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“And at least I’m notsleepingwith Frank,” Ellie shot back.
Michael stared in stunned silence for a moment. When he did speak, all he could manage was an incredulous, “What?”
“I’m saying thatIdon’t travel around the country with Frank sleeping in the same hotel room,” Ellie said. “You know, the way you and Faith sleep together.”
Michael blinked, staggered at the turn this conversation had taken. “Ellie, we don’t sleeptogether. We… yes, we sleep in the same room, but that’s because the Bureau only pays for one room. We’re not having…” He couldn’t finish the thought.
“No, but you want to,” Ellie fired back.
“No I don’t!” Michael shouted. Now he reallywasangry. “Why the hell would I be doing anything with you if I was in love with Faith?”
“I didn’t say you were in love,” Ellie retorted.
“Don’t do that,” Michael countered. “Don’t try to twist my words. I’m not sleeping with Faith.”
“Well, she wants to sleep with you,” Ellie replied.
Michael chuckled and shook his head. Ten minutes ago, they were in the middle of very satisfying and very intense sex and now they were arguing over this? “Ellie,” he said, trying to be calm, “she’s not in love with me. She has a boyfriend.”
“And you have a girlfriend. But she still looked at me like she can’t wait for me to disappear and stop stealing her Prince away from her.”
“Ellie, you’re being ridiculous,” Michael said.
Once again, he immediately regretted his word choice. Ellie’s jaw tightened and she turned and stalked from the room without another word.
Michael sighed and fell back on the bed. He stared upward, his eyes idly following the hills and valleys of the popcorn ceiling as he let the past five minutes soak in.
Faith and Michael had dated for a little over a year, but their relationship had ended over two years ago, shortly before Faith’s encounter with the original Donkey Killer left her severely injured. She had been the one to end things between them, and if Michael was being honest, he had been crushed when they broke up. He had believed at the time that he and Faith would marry and spend the rest of their lives together.
But he didn’t feel that way anymore. When Faith healed and returned to the Bureau, he thought for a minute that they might pick things up where they left off, but during their first case back together, he noticed a change in Faith. After Trammell, she had grown moody and distant, even cold. She had always been more serious than Michael and had never been particularly affectionate, but she had walls now that Michael couldn’t break through.
She was healing now, and the past few months had been much more like the Faith he knew. The anger was receding, and the moodiness and coldness had gone, but the attraction he once felt was gone too. He had found Ellie, and she was the one for him, the only one for him. He viewed Faith more as a sister than a former lover, and the thought of them being romantically involved was absurd.
But he realized now that it didn’t look that way to Ellie. She saw the two of them laughing and talking like old friends, saw the mistrust in Faith’s eyes and the hostility in Turk’s behavior, then had to watch him leave with her for days at a time to solve high-stress cases during the day and take turns showering in the same bathroom at night.
He would never in a million years cheat on Ellie, but he couldn’t be upset with her for fearing that.
And, he acknowledged reluctantly, he would have to let go of his irritation over the divorce. Absurd though Ellie’s fears might be, from her perspective it was no less absurd than his impatience.
He sighed and rolled out of bed, dressing more slowly and reluctantly than Ellie had. He would have to apologize to her and then do something nice to make up for his behavior. Maybe he would buy her ice cream. Yeah, that’s what he would do. He would pick up a pint of that brand she liked, the one with the two guys on the logo, and a card with a picture of a puppy on it.
No, not a puppy. A kitten. That was better. He would get her ice cream and a card, and he would apologize. She would sigh and hug him and tell him she forgave him and then they would snuggle on the couch and watch some sappy romcom before making slow, romantic love and falling asleep in each other’s arms.
Everything would be okay by the morning.
He pulled on his boxers and T-shirt and headed for the door.
And his phone rang.
Michael took a deep breath and released it in a heavy sigh. He glanced out the window at the sky, where the twilight was well on its way to darkness.
Only one reason why someone would be calling him this late at night.
He answered his phone without even bothering to look at the number.
“Hey, asshole,” Faith’s voice came over the phone. “I hope you got your bag packed, because your plane leaves in ten minutes.”
Her cheerfulness sounded fake, and Michael guessed she was as unhappy with the late-night interruption as he was. “Hey,” he said flatly. “This the call-up?”
