She looked at him. We've handled worse, he said. She blinked just once. You don't know that. No, he admitted.
But I'm going to act like I do. And for the first time since Friday morning, since the stairwell, since the legal pad, since I'll do it, something almost like a real smile moved through Vanessa Caldwell's face. Small, brief, unguarded, real. The elevator doors opened. They stepped in together.
The weekend had begun. The elevator ride to the fourth floor lasted 43 seconds. Malcolm counted. Not because he was nervous. He told himself he wasn't nervous, but because counting was what he did when his brain needed something to grip.
43 seconds of standing beside Vanessa Caldwell. Both of them facing forward. Both of them not looking at each other. Both of them thinking about the exact same thing. One bed.
The doors opened. Vanessa walked out first. Malcolm followed one step behind, carrying his own bag because he had quietly taken it from the bellhop without discussion. They moved down the hallway in silence that felt pressurized like something held underwater. Room 412.
Vanessa slid the key card. The door opened. She walked in. Stopped. Malcolm walked in behind her.
Stopped. The bed was enormous. White linen perfectly made four pillows arranged symmetrically across a headboard that probably cost more than Malcolm's first car. King-size, singular, the kind of bed that filled a room with its own particular gravity demanding acknowledgement. Neither of them spoke for four full seconds.
Then Vanessa said precisely, "I will call down to the front desk again. You heard her. They're fully booked. I'll ask about a cot. In a suite this size, where are they going to put a cot?
Another silence. Vanessa set her bag down on the luggage rack without looking at the bed again. She moved to the window. The ocean was out there darkening in the early evening light and stood with her back to him. I'm sorry, she said.
This was not part of the arrangement. No, he agreed. It wasn't. I understand if you want to. I'm not leaving Vanessa.