Mary angled her head at Quaddra.
‘I’m not suggesting any shady deals here either. I really don’t do those. Everything would be done above board and by the book, the only difference is – you can put whatever name you like on the contract.’ He threw his hands up in a hands and shoulders shrug. ‘Sign it Luke Skywalker for all I care.’
Mary’s eyes narrowed at Quaddra.
‘What I’m really offering you here, Mary, isn’t charity. It’s just a chance for you to make it even harder for anyone to track you down because your name will not appear on a lease contract anymore, that’s all.’ He raised a hand at Mary again before explaining. ‘Every lease applicant in the country gets screened for approval. I’m sure you know that, right? Credit check… background check… references… all that stuff. When they do, their names go into a Rental Applicant Screening Service database, which can be used as a way of finding someone.’ Quaddra allowed Mary a couple of extra seconds. ‘It’s one less thing for you to worry about, and maybe you won’t have to carry on moving around like a nomad all the time.’
Mary stayed silent, but her brain was working at speed.
She still had about two weeks left on her contract, and she had already decided that she’d like to stay in San Francisco, but for now, that was a detail that she was keeping to herself.
‘Full disclosure here?’ Quaddra asked, taking advantage of Mary’s hesitation.
Mary’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead to indicate that that was a silly question.
Quaddra looked down at their table and his lips moved ever so slightly, but no sound came out. To Mary, it looked like he was trying to put the sentence together inside his head first, so not to phrase it in the wrong way.
‘In all honesty,’ he said, his eyes, once again, meeting Mary’s. ‘This is also me being a little selfish.’
Mary’s eyebrows stayed up her forehead. ‘You being selfish?’
Quaddra nodded. ‘A little… yeah.’
Mary simply waited.
‘Your plan is great, Mary,’ Quaddra told her. ‘The more you move around, the thinner and more complicated the trail to you gets, until, one day, it becomes practically invisible. Any intelligent person would easily figure out that the more cities, or better yet, the more states you move in and out of, the quicker that process becomes. And you are a very intelligent person.’ He paused to observe Mary’s reaction.
She gave nothing away, except for a ghost of a smile that for a split second hovered over her lips.
‘So, I’m guessing that,’ Quaddra continued, ‘once your rental contract is up, the intention is maybe to leave San Francisco, probably even California.’
This time, Mary’s poker face was unreadable.
‘And this is where my plan becomes a little selfish.’ Quaddra had a large sip of his wine. ‘I’d really love if you stayed in San Francisco.’
Mary stayed silent, while Quaddra finished the rest of his wine.
‘Like I promised,’ he finally said, ‘I won’t mention this again, but… just think about it, OK?’
Mary, too, finished her wine, and silence settled between them, but even then, it didn’t feel at all awkward. In fact, to Mary, it felt comforting.
They gazed into each other’s eyes, but the gaze didn’t stay there for long, quickly dropping down an inch or so to each other’s lips.
‘Do you want to get out of here?’ Quaddra was the one who broke the silence.
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
Forty-Nine
From the restaurant, Mary and Quaddra went straight back to Quaddra’s house in Pacific Heights, less than fifteen minutes away, and just like in the previous week, as soon as they stepped through the front door, they were all over each other – kissing, touching, biting – all of it eager… desperate… as if they were each other’s last supply of oxygen. It took only a few seconds for both of their clothes to be, once again, scattered all over the floor in the entrance hallway, but this time, at least, they made it into the living room and onto the luxurious high-pile rug.
‘Wait,’ Quaddra whispered, already half out of breath. Mary was lying on top of him, her nipples so hard they were practically pocking dimples onto his skin. Her willing lips had just moved from his neck down to his chest, and judging by how quickly they were moving, they couldn’t wait to reach the full prize.
‘What?’ she whispered back, lifting her head off his chest, but only slightly.
‘Before we get covered in carpet burns, do you want to move this to the sofa… or to the bedroom?’
‘Why?’ Mary asked, before allowing her lips to continue their journey for a couple more seconds. They moved down to his belly button. ‘I like the burns.’ This time she fully lifted her head to look Quaddra in the eye. As their gaze met, she bit her bottom lip. ‘I like a little pain.’ She added a disarming wink to the endof that sentence. ‘And don’t worry, we will move it to the sofa… and to the bedroom.’
