As I scrambled to hook my bra and throw my shirt back on, several things happened all at once: Malone opened the door. Ken took one step in. Malone punched him. Ken fell backward into the breezeway. Malone slammed the door before turning to me. “Wait. Why is your shirt back on? You’re not getting the rest of my social until you are as naked as the day you were born.”
“I can’t believe you just ...”
“We shook on it, Stark. I take my obligations very seriously.”
My God, that’s so hot.
A rage-filled roar came from the other side of the door. “Open up now or I’m calling the police!”
“Now you’ve done it,” I said as I walked to the door, trying not to look at the bulge in his pants.
I opened the door but blocked entry. “What do you want?”
Ken worked his jaw back and forth, and my emotions fluctuated between giddiness that Malone had socked him and disappointment he hadn’t busted Ken’s nose.
“I need the flash drive that’s also a voice recorder.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You have to have it,” he said. “I can’t find it anywhere.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest. “My days of finding things for you are over. If you’ve lost it, thenyouput it in the wrong place. I took nothing that wasn’t mine.”
“Except the car.”
“The car is mine. I’ve made all the payments.”
He didn’t argue with me for once.
And he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring.
“You’re looking good, Stel,” he said in his cajoling tone. Was there already trouble in paradise? Was he really hitting on me after getting punched in the face? He had to be some kind of confidence incubus. He’d taken all mine, and now he had a surplus he didn’t deserve.
I said nothing, a trick I’d learned, quite ironically, from him.
“Already got a new boyfriend?”
Malone now stood behind me, and I was glad for his presence, especially when he grabbed the kitten before she could run out the door.
“And a cat?”
If I continued to stare at him and blink, he would eventually spill his real reason for being there, this I knew.
“Listen, things haven’t worked out with Eloise. It was all a big mistake. It’s time for you to come home.”
Still I stared. Sly sentence construction was doing a lot of work for Ken.Thingsdidn’t work out.Itwas a mistake. Not thathehad made a mistake, and because he wasn’t admitting his mistake, then there was no need for forgiveness. How convenient for him!
“No thank you. I’m good,” I said as I started to close the door.
He caught the door with his shoe. “Why don’t you come out here so we can talk without an audience?”
“No.”
“Stella, be reasonable,” he wheedled.
“Get your foot out of the way before I slam this door on it,” I said. “And don’t bother coming back. I didn’t give you my address for a reason.”
“Jeez, you don’t have to be a bitch about it.”
