"I should," I said, very carefully, into the silence, "actually go deal with that. The agreement. The thing we discussed. It's..." I gestured vaguely. "Time sensitive."
It was not, in any meaningful sense, time sensitive.
It had been sitting unresolved for weeks. One more night would not have changed anything about it.
But it was, technically, true, and right now technically true was the only kind of true that was going to get me out of this room with my dignity even partially intact.
Mephistopheles looked at me.
Then she looked at the room. At four pairs of eyes that had not stopped being four pairs of eyes.
Then back at me, with the expression of someone recognizing a lifeline when one was thrown and deciding to grab it with both hands.
"Yes," she said, standing immediately. "The agreement. Very time sensitive. We should go now. Immediately."
"Right now,?" Liliana questioned. Flatly. Not buying it for a second.
"Right now," I insisted.
"At eleven at night."
