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I thought about that. Gio had always handled the staffing details while I dealt with the tedious, nonhuman aspects of the business. Gio was good with people, and I always wanted to spare him the more physically tiring labor. Partly because I enjoyed it and partly because it seemed like the right thing to do. I couldn’t have lived with myself if Gio got hurt.
But maybe Melanie was right. I should take a more active interest in the workers. “Okay, forward their resumes to me. I’ll look them over before I meet them.”
“I will,” she said, but she still looked a little glum. I watched as she pressed her fingers against either side of her temples.
“Headache?” I asked.
Melanie looked at me and dropped her hands from her head, managing a small grin. “No, just haven’t gotten a lot of sleep lately.”
Now I was sorry I’d asked, because I had to wonder about the guy she’d mentioned to Tara. Maybe he was responsible for her lack of sleep. Yet his name hadn’t come up since. Then again, Melanie had no reason to discuss her love life with me.
“How’s Braxton?” I asked.
She looked confused. “You know Braxton?”
Shit, now I was really wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. If Melanie had spent last night getting hot and heavy with some dude, I sure didn’t want to hear about it.
“No, I don’t know Braxton,” I admitted.
“Then why are you asking?”
I shrugged, wondering how I could back out of this gracefully. “Just concerned about the well-being of my employee,” I muttered. “I heard you mention to Tara that you were going out with him, so I was trying to make conversation.”
She shrugged. “We used to work together, and he asked me to dinner. He never seemed like a bad guy, so I accepted. Plus I was kind of curious about whether my name is mud among the staff, and I haven’t been in contact with anyone there since the day I was fired.”
I didn’t say anything. I moved the nearest table slightly to the left and examined the visual effect.
Melanie headed in the direction of the kitchen while I continued to move furniture around. I felt like an idiot for bringing up Braxton. Now she knew that I’d sort of eavesdropped on her conversation with Tara. And if she was perceptive, she might have picked up on the jealous edge in my voice.
A moment later Melanie returned to the dining room with a pair of white ceramic coffee mugs that used to be in Donna’s kitchen. She handed one over to me, and I accepted it gratefully, even though I’d already had three cups today.
“I won’t be seeing him again,” she said. “Braxton, I mean.”
“That’s nice.”
Melanie took a sip of her coffee and watched me through her thick eyelashes. “Just wanted to make sure there was no confusion.”
“I’m not confused. Why would I be confused?”
She shrugged. “No reason. But you did mention that you were concerned over my well-being, so I thought I’d give you some more material to consider.”
“So you didn’t have fun on your date?”
Her smile fell away. “No.”
“No?”
She shook her head. “Not even close.”
“Is that right?” I set the coffee mug down, bent over, and started rolling up some thick extension cords to hide my sudden grin.
“Yeah.” There was something odd in her voice, so I looked up again. Melanie kept shifting her weight, and she set her own coffee mug down on the nearest table. She looked out the window with a troubled expression. “I wasn’t expecting him to switch rather rapidly from Jekyll to Hyde at the end of the night.”
I stopped smiling. “Why do you say that?”
Melanie shook her head and wrapped her arms around her body. “It’s nothing. He just got a little aggressive.”
I dropped the extension cords. “Define aggressive.”
