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I’m compelled to ask, curious, “You’re acting as if you only go shopping by yourself. Don’t you go with your friends, with May or Maylene or something?”
“Mia,” she corrects me. “Not really. Uncle Raymond was very overprotective where I was concerned. Mia used to come over a lot but we usually didn’t go out, and after Aunt Angela and Suzie passed away in that car accident, he became even more reserved. I was his only family left and he was scared of something happening to me.” She leans back on the couch, her expression distant. “When he accepted this job here, it was only because I pushed him. There were too many memories in our home and he needed a new start. I finally threatened to move out if he didn’t, which prompted him to agree.”
I’m taken aback by how much Raymond cares for her. I thought he loved her like a niece but he seems more like a—
“He’s like a doting father.” Halley grins, affectionately. “He’s always been scared of when I’ll decide to date, so when I told him I simply don’t have the time, he was so relieved.”
She’s never dated before?
Why does the thought please me so much?
“I started freelancing when I was out of high school or around that time, so Mia and Cameron would take me out to clubs when they went, but aside from that, I was always working. I would usually shop online if I felt like it.”
How can she be an introvert and an extrovert at the same time?
She’s on her second slice of pizza.
I pick up my third. “So, now, you’ll dress more officially when coming to the office?”
Halley nods. “I’ve always admired how classy Lana looks and how chic Kendall looks.”
“Caleb does all of her clothes shopping,” I inform her. “My sister has the fashion sense of a rock.”
“Lucky her.” After a brief pause, she asks, “Want to see what I got?”
I’m starting to feel like she’s treating me more and more like a platonic girlfriend than a boss or even a potential lover. So, maybe, the last part is just for my own gratification but I do dislike how she’s looking at me as if I was nothing more than…“No,” my answer is abrupt.
She gives me a surprised look. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing,” I mutter, trying to sort out these complicated feelings. “Not a damn thing.”
She gives me an odd look before falling silent. When I look up at her, her expression is brooding.
After a few minutes, she speaks up, her voice oddly subdued, “I’m going to call Uncle Raymond when I go home. I don’t know what to say to him. How do I tell him that Mom might be alive or that it might be my father?”
“It’s a little too soon to be jumping to conclusions,” I tell her. “It could just be a very odd coincidence.”
She doesn’t reply to this, instead saying, “Why would the police suspect I had anything to do with it though? They’re not going to…” She looks up at me, her eyes wide.
“No, of course not!” I hastily reassure her. “You have an alibi and there is timed security footage. You have nothing to worry about. Besides, you and I spent the night together so…”
Her face turns bright red at my comment.
I continue, satisfied at her response, “I’ll be your alibi for the whole night.”
She unfolds herself, putting her feet down on the ground, mumbling, “We didn’t spend the night together. Stop making it sound like we—like we…” She can’t get the words out
I blink innocently at her. “Like we what?”
She raises her head to shoot me a venomous look.
I just smirk. “You really need to be clearer. Like we what, Halley?”
She just presses her lips together, her cheeks flaming. “Nothing.”
I just smile.
She shoots me a look that is part anger and part something else and I meet her gaze steadily.
