Page 14 of Greed
He loosened his tie and stifled a groan when he caught Lilo squeezing her knees together again.
This was torture.
In a desperate attempt to command his internal physiology, he tried to come up with some association words for her, but every word his mind projected made it worse. Lovely. Luscious. Luminous.
The prickling washing over him increased in intensity. He patted his cheek with the back of his hand. Yes, he was a little damp. Sweaty. Hot.
A car horn beeped. He tugged the steering wheel to veer back into the correct lane.
“Sorry,” he muttered, mentally chiding himself.
He could feel her eyes on him, and needed a quick distraction, so blurted out a question.
“How did a girl like you end up working in a place like Cardinal Copy?”
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns of the world…” Lilo spoke in a strange low voice then chuckled.
It was such an odd thing to say. “No, I said Cardinal Copy. Not gin joint.”
She gasped and turned to him with vivid attention. “You’ve never seenCasablanca?”
“No, I’ve never been there. Went to Spain once, but that’s as close as I’ve been.”
Lilo laughed. “It’s an old movie with Humphrey Bogart, you silly.”
So… not the place in Morocco? He shook his head, feeling more and more out of sorts.
“No, I haven’t seen it.”
“Wow. You’re missing out.Casablancais one of my favorites.”
“I don’t have time to watch movies.”
“You don’t? What do you do for fun?”
Another odd question. “Work.”
“For fun? I need to take you out dancing or something.”
“I don’t dance, plus… I refer you to the original point. I’m usually working.”
Lilo leaned Griffin’s way curiously. “Surely you don’t work all night too.”
Her scent amplified, making him shift with unease. Her question was too personal. Keeping his nocturnal activities a secret had been difficult, he didn’t like lying, but Mary had given him many tools to help with the process. One of them was to shift the focus back to the person asking the question. “So, why isCasablancayour favorite?”
Lilo sat back in her seat, smiling. “It’s a sad love story, but also about World War Two. These people are stuck in Casablanca while waiting for America to decide if they’re going to step in and fight Hitler, or stay out of it. Reminds me about the state of our own sad world.”
“How’s that?”
“Bogie and Bergman play characters who are desperately in love with each other, but the circumstances of war have torn them apart. I guess I like it because it explores if we can keep lasting connections when the world is falling apart around us. Whether we keep fighting the good fight when it seems like the romance is dead.” She gave him a sad smile. “They don’t get together in the end.”
“The couple?” Griffin looked at her.
She shook her head. “They don’t make it last.”
“That sounds… anti-climatic.”
“I guess, but when he gives up the love of his life, he finds himself. He learns that he had a lot of bad to make up for, and the love was owed to the better man. But he didn’t give up, he tries to find out what makes someone worthy of love. I’m not making sense. I think you need to see the movie to understand.”
