Page 49 of Room Serviced
“I thought it was demons,” said Jess. “There was a pentagram and everything.”
“We figured it was probably the manager who invited Max in the first place,” Sloane said, ignoring half her friends. “That makes the most sense, right?”
“So he switched you out of a room with a haunted AC unit and into a room with…a haunted AC unit,” Leo said.
“We did have haunted air conditioning on our minds,” Sloane pointed out.
“Did you get him fired?” asked Jess. “You probably could have, with the rats.”
“There were rats?” asked Ronnie, alarmed.
“What did you think made those peanut butter footprints on the Spookytown book?” asked Leo.
“Rats love peanut butter,” offered Eric, who’d been quiet up until now. “It’s the best thing to use in rat traps.”
Ronnie leaned forward on the couch to look around Sloane and make a horrified face at Eric. “How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve…had to trap rats?” he said.
“Where?”
“My old apartment in Hollywood.”
Ronnie made a tragic face, and Leo laughed.
“I’ve got terrible news for you about urban living,” he told her. “But as long as they stay outside, it’s not a big deal.”
“It was a really shitty apartment,” Eric offered.
“Personally, I liked the pre-melted candles,” Jess said, changing the subject. “Good for Manager Brian, summoning demons without burning the whole place down.”
“Fire codes are important,” agreed Leo.
“And yen.”
“And the symbol for Tumble dry low.”
“It was Do not iron. We just went over this?—”
Sloane rolled her eyes and stood before they could start another argument about laundry symbols. “Does anyone else want another drink?”
“So,” Leo said a couple hours later, back on the armchair and sprawled in a new position. “You know Max from your hometown?”
“Last Chance,” Jess offered.
“For what?”
“I love when you make that joke,” Sloane deadpanned. Ronnie and Eric had both left, and now she and Jess were on opposite ends of the couch, their feet on the rickety coffee table. Also on the coffee table was Priscilla, Leo’s roommate’s large gray cat. The roommate had gone out for the night, and Sloane suspected Priscilla would be reporting back to him.
“He’s not what I expected,” Leo admitted. “He had all his teeth and everything.”
Sloane turned to look at him. “What about me makes you think that no one in my hometown has teeth?”
“You make it sound like it’s nothing but backwoods hicks who drink moonshine and play in abandoned mineshafts,” Jess pointed out.
“Or credulous yokels who think every weird sound in the woods is Bigfoot,” said Leo.
“They don’t think that—they just say they do so tourists will come spend their money,” Sloane said. Then she sighed and rubbed her face. “Some of them think that. But it’s not, like, everyone.”
