“But you’re the person in nothing but underwear.”
“I’m serious,” he said.
“I’mserious,” I said. “You’re way more naked than I am.”
In the silence that followed, I wondered if I could have phrased it better.
Then the rookie had a bizarre question. “Are you wearing a shirt?” he asked.
“What?”
“Like, a T-shirt?”
“What kind of a question is that?”
“Because I’m not. So they duct-taped me right to my skin.”
“That’s going to be a bitch to take off.”
“But I’m thinking you’re probably wearing a shirt of some kind. And maybe the tape is just on your shirt. Which means you might have a better chance at wriggling.”
Atwriggling? “There’s no way we’re escaping. If there’s one thing these guys know, it’s duct tape.”
“But you might be able to work your way around to the pole to get closer to me.”
A beat. “Why would I want to do that?”
“For warmth,” the rookie said.
“Are you seriously proposing that wesnuggle?”
I could almost see his frown. “I wasn’t going to call it that.”
“On our first night here? Do you realize we would never live that down? Do you have any idea how much crap those guys would give us if they came down in the morning and found ussnuggled together?”
It hadn’t occurred to him. “I was just trying to think of ways to keep warm.”
“I’d rather freeze to death,” I said. “And trust me: so would you.”
When I was quiet for a minute, he said, “So, you’re saying no?”
“Let me put it to you this way, rookie,” I said. “Is there anybody else on this shift that you would offer to do that with?”
“Um…”
“Would you snuggle with Tiny? Or the captain? Or up against Case’s big belly?”
Now he was smiling—I could hear it in his voice. “You might be the only one I’denjoydoing it with…”
“Exactly. That’s your answer, right there.”
“What is?”
“If you wouldn’t do it with DeStasio, you can’t do it with me.”
“Fair enough. Good tip.”
“Just pretend I’m a gross old dude.”
