Scorpio

Chapter XIII

The entrance was spread with a fading carpet. A bored-looking receptionist stood at the front desk behind a case of orange and purple flowers. She greeted us when we walked in.

Xe told her we needed a room for the evening.

"Ooo! You came just in time!" she beamed. "We have one room left."

"Double?" xe clarified.

She pulled up something on the computer. "Oh, I'm afraid not. Is a single alright with you two?" She looked up, and her eyes darted between us. I could see the wheels churning in her head, trying to figure out who we were and what we were doing there.

I coughed once to fill the short silence. Xe looked at me with a done and somewhat annoyed expression that said: Do you want to keep looking? I glanced at the receptionist.

Xe understood and told her, "Yes, that'll be alright."

I swear she was chuckling when she was filing the paperwork and resetting the key cards. Or maybe I was imagining things after being bumped along the interstate for more than two-and-a-half hours and dealing with the frustration of being repeatedly told that all the other places were full.

Yeah, it was probably the latter, since hospitality agents are trained to keep that Barbie-plastic smile glued to their faces 24/7.

"Here you go!" She pushed an envelope with the key cards and the Wi-Fi password scrawled across the front towards us, over the countertop. "Enjoy your stay!"

Xe palmed the keys, and we looked for the stairs to go up to the second floor. It would've been pointless looking for an elevator at a truly rustic and not just log-cabin-décor-rustic place like that.

As it turned out, the staircase was outside, like the hallways. Go figure. We climbed up the concrete steps and followed the numbers to the end of a long hallway, stopping at the last door. The handle used to have a slot for physical keys, but a new card reader had been installed on top of it.

Xe slid a card into the reader. The lock flashed green. I pushed the door open and flipped on the lights.

The room wasn't small, but it was on the space-economy side of things. There was a table next to the window and a T.V. hanging from the wall on top of a chest of drawers. The theme of the room was apparently various types of red poppies. Abstract line art versions hung on the wall. Classic floral versions decked the curtains. The same pattern had been spun into the carpet in muted gray and white tones. And the covers of——

——Nope. I'll think about that when the time comes. It wasn't midnight yet. I still had some time before it was time to go to sleep.

I dropped my bag on the floor in front of the drawers and pulled them open, looking for the remote. I found some extra fluffy blankets and dragged them out—they'd make comfortable back rests—and then, I found what I was looking for.

Hugging the blankets to my chest with one arm and holding the remote with the other hand, I walked back and climbed on top of the swirl of red poppies. I punched the blankets into a more ergonomic shape behind me and crossed my feet at the ankles as I sat down on the makeshift couch. I flipped through the channels until I found an old black-and-white movie from the Hollywood glamour heydays.

I heard xyr arranging things.

"I know this is not the idea situation..." xe began.

"It's fine," I answered quickly. "We're both tired. Better than roughing it on the streets."

Xe looked at what I was watching and shook xyr head with a small smile. "If you're so tired, why are staying up to watch that instead of going to sleep?"