12 Hours In Paradise (14 page)

“I think he’s overreacting. I mean, after all, he has a wife and three kids waiting for him back home in Russia.”

“But she doesn’t know that.”

“So isn’t he being kind of hypocritical?”

“Of course he is. But since she doesn’t know it, he has to play out his hand.”

“We’re getting a little too close for comfort to my hotel. It’s right across the street.”

“Is your father a somnambulist?”

“A what?”

“Is he a sleepwalker?”

“No, and…how do you know all these strange things? A somnambulist?
Really?
”

“I’ve dedicated my life to collecting completely useless information. You never know when it’s going to come in handy.”

“To answer your question…no, everyone in my family sleeps soundly except me. My granny usually wakes up once or twice at night to pee, but—”

“Dorothy, please…too much information. I don’t think your granny would want me to know that, so I’ll pretend I never heard. I’m assuming you have your own room at the hotel?”

“No, Granny and I are sharing.”

“Sharing? But if Granny wakes up to…to…oh, let’s just be honest, to pee. If Granny wakes up to pee and Dorothy is not in her bed, what will Granny think?”

“I keep it really dark in our room because I can’t sleep with even the tiniest bit of light.”

“So Granny just stumbles and crashes about trying to make her way to the toilet in complete darkness? Does she ever miss?”

“Gross, Arash. No, she doesn’t miss. She keeps a little flashlight by her bed.”

“And with said little flashlight, she’s never tempted to shine it in the direction of Dorothy’s currently empty bed?”

“No, silly. I thought of everything. I stuffed some pillows under the covers to make it look like I’m sleeping.”

“Ah
hah
! The old pillows-under-the-covers trick. It’s worked every time I’ve ever seen it in a movie.”

“Look. What’s happening to the van Pumper-Dodds? She’s going into my hotel.”

“And he’s not.”

“Where’s
he
going?”

“Apparently away from her.”

“Now I’m really sad.”

“Don’t be sad, Dorothy.”

Arash put his arm around my waist, and we paused to watch the two storm off in anger. Earlier in the evening, they’d been like bonded magnets. Now it seemed the magnets had been turned around and were repelling the van Pumper-Dodds in opposite directions.

“But I felt like they were on the same adventure as us.”

“No one’s on the same adventure as us, Dorothy. Cheer up. The van Pooper Doodies will be just fine. He’s simply going to a bar where he’ll have a few drinks and burn off some steam. Then he’ll return for a night of lovemaking.”

“Van Pumper-Dodds,” I corrected him, blushing at the thought of a night of lovemaking and what that would be like with Arash.

“I have an idea,” he said brightly. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since you admitted to having a fear of elevators. I think I can help you.”

“How?”

“Let’s find an elevator first and I’ll explain. How about the one we took up to happy hour? Are we likely to run into your father there?”

“No, that goes to a different part of the hotel. We use the elevator in the lobby to get to our rooms.”

“Perfect. Let’s go. Are you with me?”

“Um…it depends. Just what did you have in mind?”

We walked toward the elevator that opened onto the street level. I had my key card, which allowed me to operate it.

“All fear is based on loss of control, did you know that?”

“No.”

“It’s an unwillingness to relinquish control. But we really have no control over events in our lives. Very few of them, in any case, especially at our age. So we have to choose how we react to them.”

“What about fear of spiders? Or clowns? Chester has a fear of clowns.”

“Somehow there’s a loss of control aspect although I can’t quite imagine what it is right now. If Chester could control the clown, he wouldn’t be afraid of it.”

“Okay, that makes no sense at all, but let’s just say you’re right. What does that have to do with the elevator?”

“If you controlled the elevator, you’d have no fear of it. But instead, it controls you. Forces other than your own determine if the cables will fray or break. If the power will go out and leave you stranded between floors. You just have to accept that. Relinquish all thoughts of controlling the elevator and go with it.”

“Honestly, that doesn’t help me one bit. I actually think you just increased my fear of elevators.”

We were standing directly in front of it, so I inserted my card. The door opened.

“After you,” Arash said, and I hesitated for just a second. For some reason I thought he might trick me into getting in and then the door would close, leaving me all alone. But he sensed my hesitation and took me by the hand. We walked in together. “Push for the highest floor. We can answer a question.”

The elevator lurched and then hummed. I could feel the forces of gravity and the ground dropping away under my feet. I wasn’t at all afraid. Not with Arash there beside me. I wouldn’t have been afraid even with a well-meaning stranger beside me. It was just the isolation. The fear of being stuck and alone with my own scary thoughts. That’s what frightened me the most.

“‘If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?’”

“Is this one of the questions?”

“Question number nineteen.”

The elevator hummed along, marking its progress with lighted numbers and chimed intervals.

“OMG. Is this supposed to relax me? Why are all the questions so depressing?”

“Don’t look at it as depressing. Just look at it as a way of understanding yourself better. Understanding each other better.”

The elevator jolted to a stop, and the door slid open.

“Now what?”

“Now let’s go down again.”

He pushed the Street Level button, and the door shut.

“Okay. If I had one year to live, I would definitely stop going to school. Starting immediately.”

“What would you do instead?”

