“Thank you,” she says, preening a little.
“That was supposed to bother you.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Have you met women before? We like having people think we’re younger than we are.”
“I should have said I thought you were my age.”
“Sure, if you wanted to get punched in the throat.”
I burst out laughing, finding myself having fun for the first time since…well, I don’t know when.
Nora laughs too, then says, “I should get the band off their bar stools so they can get back to playing.”
“Of course.”
“Have a nice evening.” She spins on her heel and walks away.
As I watch her go, a thought pops into my head.I just was, and it was all because of you.
* * *
“What are you doing?” Markos asks, scaring the shit out of me.
I drop the small pad of paper I’ve been using to check off who has returned to their rooms. Scrambling, I pick it up before Markos can see what I’ve written on it, then resume my position at the door, one eye staring through the peephole. “Nothing.”
“What is that, a logbook?” He snatches the pad from my hand. After a quick look, he says, “Dios mío, you’re keeping watch in case one of the contestants invites a guest back to their room.”
Grabbing the pad back, I say, “Not just the bartenders. The guys on the television crew seemed just as horny.”
“So your plan is to stay up all night for two weeks to make sure no one gets lucky?”
I give him the stink eye. “I didn’t come all this way to sleep my way through whatever scandal is about to drop.”
“People can—and do—have sex during the day, you know.”
“Yeah, but we’ve put the fear of God into them. They’ll be more careful during the day.” Thinking I hear something, I press my left eye up to the peephole again. “If something bad is going to happen, it’ll be late at night.”
“I see, and how long do you think you can keep this up?”
“Indefinitely. I figure most of the bad ideas will come before four a.m. I can get by on two hours of sleep, so I should be able to mitigate ninety-five percent of the risks and still manage my day. By the way, what are you doing up? I heard you come back to your room three hours ago.”
His head snaps back. “Are you tracking me as well?”
“No, but I happen to have a good memory for these things. Why are you still up? You don’t have a woman in there, do you?”
“No, I don’t have a woman in there. My brother is the world’s biggest cock blocker, so I can’t.” He yawns. “I was trying to sleep, but someone in the adjoining room keeps opening and closing his door.”
“Sorry, I’ll try to keep it down.”
“Thanks. Look, I don’t think this is the answer to your problems.”
“Why not?”
“First off, you’ll be crazy with paranoia by the time we leave.” He stands at the peephole and squints his left eye. “Second, you can’t see much through this thing. You’re basically missing the far end of the hallway.”
“I don’t need to see down there. I can hear the elevator doors open and close from here. When that happens, I open the door and stick my head out.”
“You seriously don’t get how insane you sound, do you?” Markos asks.
