He sits back on the cold, wet floor and looks up at Mae. “I hate to ask,” he says miserably, “but do you think I could borrow a few quid—dollars—until this gets sorted?”
Mae looks at Hugo as if weighing something. His mind is whirring through all that will happen if the wallet is well and truly lost: the hassle of canceling credit cards, trying to sort new ones, having to ring his parents and tell them what happened. He’s so busy with his thoughts that he’s not fully listening when Mae finally says, “No.”
“No?” he repeats, confused. “I swear I’d pay you back….”
“No, I mean you should just come to the hotel with me. It seems silly for you to stay here, especially now, when we were fine sharing last night.” She flushes, realizing they still have an audience, and adds, “We can ask for a cot. It was your room to begin with, and you were just trying to be nice and make sure I felt comfortable, but…”
Hugo raises his eyebrows, waiting. He can feel a smile building inside him, but he manages to hold it back.
“I already feel comfortable with you,” she says. “So let’s just go get some dinner, okay?”
“Okay,” he says, letting the smile surface. He gestures at the tangle of clothes on the floor all around them. “As long as it’s on you.”
Later, they wander therain-slicked city, ducking into shops to stay dry. In one of them, which is full of Chicago-themed souvenirs, Hugo tries on a hat shaped like a football.
“Do I look like an American?” he asks with a grin.
“You look,” Mae says brightly, “like an idiot.”
She picks out a delicate snow globe with a jagged skyline for her dads. The spotty cell reception along the route had made phone calls tricky, so they’ve been texting her constantly instead:
Dad: My phone is broken.
Mae: Sorry. What happened?
Dad: Wait—never mind! There’s been a miracle!
Mae: Huh?
Dad: My phone—it’s working again!
Mae: Clearly.
Dad: I just figured it must be broken, since I hadn’t heard from you AT ALL today.
Mae: Bravo. Well played.
Dad: Thanks. Was the miracle thing too over the top?
Mae: Nope. You really sold it.
And:
Pop: I just emailed you an article about the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Mae: Great, thanks!
Pop: Are you still there?
Mae: Like…on the phone?
Pop: No, in Pennsylvania.
Mae: We’re actually in Ohio now.
Pop: Okay, then I have another article for you, about the steel industry in Cleveland.
Mae: Can’t wait.
