Say You'll Remember Me(38)

We did find three condom wrappers under the bed though. All different brands and sizes. At least we didn’t find the condoms.

The towels were beyond thin and scratchy and the toilet ran. I checked for two-way mirrors. Negative.

He pulled the bedspread back. The sheets looked clean.

“Let’s not use this,” I said, dragging the bedspread off with two fingers and kicking it into a corner. “They don’t get washed. We can ask the guy for more sheets. At least we know those get bleached.”

Xavier left and came back with an armful of sheets and an extra blanket. We put it on the bed and stood on our respective sides looking at it.

“I think this will work,” I said.

“Good.”

He started to get undressed.

This was not a sexy getting undressed, this was an I’m going to pass out the second I get in this bed undressing, and he didn’t even need to say it, it was mutually understood.

I’d changed into pajamas before we left, so I got in under the covers while he folded his clothes and set them on the dresser. Then he jumped into gray sweatpants—which momentarily reignited the flames in my loins, but then quickly went out when I remembered that I had a bloody Band-Aid on my ear.

He climbed in and drew me into his arms.

“When I took my shoes off, the carpet felt a little moist,” I whispered.

“There’s questionable white stains on the curtains,” he said.

“There were dead cockroaches on the windowsill.”

“You are very brave,” he whispered.

“It’s not brave if you’re not scared.”

His laugh rumbled against me and he pulled me tighter. We lay there, holding each other in the silence.

“You didn’t remember to forget me,” I said, quietly.

“No,” he said. “I did not.”

I hoped he was getting as much out of all this as me.

He put his nose into my hair and breathed out a contented sigh.

Maybe he was…





17





XAVIER


MY BODY WAS two hours ahead of hers, so I woke up before she did. The hotel appeared to be criminal free at the moment, as there were two cops eating breakfast burritos in the parking lot, so I left Samantha sleeping in bed to get her coffee in the Dart.

I did not like her driving this car. At all.

No airbags, no roll bar, no shoulder strap. No automatic locks or alarm. I checked that the hazards worked—they did—but that’s about all this vehicle had going for it in terms of safety.

She said it was temporary. I hoped it was.

I got her coffee and some roses a man was selling out of a white bucket on the side of the road.

When I got back to the room, she was still sleeping so I left her latte and flowers next to the bed, brushed my teeth, and jumped in the shower. When I got out, she was at the sink.

“Good morning,” she said around her toothbrush.

“Good morning.”

She spit. “Thanks for the gifts. What do you want to do today?”

I was wrapped in a towel and she dropped her eyes to my waist and grinned.

Someone started screaming in the parking lot. A second later we heard the whoop of a police siren.

We both looked at the door and then back at each other, amused.

“Maybe breakfast and then a mattress store?” I said.

She scoffed. “Okay. Then what?”

“What is there?”

She ticked off on her fingers. “Disneyland, La Brea Tar Pits, the LA Zoo—”

“The zoo.”

She smiled. “How did I know you’d say that?”

I loved zoos. Aquariums too. Both were places I didn’t get to go as a kid unless I was going with one of my friends and their family.

I don’t know why I didn’t do these things as an adult. Why I had to wait to be taken. When I thought of activities to fill my time, I thought of volunteering, working longer, going to the gym. Grown-up things. My mind never went naturally to things that I might enjoy. It was like that switch was not available in my brain. Like the loss of it in my childhood was a permanent one and only someone else could get me there.

“Is that fine?” I asked. “We can do something else.”

“I love the zoo. I haven’t been since I was twelve or something. Can we maybe take the boys? They’d like it and my sister doesn’t get much of a break.”

“Of course.”

She rinsed her toothbrush. “Can I make a special request?”

“Sure.”

“I don’t want to tell you what to do with your face, but when you meet the boys, can you smile? Because you are very tall and you frown a lot.”

I scoffed. “Yes. I will make an effort not to scare the children.”

“Thank you.”

Then we just stood there, peering at each other.

She looked beautiful. Rumpled and sleepy. She’d gone to sleep wearing the hoodie I gave her but she’d taken it off and she was in nothing but a maroon tank top now. No bra. Her nipples were pressing against the fabric. I felt a twitch under my towel. Then someone started shouting outside followed by the sounds of shuffling and an electrical zapping noise.

She looked at me with her eyes wide. “Did we just hear someone get tasered?”