Page 21 of Marcello

“I should probably go back to my hotel and change.”

“…oh,” she said, and her smile faded into a look of sadness. “Of course.”

Shit.

This is the only person you know in Naples, you idiot –

And you WORK with her –

And she got you your JOB.

Don’t fuck this up!

“But if you want to come with me,” I said, “we could take a shower there.”

Her face lit up. “Okay – just let me get a bag for my things.”

I dressed in my grimy clothes and prayed to God for strength to make it through the day.

When we walked into the hotel ‘lobby,’ Federica looked around with an expression like she smelled a particularly bad fart.

All she said, though, was, “Interesting.”

But when we got to the room, she put aside all pretenses.

“Oh my GOD – you stayed here?!” she asked as she looked in the bathroom.

“Just one night.”

“This is fucking awful!”

“Yeah,” I muttered absentmindedly. I was still trying to deal with the pounding in my head.

“Look – I don’t want to, like, come on too strong or anything, but you’re welcome to stay with me until you get a place of your own. This is just depressing.” Then she quickly added, “Unless you don’t want to. I mean, if you need your own space, I totally get it – ”

“No, that’d be nice,” I said.

I was a little hesitant about shacking up with her, but I figured it was only temporary.

Federica looked relieved. “Good. How much are you paying for this place, anyway?”

“Fifty euros a night.”

“Fuck THAT. Yeah, you’re staying with me. You can check out and bring your stuff to the pizzeria, and we’ll stash it in the office until we get off work. That way you can save another 50 euros.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“You’re welcome. Um…” She looked around the room and shuddered. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think I can have sex here. I’m not even sure we can both fit in the shower at the same time – if you can even call it a ‘shower.’ If it’s okay with you, I think we should save the sexy times for after work.”

“‘S probably a good idea,” I mumbled.

The state I was in, I probably couldn’t have gotten it up anyway.

“You want to go first?” she asked.

“No, you can.”

“Such a gentleman,” she said playfully, then gave me a little kiss before she went inside the bathroom.