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CHRIS
So, apparently, ordering room service required the hotel to have a restaurant. Or a kitchen.
Online delivery apps to the rescue. He’d found a nearby Thai place while Daphne was getting their keys.
Now they were on the elevator, and he’d wondered whether he should have rethought the “leave the gym without showering” strategy. Of course, that required the hotel gym to have a shower. Which it did not.
Did he stink? Or, maybe, the question should be, how bad did he stink?
Well, buddy, she’s standing on the opposite side of the elevator, if that’s any indication.
Should he joke about the smell?
If he did, would she feel obliged to deny it?
He snuck a glance over as he pushed the button. Wait. She didn’t seem to be across the otherwise empty elevator to stay out of sniffing range. She was checking him out, which was much easier to do with a bit of distance.
Was he sure? He peeked at the reflection in the polished silver of the wall. Yep, she was checking him out. He bit his lip to keep from smiling and lifted his elbow to rest against the wall.
You are such a poseur.
Hey, if it worked, he was going for it. And it was working, just like the striptease in the changing room.
Oh, right, the striptease. Which you had to abort midshow when you realized you were about to pull down your trousers and show her just how much you were enjoying watching her watch the performance.
Er, right. Yeah. That’d been awkward.
Still, if she was enjoying this show, that boded well for his question, didn’t it?
He leaned into the wall, flexing as the elevator doors—
“Hold that!” a woman said.
Chris did not “hold that.” He did that really shitty thing where you pretend to be reaching for the button to hold the doors but, damn, you didn’t get to it in time.
Except the man with the woman did get to it in time, sticking his hand between the doors, which bounced back open.
As the man stepped in, he looked at Chris. Looked away fast. Mumbled something and ushered his wife to the far side, as Daphne stepped toward Chris. There was a moment of shuffling, where Daphne sidestepped right up against Chris and the guy sidestepped right into his wife’s view of Chris. Which would have been more amusing if the guy hadn’t checked out Daphne at the same time.
Chris let his hand slip behind Daphne. Not quite putting his arm around her, but if the guy interpreted it that way…
Daphne leaned into his arm.
He stifled a grin and slung his arm loosely around her waist.
As the elevator began a slow chug upward, the man said, “Is the hotel gym any good?”
Chris waggled his hand and looked at Daphne, who said, “It exists. That’s about the best you can say. Treadmill. A few free weights.”
The guy rolled his shoulders. “Maybe I’ll go.”
His wife made a noise that suggested this would not actually be happening.
Chris watched the numbers roll up. The elevator hit the couple’s floor first, and they stepped off. Once the doors closed, Daphne let out a choked laugh and leaned against him. He tightened his arm around her, pulling her into his side, and she laid her head against his shoulder.
Was it possible to mentally will the elevator to break down right now? What if his hand snuck out and hit the Stop button?
Huh, the elevator seems to be broken. Whatever can we do?
