The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

But right now, that damp chill was making her deeply uncomfortable.

After a while, the innkeeper-a woman who'd been loudly arguing on the phone- finally hung up.

With a toothpick clamped between her teeth, she looked Stella and Joshua up

and down, sizing them up.

"Looking for a room?"

Stella nodded. "We'd like two rooms, please."

The woman's tone was frosty. "That'll be two hundred for both."

"Alright."

"Passports, please. I need to check you in."

Stella's voice was soft. "We... accidentally lost our passports. Is there any way you could make an exception?"

The woman's eyelids flicked up. She glanced at them again, as if something had occurred to her, then let out a short, derisive laugh.

"Rooms are four hundred apiece now. Four hundred deposit as well. Eight hundred total."

Stella didn't bother to argue about the sudden price hike. She just nodded.

"That's fine."

innkeeper up the

flights up, she opened the door to a room and flicked on

room, barely three hundred square feet. Still, the essentials

Stella, though, frowned.

asked for two

woman's voice was flat. "This is the last one

just passed a few empty rooms. Their

to air them out, those

the woman

to protest, but the

even produce a single I'm already taking

passport.

letting would have

have a room at all.

wouldn't have let

s

Pet

run the inn for years-she'd seen every kind of guest. These two, with their looks and air, clearly weren't ordinary travelers. Maybe they were some runaway couple from a wealthy family, pretending to ask for separate rooms, only to end up together in the

s

point in wasting her energy prepping two rooms for nothing.

effort and, if anything, did them a

knew that, under these circumstances, having a roof over their heads was already