Flight Risk

Tommaso

The second I closed the bathroom door behind me, the handcuff chain I left lying on the bed to alert me if she got up rattled.

Dumb. She clearly didn’t trust me, no matter how many times I told her the truth. Better to find out here than in the airport.

I sprang out of the bathroom and grabbed her just as she wrenched the suite door open. She glared back at me, the fire I remembered from her Polaroid burning bright in her dark eyes.

“You lied,” she said.

“No.” I pulled her back inside. “I went to the bathroom.”

“It was a fucking test.” She squirmed in my grip. “That’s not trusting me.”

I shut the door. “If you’d stayed put, I would’ve. You lied to me first.”

She lapsed into furious silence while I chained her to the bed again.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Once we get to Philly, I’ll take these off. For now, you’ve left me no other choice.”

She rolled her eyes.

The haunting rhythm of the five o’clock call to prayer began outside. I walked to the window and stared out over t