“Anything. I’d travel to Europe.”

“With who?”

“By myself. Or with you if you want to come with me.”

“Of course I’d come with you. Your last year. How could I refuse?”

The elevator bumped to a stop, and the door opened to an empty sidewalk.

“Again?” I asked.

“Again.”

“How many times?”

“Until you’re ready to stop.”

“What would
you
do if you had one year to live. Would you do anything different?”

“I’d travel to Europe, naturally. With you.”

“But that’s my morbid fantasy. I’m the one dying in that scenario.”

“And in my scenario, I’m dying as well. We both have one year to live, and it works out quite nicely that we can travel together, don’t you think?”

“Arash?”

“Yes, Dorothy?”

“What’s your system to get me over my fear of elevators?”

“Well, the best way would be for me to get off and then somehow freeze the elevator between floors so you can face your worst fear and work your way through it. It’s called exposure therapy. Repeated exposure to the thing that scares you. Eventually it loses its power over you, and subsequently you lose your fear.”

“Um…no.”

“Not interested?”

“Not even a tiny bit.”

“You sure you don’t want me to get out and let you go up and down a few times by yourself?”

“We could try, but it wouldn’t be real life because I’d know you were waiting for me and would rescue me if the elevator got stuck.”

“How about if you go alone and maybe I’ll be here or maybe I’ll go back to my hotel? You won’t know for sure. It’s late at night, so no one would be around to help. The elevator is virtually unused at this hour.”

“That would be a terrible idea. My battery’s dead, so I couldn’t even call to talk to you if I freaked out.”

“Your phone’s just a crutch. You shouldn’t have it on you if you really want to conquer your fear.”

My heart sunk.

“Would you really go back to your hotel? Leave without saying good-bye…or anything?”

“Not a chance.”

I placed my hands on his shoulders and pressed my cheek to his chest.

“Thank you. I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”

With one arm on the small of my back, he pulled me closer. His other hand ran up my back to my neck, lifting my hair and cradling my head. He looked down at me with that unfocused, sexy gaze. I pushed up with my toes to bring my mouth closer to his.

The door slid open.

Two sun-reddened, or maybe alcohol-reddened, middle-aged men materialized in front of us.

“Going up?” the heavier one asked us.

Arash took my hand and led me out of the elevator. “Going out,” he replied.

“Nice matching outfits,” the other one chuckled.

“Thank you,” I snarled.

Thanks for ruining everything.

So close.

“How do you know about exposure therapy?” I asked as he led me away from my hotel. “One of your useless bits of information?”

“My mother went through it after my father’s stroke. She got to the point where she wouldn’t leave the house. And then she didn’t want me to go anywhere because she was so afraid something would happen to me.”

“Did it help her?”

“She goes everywhere by herself now. So, yes, it worked. And look at me, two thousand miles away from her and not one text or phone call since I’ve been gone.”

“I’ll do it sometime. If your mom can do it, then I can too. Just not tonight, okay?”

“It was, like you said, a terrible idea. But I did succeed in getting your mind off Betsy and Troy, didn’t I?”

“Like that was your plan.”

“It was.”

“Was not.”

“Was so.” He leaned over and brushed his lips lightly against my cheek.

Not really a kiss.

But kind of a kiss.

More lover-ish than brother-ish.

Catching me completely off guard.

I should have turned my head to catch him on the lips.

“Where to?” he asked innocently, as though the ground hadn’t just opened up beneath our feet.

“Um…I don’t know. How about back to the beach?” I answered casually, as though tiny rainbows weren’t falling from the sky as an orchestra played in the background.

I laced my fingers through his.

“You know what?” he asked.

“What?”

“I’m glad I found Chester’s glasses before Harrison did.”

“Like he would have cared,” I said before realizing that by insulting Harrison, I was really insulting Arash. I hoped he didn’t take it that way.

“You’re cuter by half because you’re completely unaware of how cute you are,” was all he said. “There’s a beach access just over there.”

“I know. That’s the one my family takes.”

“Shall I read the next question?”

“Definitely. We’re falling behind.”

“Question twenty. ‘What does friendship mean to you?’”

“Didn’t we just kind of answer that? What do you value most in a friendship?”

“The differences between those two questions are subtle.”

“So what
are
the differences?”

“Truthfully, I don’t know.”

“Skip it?”

“Skip it.”

“Will it ruin everything if we do?”

“Absolutely not. It’s our adventure, after all. We make the rules.”

“Next question.”

“‘What roles do love and affection play in your life?’ Number twenty-one.” He put his phone back in his pocket and looked over at me.

“We can’t skip two in a row, can we?”

“No, I’m sad to say we can’t.”

“Our rules, though.”

“There are limits to everything. Even our rules.”

“Okay, you first, then.”

“There has to be a song about this. Love and Affection. I think I’ll write one if there isn’t.”

“Is that your final answer?”

“Yes, that’s my final answer.”

“We’re really getting sloppy with our treasure map.”

“Not if one of us answers properly. Which means you.”

“Love…and affection. I love my family. And I have affection for them too. I have affection for my friends, but I wouldn’t say I
love
them.”

“But what
role
do the two play in your life?”