To dodge the thought of her he gnashed his nails against his teeth to cause more pain. The only thing that could remove the fantasy of Laquana at her greatest moment and inevitable betrayal. Biting harder on his nails, he felt parts of his ring finger slowly tear. Clive showed Uri to his new room and then Laquana took Clive home to her house where they would spend the next day entirely within each other. Ecstasy.
From the street, Giovanne’s was illuminated with a dusty light perpetually kept on for security. The low glow infused every crevice of tile with a sickly hygienic luster that connoted stale sterilization—hard to penetrate and bereft of prosperity. When vagrants crossed in front and coughed out of instinct, the tone of light made them smell the hospitals they had all been in befor
