“What’s Harry doing? I’d hoped he might stop by.”
I grab her arm and turn her toward me. “Did you hear my question?”
Blue eyes scan my face before landing on mine as she scrapes her teeth across her bottom lip several times. “Do you think about what happened at your house? I’m not asking if you regret it or not, just … do you think about it. Do you think about me?”
My mouth opens, but my brain vetoes the idea of acknowledging this. “We’ll take my car.” I nod to the right.
Her heels click behind my long strides. “You didn’t answer me. Where’s Harry?”
“You didn’t answer me either.” I unlock my car, instinctively opening the passenger door. Heidi liked it when I opened the door for her. The night I killed her, she opened her own door.
Ellen tosses her handbag on the seat and turns toward me instead of getting in the car. “Your question? Why did I tell Amanda this is a date? Well, I’m struggling to figure out if what we’ve done makes me spontaneous or just cheap. And since you like to analyze the stereotypical male and female roles, I would guess that men never feel cheap. I bet you haven’t lost a single second of sleep over wondering if what we did makes you cheap and easy. Correct?”
“Please tell me this isn’t leading to a discussion about emotions and expectations. There’s no place in my life for that right now.”
She deflates on a slow sigh, staring at her feet for a few seconds before inching her gaze back up to meet mine. “But the sex was good, right?”
“Get in the car.”
“Better than average?”
“Get in the car.”
“Was the seven a rating of my appearance or my performance?”
“Fucking hell, woman, get in the car!”
She grins like the snake-charmer-to-my-dick that she is. What have I gotten myself into?
*
“This feels too residential for my business needs.” Ellen stops humming long enough to speak.
I had her in my bed, but we didn’t sleep. There’s a good chance she snores classical music.
Pulling into a driveway, I slip off my sunglasses as the sun takes up residency beyond the horizon. “I have to pick up Harrison.”
Harrison appears at the front door and hikes his backpack over his shoulder. He frowns at me as he walks down the porch steps, but as soon as he spots Ellen in the front seat, he grins.
Little shit.
“Hey, Harry.” Ellen twists around to greet him as he gets in the back seat.
“What are you doing here? Please tell me this means we’re going out for dinner.”
Ellen says, “Yes,” as I say, “No.”
I shoot her a disgusted look that she ignores as we back out of the drive.
“Your dad offered to help me find a new office space before taking us to dinner.”
I hate her.
“Why do you need a new office space?”
“My new one burned down.”
“But why don’t you just stay at my dad’s office? I didn’t understand why you were leaving anyway.”
I haven’t had a chance to discuss this with him in detail.
“Your dad finds me too distracting.”
Nice of Ellen to do it for me. I clear my throat. “Did you and Drew get your science project finished?”
“Yes, but the supplies were cheap crap.”
“Harrison,” I warn.
“Why didn’t you buy the ones I told you to buy?”
“Drew’s mom said she’d get the supplies if I covered half the cost.”
“They were crap.”
“Harrison …”
Ellen bites her lips together, hiding her amusement. I’m sure her rats don’t talk back to her like this.
“Where are Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Home packing. They leave in the morning.”
“That sucks.”
“You think everything sucks.”
Ellen snickers.
I shoot her a sideways glance. She bites her lips together again. Harrison shoves in his earbuds and zones out. I’d like to escape for a while too.
“No,” Ellen says as we pull into the parking lot of the building. One of my clients owns it and it has two vacant office spaces.
“No what?” I put the car in Park.
“This won’t work.” She shakes her head.
“You haven’t even seen it yet.”
“They’re doing demolition to the building right next to it which means there will be lots of noise while they’re tearing it down and just as much when they start construction on a new building. The noise will be too distracting to some of my clients.”
I laugh, rubbing my temples. “You see the irony in this, right? It’s okay for you to be the one distracting other people, but god forbid you have to deal with a little noise.”
“Harry likes music.”
My head jerks back and I shake it a few times. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“He likes music, but I bet you a hundred dollars he doesn’t like it when people chew too loudly, or the sound of a fountain, or the tick of a grandfather clock, or the constant beeping of construction equipment.”
I process what she’s saying and I’d lose a hundred dollars if I took the bet, but it still pisses me off. “I’m trying to be nice. I don’t have to find you a new place. It’s not my problem. I just—”
“Then don’t.” She shrugs and glances back at Harry.
I’d say he’s not hearing a word we’re saying, but after the seven incident, I don’t trust him.
As if he knows we’re watching him, he glances up from his phone screen. “What?”
“What sounds good to eat?” Ellen asks.
“We’ll eat at home after we drop Ellen off to get her car.”
“Pizza.” Harry grins. “Lucé.”
“I’ve never been. Sounds good to me.” She winks at me.
Snake charmer.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ellen
There’s a twenty minute wait at Harry’s favorite pizza place in downtown Minneapolis. We wait in the bar. Harry gets a lemonade, I get a glass of wine, and Flint gets water.
“Not even one beer?” I ask.
He sips his water and shakes his head. “I’m driving.”
I chuckle. “You must be a lightweight. But that’s cool.”
“He doesn’t drink alcohol,” Harry says, watching the TV in the corner.
I stare at my glass of wine and feel a pang of guilt. Flint doesn’t say anything. When I look up, his dark eyes dare me to speak one word. He has his son on a strict diet for his autism symptoms. He grows everything imaginable. And he doesn’t drink. Maybe he’s an alcoholic, but I don’t necessarily get that vibe. I think he’s just health conscious.
I think.
I swivel the bar stool to face Flint. My knee rests along his inner thigh. He glances down to where our bodies touch. My pulse kicks up a notch. I love touching him. His body stiffens, eyes shifting to see if Harry’s still watching the TV.
“I’m done with this,” I tell the bartender as I slide my wine away from me. “Could you please get me a glass of water with lemon?”