Down and Outside

"Yeah, who is it?"

I could tell right away she was mad, and not just "you woke me up in the middle of the night hitting the door buzzer" mad, but righteously pissed.

"Hey baby, it's me."

"What the hell do you want? It's the middle of the goddamn night."

Woops - she never swore. This one was going to be bad.

"Come on, let me up. I just want to talk to you."

"Like hell I will. Get the hell away from my door or I'm calling the cops."

As if. All the guns and dope she had scattered around her place, cops were the last thing she wanted to see. Lucky for both of us they pretty much stayed out of this part of town, otherwise we might have gotten a little more attention than we needed with our yelling at each other.

"Come on, baby, you know you're not gonna call them. Just let me in, I'm alone now. I promise I won't start anything."

She positively shrieked back,

"It's a little late for that! Bastard!"

This was getting out of hand. People in this area knew to keep their noses out of other people's business, but much more yelling and someone else likely would get around to calling the police. I needed to get in, quick.

"Honey, listen. There's something I haven't told you about the deal, but I can't tell you from out here. You gotta let me in and hear me out. I swear, you'll understand everything."

Silence, but I could hear the hum of the intercom. She was at least listening.

"Listen," I said, leaning in close and lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "All that stuff I said back in the bar, that was just to make those guys think we were on the outs. I WANTED them to think that! Think about it! This'll go so much better for us if they don't know we're still working together!"

Still no reply, but I was pretty sure she was just about hooked. Finally a small voice spoke,

"You mean that? You didn't mean any of it?"

"Of course not, baby! You know I could never think any of that stuff about you. Come on, let me in. I'll prove it to you."

Another silence, then finally a buzz as the door lock opened. I was in.