Page 5 of Slumming It

"Ormaybe," Slade shot back, "you're still pissed about Cassandra."

Cassandra.I'd been with her for how long? Four, maybe five months?I hadn't loved her. Hell, I hadn't loved anyone, no matter how good they looked on my arm – or in my bed. "I'malwayspissed off," I reminded him. "But Cassandra's got nothing to do with it."

"That's not whatshesays."

My jaw clenched. "Obviously."Hey, I could read the headlines, too.Even so, I had barely thought about Cassandra since ditching her at some truck stop off I-94 – her idea, not mine – well, in the beginning at least.

In the end, Cassandra had made a classic mistake.She'd called my bluff.

Bad idea.

Ineverbluffed.

On the phone, Slade said, "She's been calling the office."

No surprise there. I'd blocked her on my cell, not because I couldn't handle the heat, but because twenty calls a day were twenty too many. "Yeah, so?"

"So nothing," he said. "I figured you'd want to know."

If I were a humorous guy, I might've laughed. "Why?"

"I dunno. Why not?"

I searched for a smart comeback and came up empty. This did nothing to improve my mood. I'd been off my game since my arrival yesterday. The hotel – it was giving me a bad vibe. It wasn't the wallpaper. It was the place itself. It was twisting my gut in a way I didn't like.

Surprising?No.

Irritating?Supremely.

Just then, the phone on the nightstand started up again, making Slade ask, "What the fuck is that?"

I eyed the source of the racket. "A phone."

"What?"

"A phone," I repeated, speaking louder over the noise.

"From this century?"

I grimaced. "I doubt it."

"So…what are we talking? Retro or…?"

Next to me, the damn thing was still ringing. "Not retro. Just shitty, like the rest of this place."

Sounding amused as hell, Slade asked, "So, you gonna get it?"

"Why should I? It's not for me."

"How do you know?"

Wasn’t it obvious?"Because no one knows I'm here."

He snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Meaning?"

"A townthatsize, everyone knows everything."