Page 59 of Tony

She shrugs. “If you’ve got time for me.”

“I’ve got all day. And you’re already here. So… it would be stupid on my part if I didn’t take advantage of that fact.”

“Oh. I get it. You want to take advantage of me.” She winks. “I like you, Tony.”

“I like you too, Soshee. You’re the best thing about this trip.”

“I am, aren’t I?”

I nod slowly. “You really are.”

“So tell me about this dream.”

“Dream?”

“You know. The one you were having about me when I woke you up.”

“Oh. That dream. Well… we were…”

“You weren’t dreaming about me, were you?”

“No.” I laugh. “But I really wish I had been. I wasn’t dreaming at all. I was just tired, I guess. I got in late.”

She cocks her head at me. “Did you go somewhere when you left my apartment?”

I nod and purse my lips, wondering if I should tell her this part.

But before I can answer she says, “To see Belinda?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “But never mind that. I really am over it.”

“What happened?”

“Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“I’m not jealous. Well”—she pauses—“OK. I’m jealous. But not in a bad way. I just don’t get why everyone loves her.”

“I guess the same reason everyone loves Vann. Fucking asshole.”

“OK, what happened?”

“He… he like… proclaimed his fucking love for her. I’m talking grand gesture kind of fucking proclamation, Soshee. I really hope you are over him, because she’s falling for it. I can tell.”

“Does that make you sad?”

“No! Not at all. I mean, I’m not lying. I didn’t come here to win her back. I came here to hate-fuck her out of my head.”

“And you did that.”

“I did.”

“And you’re just… done now?”

“After she punched me in the mouth last night?”

“Oh, is that what that is?” she says, leaning over the table to touch my busted lip. “I wasn’t going to say anything. But OK. She punched you.”

I take her hand before she can pull away and just hold it for a moment. “She did.”