“Alright,” she snapped. “I dream that you scare her. How’s that? I dream that she wonders where the fuck you’re going with the souls of so many dead priests. That she wonders who the fuck Micky Serendipity really is, and whether he’s safe to be around. Whether he’ll fuck her over at the soonest opportunity. Or just fuck her and leave her. If you were thinking of getting your dick up this woman, Micky, or whoever the fuck you really are, I’d forget it. You’re better off sticking with me.”

I let that one soak out in silence for a moment. She flexed a smile at me.

“This the kind of thing you wanted to hear?”

I shrugged. “It’ll do to be going on with. Did you push her into the sex? To get access?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“I can probably find out from her.”

“You’re assuming she’ll be back.” Another smile, more teeth this time. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

And on like that. We snapped and snarled at each other for a while longer, but beneath the weight of post-coital chemistry, none of it came to anything. In the end, I gave up and sat on the outer edge of the bed, staring out towards the main room and the Hotei-lit panels on the floor. A few minutes later, I felt her hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

“Yeah? For what?”

“I just realised I asked for this. I mean, I asked you what you were thinking about. If I didn’t want to know, why ask, right?”

“There is that.”

“It’s just.” She hesitated. “Listen, Micky, I’m getting sleepy here. And I lied back there, I’ve got no way of knowing if or when Sylvie Oshima’s coming back. I don’t know if I’ll wake up tomorrow morning or not. That’s enough to make anyone edgy, right?”

I stared at the orange stained floor in the other room. A momentary sense of vertigo came and went. I cleared my throat.

“There’s always the amphetamine cola,” I said roughly.

“No. Sooner or later, I’ll have to sleep. It might as well be now. I’m tired, and worse than that I’m happy and relaxed. Feels like if I’ve got to go, this’ll do. It’s only chemical, I know, but I can’t hold out against it forever. And I think I will be back. Something’s telling me that. But right now I don’t know when, and I don’t know where I’m going. And that scares me. Could you.” Another pause. I heard the click as she swallowed in the quiet. “Would you mind holding me while I go under?”

Orange moonlight on a worn and darkened floor.

I reached back for her hand.