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."

over the money, they followed the innkeeper up the stairs as she

up, she opened the door to a room and flicked on the lights. "This

hundred square feet. Still,

Stella, though, frowned.

for

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

just passed a few empty rooms. Their

to air them out, those rooms

reserved," the

protest, but the innkeeper didn't let

produce a single I'm already taking

passport.

letting would have

a room at

have

s

Pet

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 middle of the night.

s

wasting her energy prepping two rooms for

her effort and,

that, under these circumstances, having a roof