I'll Never Finish This Book

TWELVE

December 4:

We walked through the numbered door with a key card entry and into the hotel room. Throwing our coats on the carpet of the foyer, we stepped further into a living room. An unopenable window covered a wall and had a breathtaking view of the city. The couches separated the living room and kitchen; it was fully functional, but all I would need was the coffeemaker.

A king-size bed, large windows, and abstract artwork took up the bedroom. It led to a walk-in bathroom with a hot tub, rainfall shower, and full-sized shampoo bottles.

Eli followed me into the walk-in closet and compared it to my apartment. He laid out where everything in my apartment was and how well it would fit inside the closet.

"How far up do you think this building goes?" Eli asked while we walked back to the living room.

I shrugged. "I dunno. Pretty high up, though."

"You think I can get up to the roof?"

"If you were like Superman or something," I speculated. I knew better than to encourage him.

"Come test it out with me."

There it was. "Is that an offer, Mr. Peterson?"

He shook his head. "It's an order, Mrs. Peterson."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, alright, then."

My ears popped as we ascended to the 46th floor. I wondered how many people stayed in that hotel to have that many floors containing so many rooms. The elevator made no stops to pick up any others, and I assumed nobody else was leaving their room at 3 AM to go to the roof. In a way, I was thankful for that because if there was one thing I couldn't deal with, it was an awkward silence in an elevator with strangers. The silence in the elevator with Eli wasn't awkward at all or even all that silent- my mind was loud enough to make up for the lack of communication.

We stepped out into the hallway and looked up and down it. I followed behind Eli as he looked around for some sort of door or staircase that led to the roof. I doubted there was open access to it, but I knew better than to put a damper on his excitement.

He attempted to open the emergency exit door with a sign that said the alarm would sound if opened. Like everything else he did, watching him wedge a piece of cardboard he had found on the ground in between the door and the handle containing the sensor gave me a bad feeling. Where were the cameras?

"Alright, this can go one of two ways," he began speaking once the cardboard had been out of sight, "I push open this door, and the alarm doesn't go off, or I push open this door, and all the security guards in this building surround us in half a minute."

"Is that supposed to reassure me?"

"Are you ready to take the risk?"

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

"You most certainly do not."

"Okay then, let's open this door," I spoke reluctantly.

He rubbed his hands together before placing them on the handle and pushing it in. I squeezed my eyes shut as if that would help keep the alarm from sounding. Like the door, my eyes flew open. He managed to get the door open without the alarm going off. I watched as he took off his jacket and lodged it in between the door to keep it from closing.

"How'd you know to do that?" I asked as he led me over to the edge of the roof.

"Same way you learned to use that credit card to open your apartment door- that forensics class we were forced to take in high school," he teased.