A look flashed across Jessica’s face.She tried to hide it, but Faith caught it.“I don’t think he’s cheating on me either,” she said.“I know it sounds dumb, but he really isn’t that kind of guy.”
“I didn’t say he was cheating on you,” Jessica replied.“But he’s definitely hiding something from you.Which is a horrifically inappropriate thing for me to say but is nevertheless true.”
“Yeah, I know,” Faith said.“And I’m afraid you’re right.I just have no idea what it could be.”
“Is he the type to plan big surprises for special occasions?”
Faith laughed.“No, he’s the type to leave his laptop open to the checkout screen on Amazon so I see exactly what he’s buying me.”
“Got it.So what do you think it is?”
Faith chewed her lip.“I don’t know.He had an issue with a patient a couple of months ago, but he seemed fine after a couple of days.Once we got back from Miami, I asked him about it, and he said it was nothing.He looked at the dog again, and she was fine.”
Jessica’s full attention was now turned to Faith.“Do you think he was lying?”
She shook her head.“I mean, Ididn’t, but when we got back from Italy, he got all weird and distant.He said it was because he had a busy work schedule, but he’s never been that way about work before.The more I think about it, he’s always been more likely to get excited about a lot of patients.He really loves his job.”
“Well, he’s also almost forty.Not to bring age into it, but people start slowing down around that age, especially men.You said your partner started slowing down around then, right?”
Faith nodded.“Yeah, but that was different.He wasn’t hiding things from me.”
“Were you paying the same kind of attention, though?”
Faith shook her head again.“No.I guess not.I mean, I wasn’t in love with him.”Not anymore, at least.
“Exactly.You’re attuned to all of David’s moods.You can pick up on little things more.I know I said he was definitely hiding something from you, but after talking to you, he might just be getting older.”
Faith pursed her lips.“It’s possible, but…”
She hesitated, unsure if she should share anymore.She wasn’t in the habit of talking about her relationship with other people.Then again, she didn’t have anyone to talk to about things like this.She wanted to make sure she wasn’t just freaking out for no reason, and Jessica was her friend.Besides, it wasn’t like she was going to snoop on David or say something accusatory to him.
“He’s been tuning me out,” Faith said.“When we found Iris Caldwell’s body, I told him about how much it sucked for me.”She left out the details.She wasn’t ready to talk about Trammell with Jessica.“And he just tuned me out.And on this phone call, he… It’s like he wandered.I don’t know.He just usually pays close attention to me.I’m not used to being ignored like that.”
She looked at Jessica.Her partner was now wearing a very different sort of knowing look.
Faith sighed.“I sound like a crazy wife, huh?”
“You sound like a very lucky wife,” Jessica replied.“Is this the first time your man has tuned you out?”
Faith reddened a little.“Yeah.”
Jessica rolled her eyes.“Jesus, the sun always shines on you, huh?I can’t keep a guy interested for more than ten minutes without taking my shirt off.”
Faith laughed.“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“I’m pretty sure it is.That’s the problem with only dating surfers with washboard abs and brand-new convertibles.They’re only eye candy, and the only thing they look for is eye candy.I hate to break it to you, Faith, but men don’t think like women.They communicate with each other in monosyllabic grunts.Any conversation that lasts longer than five minutes or requires actual thought gets automatically downgraded to background noise.If you train them well enough, they can work through that tendency, but it takes consistent reminders and a lot of patience.
“I’m exaggerating, of course,” she said, giving Faith a conspiratorial smile.“But not much.I think David is a wonderful man, but he is, unfortunately, a man.If I were you, I would lift your shirt up until he’s focused on you, then pull it down and gently explain that you’d appreciate it if he paid a little bit more attention when you were talking to him.”
Faith laughed.“I’ll try that.Thank you.”
After talking to Jessica, she felt a little better.She hadn’t considered that David could have been tuning her out for innocent reasons, but it was possible that he really had just spaced out.She was probably reading too much into it.
Then again, he had spaced out minutes after they’d investigated the scene of a murder.That couldn’t be normal, could it?Was he really calling in sick because he was actually sick, or was something else going on?
The door opened, and Meyers poked his head in.“We have a tip from the description.”
Faith put thoughts of David away for the moment.“Go ahead.”
