Elijah
Later that night, I propped open my hotel room door to push the room service cart into the hallway when I saw Isa pacing back and forth up and down the corridor a few steps from where the elevators were.She wore a terracotta silk blouse with the top three buttons undone, pleated, plaid dress pants that hugged her curves in all the right places, and a pair of clear heels.
I squinted my eyes. “Isa?”
She quickly twisted her neck in my direction before the rest of her body followed. “Oh, uh. Eli,” she cleared her throat, “Elijah. Hey. Hey!”
“Wassup?” I greeted her.
Her shoulders quickly lifted and fell. “Me? Oh, nothing.”
“Uh, okay,” I dragged out slowly.
She started walking towards me. “I, uh, have another question. Y’know, for the article.”
“Okay. Did you wanna come in or?” I asked with my hand holding the weight of the door.
“Uh, sure. Yeah.”
I stepped back inside the room, and she followed. “Why did you really ask me to come with you earlier today?” she quizzed, the door closing behind her.
“What do you mean?”
“We hardly know each other. What makes me worthy of sharing such a private experience with you?”
“Maybe I see you differently.”
“Than who or what?”
“Than any other reporter or journalist I’ve ever met or talked to.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“That’s a great thing.”
She angled a grin at me before casting her eyes down on her shoes. “Cool, cool.”
“Why the hell are you really here, Isa?”
“Truth is, I’ve been kind of having a hell of a day since we separated earlier, and I don’t quite trust my thinking or my judgment, but I’m here, and I want you to come with me. Go somewhere. Somewhere with me. I will drive.”
“Right now?”
“Unless you were busy or had something better to do.”
“Nah, I was just about to lay down; it is kind of late.”
I watched her instinctively look down at the Apple Watch on her left wrist. “Wow. It’s almost ten-thirty, huh.”
“Yeah, any later, and I would’ve thought you were comin’ to get some d–”
“Don’t say that!” she squealed, cutting my inappropriate sentence off at the knees.
I blew a laugh from my nose. “I’m just sayin’.”
“You took me to one of your spots. Why not let me take you to mine?”
“You drivin’?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.