“I like even numbers,” I tell her, and I pounce up from the table, grabbing her over my shoulder. The shirt falls off her bare ass, giving me the perfect opportunity to slap her ass cheek. I do it with a smile on my face, but she squirms, and I don’t even make it up the stairs. Instead, round number five happens against the wall on the way upstairs, and then round number six is in the shower right before she leaves me with a simple kiss.

“Why are you getting dressed?” she asks me while she slips on her shirt.

“I’m taking you home,” I tell her, slipping my feet into my shoes.

“I can make it home without you,” she says as she slides her feet in her shoes.

“I know you can make it home without me,” I tell her, grabbing a baseball hat and putting it on my head. “But I want to take you home. That’s the difference.”

“Aren’t you the chivalrous one?” she says, laughing as she picks up her purse.

“Call it whatever you want,” I say, closing the door behind us. Then I follow her downstairs and watch her as she hails a cab.

“You know, it’s silly for you to come with me and then have to come all the way back home again.”

“I like being silly,” I tell her when a cab finally stops and follow her instead. “It’ll be two stops,” I tell him right away, and he just nods. Vivienne gives him her address and sits down next to me. “Are you going to call me?”

She looks down and then up again, trying to hide a smile. “Probably.”

“Or probably not,” I tell her, and she just looks out the window. I don’t push it anymore, and when the car stops, she turns to me.

“I had a great time.”

“Just kiss me, Vivienne,” I say, not wanting to hear what else she has to say. I lean in, and she kisses me just a soft little kiss on the lips and then reaches for the handle.

“Bonne Nuit, Markos,” she says and gets out of the car and slams the door. I watch her walk into her building and then into the elevator, disappearing from my sight.

“Where to now?” the driver asks me.

“Back to where you got me,” I say, sitting back in the seat. When I walk back into my house, her smell lingers, and I wonder how I’m going to get her back. Regardless of what she says, I know one thing. She will be back.

Chapter Nine

Vivienne