When the Bus Stopped

Chapter 9

"You kicked me in the groin!"

"I know."

"Why the hell did you do that?"

"Force of habit," Lucy apologized half-heartedly. "I've been living by myself for far too long."

"Oh my god!" He groaned, falling to his knees with his hands clutching his crown jewels. "Why can't you just ask me to stop like a normal woman?"

"I said no," Lucy's voice shot up a notch. "Maybe you didn't hear me over your whole Lothario act?"

"There is no and then there is no..." The second no was laced with sarcasm as Daniello mimicked, what she imagined, must have been her husky tone. "Well trust me – I've heard you loud and clear now." Daniello stood and marched stiffly toward the lift, wobbling slightly with every swing.

"Maybe you've been carousing with rapists so long that you can't distinguish between yay and nay," Lucy snarled after him, as she pulled her plastic card from her pocket and whipped it in the crack of the door trying desperately to unhook the lock. "You are lucky I stopped you, and didn't pop down tomorrow to report your sorry ass!"

"What are you doing?" Daniello asked, having impatiently prodded every number on the lift keypad and being forced to wait for the door to open.

"For crying out loud, how do you open this stupid thing?"

"By using the card the receptionist gave you."

"Umm, that is what I'm doing!" Lucy said sarcastically, flashing the key card in her hand. "It might not look like it to you but I'm trying to get into my room."

"By breaking in? Don't tell me you can't open the door! Do they not have locks out there in the wild?"

Lucy stopped struggling, "stupid thing."

She gave the door a solid boot before rounding on Daniello. "The woman at the front desk decided not to give me keys like everyone else. She expected me to feel at home breaking in with a card. Just because I don't have a credit card and don't know anything about the internet doesn't mean I'm incompetent with a set of keys."

"We all have plastic cards!" Daniello marched over, snatched it from her hand and inserted it deftly in the lock before pulling it out quickly and opening the door. "Really Lucy, it isn't rocket science. How on earth did you get in earlier? Did you succeed in slipping the lock?"

"No, I was escorted here by a bag boy." With a sniff and her chin held high she marched past him and pulled the door firmly behind her with a muffled "Good night," in his direction.