Maryalice opened a curved drawer that was built into the pink bed's headboard. She was wearing a black skirt-suit with big red Ashleigh Modine Carter–style sequin roses on the lapels. She took out a little blue glass dish and balanced it on her knee. "I hate these places," she said. "There's lots of ways to make sex ugly, but it's kind of hard to make it look this ridiculous." She knocked the gray end off her cigarette, into the blue saucer. "How old are you, anyway?"