Love at 11 - By Mari Mancusi Page 0,50

My supposed best friend was turning me down.

“Sorry, Maddy. If you need a ride after work, I’d be happy to drive down—oh, Laura’s coming. I’ve got to go.” I could hear her set down the receiver and then the dial tone buzzed in my ear.

“I’m done filing the report.”

I hung up the phone and turned around to face Jamie. “I’m trying to get us a ride home,” I said. “But ever one’s at work.”

Jamie shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not going to be much help. All my friends are still in LA.”

“Jodi could pick us up, but not until after she gets out.”

“Well, then I guess we’re stuck here ‘til then,” Jamie said in a frustrated tone. “The cop said there’s a hotel down the road. I’m going to get a room and take a nap.”

“Oh, good idea,” I said, then realized I had no money to do the same. I’d left my wallet in the bike and used up all my change to phone Jodi. In fact, I didn’t even have enough money for breakfast. But I didn’t want Jamie to have to pay for me. He was already in a bad enough mood. The last thing he needed was a clingy girl. “I’ll, um, probably hang out here. Catch you later.” He looked at me strangely. “Here? In the police station?”

“Yeah.” I tried to smile. “They have great coff—” My voice cracked and the waterworks started. Dammit. I hated that. Why couldn’t I be brave for once? I cleared my throat and brushed away the pesky tear. “Great coffee.” I raised my cup of mud. “And you know how much I love coffee.”

“You’re not staying here,” Jamie said. “Come on, let’s find the hotel.”

“No. I’m fi—”

He grabbed me firmly by the arm and led me out of the police station, evidently insistent on taking control of our desperate situation. Which was fine by me, really.

It was still early, but the temperature outside had risen to a sweltering hundred and five degrees, if you believed the bank clock. Of course, it was a dry heat, the people back East would say. As if that made it any less unbearable. When it got to a hundred and five, heat was heat.

We walked down the street, passing biker bar after biker bar. I could see Jamie surreptitiously checking out the bikes parked outside. But most of these were dirt bikes to ride the dunes. None resembled his precious English Triumph.

The hotel loomed at the end of Main Street, its once cheery blue sideboards now peeling paint. We stepped on the creaky front porch and went inside.

“I’d like to rent a room,” Jamie said to the bored, gum-snapping blond girl behind the desk. She looked about fifteen.

“By the quarter hour, hour, or hour and a half?” she asked without looking up.

Jamie blushed. “How much for the day?”

The girl looked up from her magazine. Appraised me with critical eyes, perhaps wondering how I’d lucked out warranting so much time. Then went back to reading.

“Fifty bucks,” she said.

Jamie handed her a wad of cash. She punched a few numbers into the register and then handed him a rusty key.

“Room eleven. Third door to the right.”

We walked down the dark, floral-wallpapered hallway until we reached our room. Jamie slid the key into the lock and stepped inside. The room matched the rest of the hotel—dingy and decrepit. Dim lighting, peeling paint, and only a single double bed in the center of the room serving as furniture. There wasn’t even a television.

“Oh, I’d figured there’d be two beds,” Jamie said, appraising the room. “Sorry. Do you want me to get you your own room?”

So it was like that, was it? From telling me he was crazy about me, to wanting to spend fifty extra bucks just so he wouldn’t have to be in the same room as me. “It’s up to you,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t mind sharing.” I stepped inside the room and looked around. It seemed clean enough, at least. As long as I didn’t think about the lurid acts normally performed here by the quarter hour.

“I can sleep on the floor,” Jamie said, closing the door behind me. “I could probably sleep on a rock, I’m so exhausted.”

“Don’t be stupid. It’s your room. You paid for it. If anyone’s sleeping on the floor, it’ll be me.” Not that I wanted to sleep on the floor. I wanted to sleep on the bed. With Jamie. Preferably with his arms wrapped around my