Page 6 of Lorenzo

She smiles.

His phone lights on the nightstand.

12:04 a.m.

Reality returns with the quiet cruelty of a blade between ribs.

Alessio exhales and reaches for it.

Genevieve shifts beside him. “You’re leaving.”

It is not a question.

“I have to.”

“So soon?”

“I’m on duty in the morning.”

“With whom?”

The question is casual.

Almost.

Alessio looks at her.

Genevieve rolls onto her back and stares at the ceiling. “Sorry. None of my business.”

“It isn’t that.”

“Then what is it?”

He sits up, dragging a hand through his hair. “Family business.”

A smile touches her mouth, but it does not stay. “Of course.”

There is something in the way she says it. As if she understands more than he expected.

“Tomorrow,” he says.

Her eyes return to his.

He should leave it there. A meaningless promise made in a hotel room after sex.

But it does not feel meaningless when she looks at him.

“I mean it,” he says. “I’ll call you after I finish work.”

“You don't have my number.”

“Then you should give it to me.”

That makes her smile for real.

She reaches for her phone from the nightstand, and they exchange numbers while the room remains dim and too quiet around them.

He dresses while she slips from the bed and reaches for the red dress.