like his arm was around me; like he was doing the doorframe lean, but with suitcases.
He grinned at me. “Hi.”
I smiled back at him. I could see that his eyelashes curled up slightly; that he had the faintest scattering of freckles across his nose. “Hi.”
The elevator stopped at the twenty-fourth floor, and there was reorganizing as we helped the suitcase guy get both carts out before we started rising up again. Even though we now had the whole elevator to ourselves, we were still standing close together, much closer than we actually needed to, which was giving me excited, swoopy butterflies in my stomach. But before anything could happen, the elevator stopped—and the doors slid open at the penthouse.
“Okay,” Cary said, stepping off first and putting his arm across the elevator again until I got out. It looked like we’d arrived in a little private hallway—there was only one door ahead of us. “This one might be a little… weird.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, figuring that this explained the look that he and Wes had exchanged down in the lobby.
“You’ll see,” he said, as he knocked on the door.
“You sure you don’t want to put the aviators on?” I asked. I could still see them looped over the top of Cary’s white shirt.
“It’s night.”
“Still.”
“And indoors.”
“Even so.” I gestured down to my still-zipped navy coat. “Is it okay that I’m dressed like this? And not like Kelly McGillis?”
“It might be more concerning if you were, actually.”
The door opened, revealing a harassed-looking woman in her twenties, dressed all in black with an earpiece in. “Maverick Cleaners,” Cary said, holding up the bag.
“Oh, thank god, come in,” she said, swiping down at the iPad she was carrying. “We have no napkins or towels left—it was going to be a disaster.…”
Cary followed her through the apartment, and I trailed behind him, trying to take in everything. I’d never been in a penthouse before. This almost could have been a hotel—the rooms looked pristine and matching, no personal touches anywhere—and it was huge. It wasn’t until we were almost to the kitchen that I stopped short.
In what was probably supposed to be the living or dining room, a poker table had been set up. The room was filled—waiters walked around pouring drinks, there was a dealer at the head—and every seat at the table was full. I realized with a shock that I recognized a lot of the players. There was one of the Yankees, a singer who was a judge on a singing show, an actor who’d been in a bunch of action movies about ten years ago… and was that the mayor?
“Kat,” Cary hissed, and I turned my focus away from the room and hurried to join him. He was in the kitchen, taking out what I could see now were linens and towels from the black bag.
“Thanks so much,” the woman said, still looking stressed. “Tonight’s been a disaster, and it really needs to go right.”
“So it’s… high stakes?” I asked, my expression innocent. Cary bit his bottom lip like he was trying not to laugh and shot me a look. The woman, however, just nodded.
“Yeah,” she said as she took the napkins from Cary and hustled out. “Thanks a lot! Water in the fridge if you want it.”
When she left, I widened my eyes at Cary. “That’s an…” I nodded toward the other room, then mouthed, Underground poker game.
“Not really underground,” Cary said, like he was thinking the matter over. “We’re in the penthouse.” He headed out, taking the empty black bag with him, and I followed, not quite able to resist one last peek at the poker table, where someone I was pretty sure I’d seen on Shark Tank was angrily throwing down his cards. For just a moment, I thought about asking the mayor if she had the contact number for her employee Flora… but then immediately decided against it.
It wasn’t until we were back in the elevator and heading down to the lobby that I felt like I could speak at a normal volume again. “Oh my god!” I said, turning to Cary, who laughed. “That was very exciting.”
“This job has its moments. I’m just glad you’re not bored. I know this isn’t a very exciting way to spend your night.”
“Are you kidding?” I shook my head. Teri would be so impressed when I told her about the celebrities I’d just seen. I couldn’t wait to tell Stevie.…
A second later, reality brought me up short—like running full