What’s this? What’s he doing?
He walked around the rear of the Porsche and opened her door.
If he thinks I’m just going to go in there and have dinner . . .
She swung her feet out of the Porsche and got out.
She looked at his lipstick-smeared face, then for a moment into his eyes, and then quickly averted hers.
I’m not going in there with him looking like that!
She took the crisp white handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit jacket and rubbed at his lips. When the lipstick didn’t want to come off, she spat on his handkerchief and resumed rubbing with it.
I can’t believe I did that.
“All right,” she said finally.
He nodded and took her elbow and led her through a rear entrance into the hotel building, and down a corridor into, finally, the lobby. She saw a green neon arrow and the word “Restaurant.”
God, my hair must be a mess, and my face is probably as smeared with lipstick as his was and everybody in the restaurant will see.
“Wait,” Matt ordered.
He left her.
Where’s he going? God, he’s going to the desk. He doesn’t actually expect me to go to a hotel room with him. I can’t believe that this is happening. I won’t let it happen. I’ll just go back to the car . . .
Two minutes later, he was back, swinging a hotel key.
“We have a small suite overlooking the tenth green,” he announced.
Susan nodded her head.
He took her arm and led her to the elevator.
I can’t believe I’m doing this!
The elevator operator, an old man, held his hand out to look at the key. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, the old man said, “To the right, sir. About halfway down.”
“Thank you,” Matt said, and waved Susan out of the elevator in front of him.
He unlocked the door to the suite, went inside, found and snapped on the lights, and turned to Susan, still standing in the corridor.
Their eyes met, and again she averted hers, and then went through the door.
She stopped six feet from the door and looked at him.
“What did you say about Penny?” Susan asked.
He looked confused, searched his memory, and shrugged.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“You said Penny needed you. That she was really fucked up. That you got sucked into it.”
“Yeah, I said that. It’s true.”
“And that doing the right thing keeps getting you in trouble.”