Room 220 in Cheaper than Therapy

Today, I left Georgia and headed to Midstate South Carolina to settle into my “halfway” place- a shitty little motel off of a two-lane highway nestled in between expanses woods with long, grassy fields sprinkled in between.
There was an older man standing in the breezeway smoking a cigarette and watching me grab my things from my car. My skin burned underneath his gaze and even in the warm South Carolina sun, my arms prickled with goosebumps. I gave him a small, tight-lipped smile in acknowledgement from below, hoping he would carry on with his afternoon smoke. I glanced at my key card pinched between my fingers… Room 220. Fuck. Right next to my not-so-secret admirer. I made my way up the staircase leading to the upstairs lining the outside of the motel, pleading with God that by the time I got to the top he would be finished and back in his room. I hesitantly peaked around the corner, and he was gone. I hastily rushed into my room, but not before passing his, where out of the corner of my eye I saw him watching me rush from in front of his window.
The room is clean… enough. Better than I expected, actually, for a place this price. Nugget is now perched on the bed just beyond my right foot- a perfect place to keep a watchful post for passerby’s beyond the large, dusty window. I watch his ears twitch with intense hyper focus. My fearless 20 lb. guard dog. The big one is on the floor, soundly snoring and snuggled with his favorite blanket. My boys… I’ll miss them so much. But I won’t think about that now.
I’m hungry, but have no motivation to eat; much less seek out some sort semi-appetizing, non-fast food. I have the Office on for background noise- a comfort for me as well as an attempt to drown out the loud voices coming from the man’s room. Some banging, a thud… lots of indiscernible, drunken chatter seeping from the large gap underneath the door, unfiltered through thin walls. The cable keeps cutting out every minute or so and so does the wifi. It’s going to be a long night, not that I was ever getting sleep anyways.