“So what? What’s wrong with being blunt? Can only men be proactive?”
“I didn’t say…”
But Alyssa’s off and running. “And we women are just supposed to sit around and drink tea in the parlor and gossip conspiratorially? We never know the truth because we never come right out and ask?”
“Okay, calm down. This isn’t the Jane Austen era.”
She laughs.
“I’m just not sure I want to…”
“Give away your hand,” she finishes my sentence before I have to.
“Exactly. Michael was supposed to be a one-night stand. This is probably the universe’s way of telling me to go with my original plan. One night. Nothing more, nothing less. I got a night of amazing sex. And a morning bonus. That should be enough.”
“But if you felt like it could be more, then why are you settling for that?” Alyssa says. “You deserve to be happy for more than a night, Emery. And if you want to see more of this guy, and you think something about his abrupt change in behavior feels strange, I propose you ask him what’s going on. At the very least, you’ll solve the mystery for his Jekyll and Hyde behavior. Maybe he ran because he didn’t want you to know something.”
“Something that was triggered by my purse?”
“It’s confusing, I agree. But most mysteries are until they’re solved.”
I’m not a detective. But I do love crime podcasts, and if I were running one myself, I would say that Michael Wild’s shift in behavior is suspicious.
And his eyes…they went from open and curious to closed and blank in a split second. It was like he began to treat me like a stranger.
I gasp. “I think you’re right. He’s hiding something!”
“Seems like it.”
“Why would I want to pursue anything with someone who isn’t completely honest, though?”
“Mimi,” she says. “Can you sit there and honestly say you told this man everything?”
“Yes! I was…” I cut off as I remember the conversation about my godfather. “Well, I didn’t tell him the whole story about Tony.”
“Why not?”
“It felt like TMI,” I confess. “Talking about Tony gets me too emotional, even now, and I didn’t want to scare him off if I teared up.”
“See?” Alyssa sounds annoyingly triumphant. “You had a logical reason for keeping that from him. Maybe he has a similarly valid reason.”
Maybe.
But…what is he hiding?
I don’t have a darn clue.
However, I’d love to find out.
Even if Michael and I aren’t meant to be for anything more than one night of great sex, I’m curious.
And I’m not going to let him toss me out of his truck without getting an explanation.
I tell Alyssa goodbye, and then I jump out of bed and grab my purse.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Michael
