Novosi and I walked hand in hand to the elevators, going up to the 44th floor. We had asked the receptionist, Jonathan, if anyone was up in flat 44-57.
“Are they expecting you?” he asked.
“Yes, they are good friends of ours.”
Jonathan eyed us, a little suspiciously – he must know who was in there and that the only file that was missing was that of Trisha Torellini.
“Trisha was the one that recommended us to move into this building,” I said sweetly. “She’s been such a lovely friend to my mother, we thought we would stop by and visit her. But if she’s not here, we can come back another day. I lost her number so I couldn’t call her and double check, but she invited us over.”
“Of course. Unfortunately, she isn’t in her flat tonight. I believe she is off for some important business, but her son is at home, if you would still like to go up,” Jonathan said, his body relaxing. I gave Novosi a pointed look.
“You know what?” Novosi began, “I think we’ll just come back tomorrow. We’ll be signing the lease for the flat so we’ll stop by after that. We really would like to sit in with Ma –Trisha. Thank you, sir, for your help.”
As soon as we were out of sight, I slapped Novosi across the face. “You slipped up, stupid. He was already suspicious about us!”
Novosi muttered something.
“What was that?” I asked angrily, turning my ear to better hear him.
“I said you didn’t have to slap me so hard. He didn’t even hear me slip up.”
“That doesn’t matter; the fact is that you almost said Marianna and we could have gotten in trouble. You suck.” I stuck my tongue out at him, Novosi chuckled. “Come on, we’ll go up to Shakespeare tower and see if we can get a visual on the flat.”
Novosi grabbed my hand and pulled me a long behind him. I resisted the urge to rip my hand from his grip only in the effort that we were keeping up a charade for the public.
We stepped out of the elevator on the 44th floor in Shakespeare tower and scouted out for the flat that was empty. We had checked out all the flats that faced Lauderdale. Flat 44-35 was empty.
The pair of us walked by, pretending to be intensely love-struck as people passed by. We stopped in front of 44-35 and checked to make sure that no one was coming. Novosi used a pin to wiggle in the lock. I heard footsteps and shot Novosi a panicked glance. Without deterring from his task, he used one arm to pull me close to him and kissed me full on the lips. I felt his other hand, hidden behind our entwined bodies, still working at the lock.
A woman passed by us, murmuring something about how cute we looked together, and then something about needing to limit PDA. As soon as she rounded the corner, Novosi pushed open the door and we tumbled in, still lip-locked. I shoved him off of me and rolled away from him, wiping my mouth against my sleeve in disgust.
“You need to stop doing that,” I seethed. “You’re my freaking teacher. I don’t want to be kissing you.”
Novosi shrugged. “It’s not like we’re in school, and plus we’re keeping up a charade. I had to do something so no one would suspect us.”
“I don’t think making out with me was the answer,” I growled. I was angry on the outside, but on the inside, I was melting. His lips had felt so soft against mine. I could almost believe that he meant it. He was a better actor than I gave him credit for. I shook my head in disgust and turned to the wide paneled windows of the living room. Novosi shut the door and locked it so no one would come in. I grabbed the telescope from the duffel bag we had brought in and set it up to point towards the floor level with ours.
