King of Her Desire

16

I poured some of Elliott's ritzy body oil into the big bathtub in Sochi's suite.

And then I poured in all the body wash from the little hotel bottle. And the shampoo and conditioner--I left the lotion alone. Not sure why.

And as if that wasn't stinky enough, I ran and got some of the flowers from the big vases they'd put in all the rooms. A VIP guest thing they did, apparently. But I pulled the petals off of two whole bunches and threw some in the water and the rest in the bed she was going to sleep in.

I just went sort of crazy after she told us where that blood came from. Trying to do whatever I could to take some of the pain away.

Elliott was just as bad. She kept calling people, begging them to call people. Pacing back and forth in the kitchen with her phone, telling the story over and over and over again.

And I finally said, "I think you should kinda hang out in there with her in there. I mean, you don't have to stay but...she may still feel weird about being alone."

And Elliott nodded and set her cell aside and said, "Is she up?"

"Sort of groggy but she's ready to take a bath and stuff."

"Well, you order up something. Even if we don't eat it, I want to have something here for her."

"Hang on a sec," I said, sort of waving her over to the living room. I don't know why. Sochi wouldn't have understood anything we were saying.

But when I got her over by the windows, I said, "That...thing you said. The fiancée visa thing—"

And Elliott gave me a pat on the cheek and said, "No worries. She's getting a work visa. I'll be her employer. That way she can get a green card, eventually. And start the naturalization process, which takes a helluva long time."

"But they don't give those out that easy anymore. Especially to people from down this way."

She shook her head and said, "Can you believe how cavalier I was just hours ago? 'Hey, guys! Let's just marry her off! Throw ourselves a party!' Jeezus..."

"I'd do it, though. I mean, she might not like it, but if it's more of a sure thing than the other..."

She hugged me then. And held me for a long time.

And then she said, "You don't seem to understand, my dear. I'm going to come back as some hot young thing you'll feel you've seen somewhere before. We'll lock eyes across a crowded room, and you'll say, 'That's the one.' And we'll live happily ever after, 'til death us do part."

"Notice I'm not laughing."

"Oh, you'd better not," she said. "Let me go get Sochi now."

I headed for the room service menu on a table. Nothing appealed. My stomach was still weird. But I ordered up all this stuff anyway.

And I heard Sochi actually laugh, which made some of the queasiness go away. She said, "He did this?" in Spanish, and gave out with this really cute, teenage girl giggle.

I wanted to see her face but I knew she'd freak out if I went anywhere near that bathroom. I mean, even if she said she'd seen so much in her tiny little house, that didn't mean she wanted me to see that much.

But it was fun to hear her laughing. And Elliott making jokes about all the smelly gunk I'd poured into the water.

"OMG, it's like a hothouse in here," she said. "Jeezus God Almighty!"