not to waste any more energy.


    As long as nothing bad had


    happened, and there were no consequences, she wasn''t going to obsess over it. Adults had plenty ofplicated problems already no one had the energy to get hung up on something as trivial as a night''s physical encounter.