He let her sleep at one-thirty.
She had that particular quality to her sleep that came when something wound tight had finally released, the same quality he'd observed in Petricia on Tuesday morning, and he sat at the edge of the guest bedroom in the dark for a moment and looked at the window.
[DESIRE LEVEL: ELLIE HARPER — 70/100]
[NOTE: PREEXISTING EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT ACCELERATED PROGRESSION SIGNIFICANTLY. THIS IS THE FASTEST ZERO-TO-SEVENTY ON RECORD FOR THIS SYSTEM.]
[NOTE 2: STANLEY FORD TRUSTED YOU WITH HIS HOUSE AND HIS GIRLFRIEND. THE SYSTEM IS NOT MAKING A MORAL JUDGMENT. THE SYSTEM IS NOTING THAT THIS HAPPENED.]
Mike read the second note. Then he read it again.
He felt something that was not quite guilt. He didn't operate in guilt particularly.
But there was an adjacent thing, a precise registration of what had been in the room when Stanley shook his hand and said it was good and genuinely meant it.
He put the phone in his pocket.
