“Yeah…” I trailed off even though I didn’t mean to.
“What’s wrong, Audra?”
“Nothing, honest, just … I got off work and don’t want to go home quite yet.”
“Yeah, head over. I’ll be there soon. I’ll call Murph to let him know you’re coming too.”
Thankful for my friend, I drove right on over to Waterlily Lane. Murphy and their beefcake of a dog, Jenkins, were on the porch waiting for us.
“Hey, Audra!” Murphy said, standing to greet me. I’m sure Bennett told him to proceed with caution because something was up. “You wanna go inside, or just hang out here and kill time playing phone games?”
“I’ll do you one better. How about I cook if you haven’t eaten yet? I might just run downstairs to shower first, then I’ll find stuff in the fridge?” I suggested. The three of us had such a comfortable sibling dynamic, and since cooking was a way for me to decompress, this was perfect. Plus, they always had stuff in their house to cook.
“Not going to say no to that.” He said, sitting back down. “You know where all the stuff is downstairs.” The twins were overly hospitable. Their entire basement was like a hotel, and the people close to them used it like that. There were towels, extra clothes we left there, and all kinds of shampoos and conditioners. It didn’t happen often, but it’s not thefirst time I’ve showered in their basement. In this case, I had to wash the hospital away; that was always my first move when I got home.
When I was all clean, I came back upstairs with wet hair, and Bennett was sitting in the kitchen reading his book. He didn’t even look up, just spoke.
“You showered here instead of at home. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, B. Really.”
“Audra King, you know me. You know I will not let this go.”
“I just…” Knowing I would not get out of the conversation without a small explanation, I tried to give the vaguest answer I could. “Theo kind of freaked me out today.”
“Theo?” He put the book down and looked up, narrowing his eyes at me, discerning what exactly I was trying to say. “What did that fucking guy do?”
“Nothing, really. He saw me after my shift and asked me to dinner.”
“And him asking you to dinner freaked you out?” He questioned.
“Not that he asked me to dinner. Just, kind of, I don’t know. Something felt a little off, Bennett. I can’t even put my finger on it. Honestly, I think everything is fine, he just caught me after a tough shift. I didn’t feel like heading home yet. Plus, I wanted company for dinner.” How do you explain how innocent words made you feel off? When Bennett repeated my complaint back to me, it sounded like a foolish reason to be put off. Maybe the way he was looking at me or the tone of his voice? But I couldn’t capture that in words. All I knew was that there’s a reason people say you should trust your gut, and my gut after today was uneasy.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“I’m taking your answer at face value. If you want to continue the conversation, you know where to find me. So anyway, what are you making me?” He laughed, dropping the Theo stuff.
“Whatever I can find in this godforsaken house.” I joked with him.
And after that, we just fell into our normal routine. I ended up taking a bedroom for the night because I was too tired to head home, but that gut feeling about Theo was still pinging around as I closed my eyes. Something just wasn’t right about today, but it was confusing because all he did was ask me to dinner or drinks. Yeah, the disrespectful comment was thrown in, but nothing about it was aggressive. I don’t know; maybe I was just overreacting because he was really starting to get under my skin.
16
DONOVAN
At the end of the workday, some documents needed to be brought up to Quest, and Maeve offered to go. Normally, I would do it, but she said she wanted to check out the progress, so I agreed. Come 4:30 p.m., I was glad I did, because I spotted Audra on the sidewalk carrying a bag of groceries. Last Friday, she had told me she loves to walk up and down Main Street, buying things, and then going back in her car to pick everything up. But this bag looked full. And heavy. She wasn’t making it far because people kept stopping to talk to her, and I could see the animation.No wonder she enjoyed walking Main Street, I mused to myself. It was a social hour for her.
Pushing my call to wrap up, I shut the office down with the intent of ‘accidentally’ running into her on the street. Since I didn’t have a way to contact her, I’d have to hustle because I wanted to catch up. Maybe I’d invite her to dinner tonight or something. Anything to see her again.
When I made it outside, she was no more than ten feet from where I had seen her last, talking to the owners of theflower shop. Anne Marie knew me well, as I’d done a lot of business with her over the last year, sending flowers to McKenna and work-related accounts.
“Audra,” I said, and the three of them turned to me.
“Donovan?” She questioned. “Is it already 5:00?”—she glanced at her watch—“No, it’s not, you’re off early today?”
“Here, let me take that.” I reached out to take the paper bag and didn’t give her any chance to argue. As I suspected, it was heavy.
