The heat must be making me delirious because I heard him ask if he could stay with me. Here, in this dingy and hot motel with the crusty carpet and stinking of curry and potatoes. I heard him wrong, surely. "Come again?"
"Don't make me beg, I really don't feel like begging to stay in a place like this." He arches an eyebrow, daring me to do otherwise.
"Why, aren't you staying at the Purple Lotus?" Where normal people like Gabe are staying, and gladly accepted a free upgrade to a supreme deluxe room, instead of declining to come somewhere like here.
"Believe it or not, my booking got messed up. I was supposed to have been booked for three adjoining rooms, but it only got booked for two. Since you didn't take your room, they gave it to someone else. I had the choice of either sharing a
