“Allison, leaveit.”
“Oh, I’ll leave it all right. Until I notice you’re getting really serious or something. You know I’m always very polite when you have a little fling here andthere.”
She’s trying to read my expression, how I respond to the word, but I tense my jaw instinctively because it’s not just a fling. It was, yet I want it to be something else. I want to believe we’ll make good on that conversation about meeting up again when he returns. I’ve already decided I’m going to work from Atlanta starting next week to give him an opportunity to come by. I won’t push it too much, only enough to see if there is a chance we could pick back up where we leftoff.
“I have a funny feeling I’ll be hearing more about this,” Allisonsays.
“Why do you saythat?”
She glances down at my pants and says, “Because the whole time we’ve been talking, you’ve had your hand on your phone like you’ve been dying to look atit.”
I hadn’t even realized that’s what I’d been doing, but I want to see if it was Jesse who texted before Allison satdown.
“Hey, Allison!” It’s Remy’svoice.
He approaches and slings his arms around both of us. “Dexter’s back there saying he can kick our asses atbilliards.”
“Oh, does that hurt your big fat ego?” she asks, stroking her hand across his beergut.
“Yes. Yes, it does,” he says with asmile.
She looks to me, her smile expanding. She’s that way whenever she’s around Remy. She glows. I knew it the moment she met him that he was the one for her. And I was fuckingright.
I wonder if she’s getting a similar vibe off me. Not that I think Jesse’sthe one…but…I obviously think there’s somethingthere.
“I better go kick some ass,” shesays.
“Webetter go kick some ass,” Remyinsists.
“I was talking aboutyours.”
“Hey!”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, okay. Just get over there so I can finish chatting with Eric aboutsomething.”
“Something?” Remyinquires.
“Yeah, our secret affair we’ve been having behind your back. Get out ofhere.”
He laughs before leaning in and offering a kiss, which she eagerly accepts, revealing her true interest despite how much she may bust hisballs.
When he heads off, she rises from her stool and rests her hand on my shoulder. “Oh, I feel for you,Eric.”
“Why?”
“Whoever it is, he’s got a whole mess of trouble heading his way. I’ve known you for a long time, and I still don’t really know you. I love you to death, but you’re like a brick wall that won’t comedown.”
“Don’t I know it. Probably why Casey didn’t wantto—”
Her expression twists up. “Casey was a self-serving asshole who never gave a fuck about you.” She never did approve of him, from the beginning. “But this is different,” she goes on. “And whatever it is, I’m hoping for thebest.”
“It was just a fewdays.”
“That’s how it all starts,” she says, turning and eyeing Remy, who’s regrouped with some of the guys in the adjoining room with the billiardstables.
“Sorry,” she says. “I’ll pretend we never had this talk so that you don’t have to feel like I’ve hit a nerve. You gonna come watch me kick someass?”
“Sure.”
