Red Zone Son

Chapter 14

When they got to the hotel room, the first thing Solomon noticed was that there was only one king-size bed. His stomach tightened. Was he supposed to share it with Manal? Was that what she was expecting? All she’d told him on the drive was more about their backstory: they were students together at some local college, they’d met for the first time a year ago, things like that. But she hadn’t said anything about how they were supposed to act around each other.

Maybe it was because she thought it should be obvious. It wasn’t, though, not to Solomon. He’d never dated before. He’d never even kissed anyone. And he certainly hadn’t ever done this, sleeping over in the same room with a girl who was not his sister, let alone a girl he was supposed to be pretend-dating!

Manal was putting her purse and visor down on a shelf beside the wall-mounted display. She glanced back at him, still standing in the entryway staring at the bed. Maybe she could tell what he was thinking, because she said, “Reserving a room with two beds wouldn’t have been in character. There’s room on the bed for both of us to have enough space between us, but if you prefer, you can take the floor –”

“I’ll take the floor.”

“Okay,” she replied. She walked around to the other side of the bed, where a small table with chairs was set up beside a window. When she bent over to pick up a pillow, Solomon looked away. He didn’t want to be caught staring. Especially because now that they were in a well-lit room, he could see that his first impression of her was right. She was very pretty. “Let me give you some of these, and a blanket,” she said. “Go ahead and set up the suitcase on a luggage rack. There’s stuff for both of us inside it, you can pick out what you want to sleep in.”

Solomon pulled out a luggage rack from the closet in the entryway and placed it at the foot of the bed in front of the display. It was filled with civilian clothes. He found a T-shirt and some shorts that seemed as loose as the militia’s exercise shorts. But now Manal was coming around the bed carrying two pillows and a folded blanket stacked together. With his hands already full of clothes, he had to clumsily grip the garments in one hand while extending the other to take the bedding from her.

Then Manal stopped. “Oh, I can put this on the floor for you,” she said, clearly seeing his struggle to hold on to everything. But he already had his hand out, he’d already started to shift the load onto his arm. He paused. Should he shift it back to her? Should he say something? They were both standing there, holding the stack on opposite sides. He felt incredibly awkward. He was probably acting like it too. He wanted to tell himself to pull it together but couldn’t seem to. It wasn’t as if he’d never talked to a girl before! They had been half the class in high school!

It didn’t help when Manal smiled, as if she could tell his face was burning. “Okay, go ahead and take it,” she said. “I’m going to get changed and ready for bed.” He stood there, clutching the waistband of the shorts in his hand, until she disappeared into the bathroom on the left side of the bed. Only then did he lay out the pillows and the blanket on the floor of the entryway. Then he waited. As soon as she was out of the bathroom, he dove into it.

When he opened the door again, Manal was already in the bed under the covers, facing away from him. He didn’t say anything to her. She turned, though, when she heard him come out. “It’s okay with you if I turn off the lights?”

Solomon nodded. After being up all night, flying and parachuting, he was tired. It was almost dawn. Manal had told him in the car that they had to be at Hershey Park by noon. They’d get at least a few hours of sleep in then. With the pillows and the blanket, the floor was as good as a barracks rack, and thankfully he was tired enough to sleep instead of thinking about the fact that there was a girl in her pajamas on a bed less than five feet away from him.

***

When he woke up later that morning, Manal was still asleep. Quietly, he got up to go into the bathroom, wash up and get changed into another set of civilian clothes from the suitcase. Other than a few black holster t-shirts, all his assigned clothes, including the shorts and long-sleeve zip-up he was pulling on now, were in various shades of pink. He felt ridiculous, but maybe that was what fashion was like here in the blue zone.

When he came out, Manal was standing in front of the luggage rack. She smiled at him. “Did you sleep okay?”

Solomon nodded. He got back into the entryway and began to pick up the pillows he’d slept on. He could hear her behind him getting into the bathroom and closing the door, so he went and made the bed. Fitted sheets, thank God. He’d used to have nightmares after boot camp ended about still being back there, unable to leave until he got the hospital corners done correctly, which in the dream he never could.

He was on the far side of the bed, beside the table, when Manal came out wearing a jean jacket and a pink dress that went down to her knees. “Oh, you don’t need to make the bed,” she told him as soon as she saw what he was doing. “Housekeeping will come.”

“I’d rather they didn’t,” he replied. “I’d rather nobody have a reason to come to our room, so if someone does, I’ll know it’s someone who’s onto us.”

“That’s fine, I can cancel the housekeeping. But you still don’t need to make the bed, this isn’t a barracks.”

Solomon let go of the cover he’d been stretching out over the bed, but now he didn’t have anything to do with his hands. He could feel Manal’s eyes on him even as he refused to look at her. He wasn’t sure whether she was amused or not and he didn’t want to find out.

“You ready to go get something to eat?” she asked after a moment.

He nodded.

“And everything’s okay? You’re all right?”

He nodded.

“Okay,” she said. She stepped over to the display shelf where she’d placed a conversation spoofer last night when they’d arrived at the hotel, picked it up, turned it off, and slid it into her purse along with her visor. “Let’s go, follow me.”