JJ sat across from the hotel manager, explaining how he needed his stuff, especially certain bank documents. Quickly. Like now. No, he didn’t have identification because Tess and Cody took it. No, he hadn’t meant to leave his stuff behind but he was overtaken by events. No, he wasn’t aware of the hotel’s policy…
“Please. Please. I have to get my stuff and get out of here. Like now. I’m trying to remain calm. I’m trying not to yell. But, I have to get out now!”
“There’s the $200 cleaning and storage fee. That’s what I’m trying to…”
“But my wallet’s been stolen. That’s what I’m trying to tell you…I just need the papers, the bank papers.”
“Sir, the fee?”
JJ threw himself back in the chair, his head back, eyes bulging. He was rising to storm out when he heard Lila from the doorway.”
“How much?”
And there she was, leaning in the doorway, arms crossed, and JJ realized that he had been expecting her all along. Two surging streams, one of joy and one of sadness, flooded the hollow of his chest. She was here! He needed her. Why did he need her so badly?
“What kept you?”
Lila sighed. “How much to get this ungrateful drunk’s stuff?”
“$200.”
“Lila…” But what was JJ going to say? Allow me? Behind all this was the knowledge that Tess and Cody would be here at any moment. In fact, they could be pulling into the parking lot right now.
“JJ, don’t speak,” she said and counted out ten 20’s from her purse.
“It’ll just be a moment,” the manager said and left the room.
Quiet in the office, the drone of cable news coming from the lobby. The fucking election.
“Listen, Lila….”
“Not right now,” she said. “We can big picture it later. It’s not a good time for processing. Let’s just decide what to do right now.”
“I’m glad you said that because we need to get out of here like, immediately.”
Lila sighed.
“Someone’s after me,” JJ said. “Two people, actually.”
“No more running,” she said. She slammed her palm down on the manager’s desk. “No more!”
There it was, the boiling point reached. Lila was slow to get there, but then the green light flashed from her eyes and everyone better look the fuck out.
“Lila…”
“No more,” she said. “We’re going to fix it right here at this hotel. Then we’re going to make it right with those people. We’ll go down the line until it’s all fixed then go home. That’s it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
The manager returned with a box. JJ looked in, cringed at the ¾ empty bottle of 100 proof Smirnoff, but located the folder from the bank. He showed her the folder.
“What’s that?”
“I own these people’s ranch. I bought it at an auction.”
“How?”
“And they’re coming to get it back from me.”
Of all the dumbass things JJ could have potentially done to cause two people to pursue him, Lila was not expecting something like this.
“The surprises never cease,” she said. She looked at JJ and the hotel manager, at the cardboard box with JJ’s clothes, leftover Smirnoff, and bank documents, at the little sterile office and the lobby beyond. She laughed and knew that she was forever eternally fucked.
She still loved him, even after all this.
The Thickening 