Page 29 of Tipping Point

The server returns swiftly with the credit card and Jay rises too. Irish bids him good night and hauls me steadily towards a black car parked discreetly by the curb. He opens the back door.

“Wait!” I say as he makes to help me inside.

“What about Jay?” I ask.

Irish sighs as if I am asking him to donate his kidney. With a pained expression, he turns around.

“Jay,” he says with a metered voice. “Would you like a ride?”

Jay’s face lights up and he nods eagerly.

Jay and I are standing, looking at each other. Irish is looking between us.

“Will either of you please just get in the fecking car?”

We burst into laughter.

* * *

FINN

She deteriorates fast. At the hotel, Jay makes his own tortured way to his room, but Curls isn’t being very helpful.

“Which room?” I ask again. She’s driving me insane. I want to shake her by the shoulders.

She’s digging through her backpack under the interior car light and pulling out tons of shit.

Sunscreen, sunglasses. A wallet. A passport. Chewing gum.

“Camille.”

“Oh my God,” she says softly and looks up. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

She shakes her head, laughs. Leans forward to put her forehead against my chest and groans. It reverberates through me.

“Feeling a little defeated, are you?”

She groans again, but it ends on a laugh.

“All right.” I push her upright. “Let’s go.”

I grab her stuff and haul her out of the car and the driver pulls away slowly.

We make our way inside to the lobby and she’s leaning heavily on my arm.

I haul her to the elevator and lean her against the wall as I press the button for my floor.

“Where are we going?” she asks curiously.

“My suite.”

“Oh my God, aren’t we forgetting something?” she asks, glancing around.

“What?”

“Where’s the girl in the red dress?” She bursts into giggles.