Page 116 of The Grand Duel
She rummages in her bag, and I scrub my free hand over my face, trying to realign my thoughts. To bring them back into safe territory.
“I think my wife is confusing the look with one of wanting to get this night washed off and to bed.”
“Oh, we’re back to denial, are we?”
My stomach twists at the fact she can read me like a fucking book.
“Give me the key.”
She slaps it into my hand but doesn’t let it go. “Give me another slice.”
I look down at the box. “We agreed sixty forty.”
“It was seventy thirty.”
“It wasn’t,” I say, moving the box away.
She leans past me, one hand locked in mine as we fight over the key and the other reaching for my pizza.
“Lis! I will put you to the floor to keep my forty.”
“Try it.”
I dip low, my shoulder nestling into the soft area around her hips. I lift her, snatching away the key.
“Charles!”
I smile because she won’t be able to see it.
I place the card to the lock and then use the main key to unlock the latch. The lights don’t even appear. No green. No red.
“I’ll pass out in a minute with all this blood going to my brain.”
“Maybe it will fix some things,” I retort.
“You were so kind earlier.”
I try the keys again. Then the handle when nothing happens. “I think it’s broken.” I lower Lissie to the ground, putting her back to the door as I try again.
“Call down to reception. They’ll have one of those ones that opens all the doors.”
I look down at her, her big brown eyes watching me. I feel her fingers at my waistband. “Stop that.”
“What?” she sings.
I look between us, at where her finger hooks into the top of my trousers. “That.”
“Is it distracting?”
“No.”
“Liar,” she says, removing her finger and then lifting her other hand to her mouth to bite into a fresh slice of pizza. “Hmm. It’s better when it’s not your own.”
I look down at the open box. “Sly, Lissie. I’ll remember that.”
“Have to have your wits about you if pizza is involved, my friend.”
I pull out my phone and call reception only to be told they will send someone up shortly but that there would be a wait.