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‘What was his name?’ he asked when he caught up with me. ‘Was it Randy the runaway?’
‘Randy who?’ I frowned. ‘You mean Ralph? And the runaway? Really?’
‘Fugitive, deserter, escapee. All the same, isn’t it?’
‘Isn’t that a little harsh? I haven’t even met the guy yet.’
‘So you decided to see him then. Last time we spoke you weren’t sure.’
‘Yeah. I think. We texted a little bit, the other day. We’ll just go out for dinner. For the fun of it. Nothing serious.’
‘Sounds good. So who was today’s date?’
‘Pepp. I’d promised a day to him and we made the most of it.’ I glanced at him on my way to the cheese section and saw his soft look. It looked good on him. I sighed. He looked good in every way. ‘So, what are you doing here?’
‘What do you mean?’
I looked around us and raised my brows. ‘In the grocery store.’
‘Oh, right. I need coffee and some olives.’
‘Nice combination.’
‘You don’t like olives?’
‘I love olives.’
‘Good.’
I chuckled. ‘Good. What’s wrong with you?’ He looked a little confused and grumpy. ‘It’s evening so you can’t have gone without coffee for this long. Why so grumpy?’
He gave me a long look then, shaking his head, sighed. ‘Just tired, I guess. And I feel a little unbalanced around you sometimes. I declined another case today. A family feud. One of those reality families. The producer got in touch.’
I chose my favourite cheddar and grabbed some Swiss cheese while I was at it to go with the bagels.
‘Thank you for that,’ I said, glancing at him over my shoulder. ‘I was looking forward to spending some time at home this weekend.’
‘I have nothing to do. Would you like to…’ he said, but his phone started ringing, so he apologized and answered on the third ring.
‘William Carter. Yes. I understand. Can you give me some information?’
As William kept talking to whoever was on the other end of the line, I spotted a kid no more than seven years old who was running towards us with his mom rushing after him.
‘What steps did you take so far?’ William asked.
I gently put my hand on William’s forearm and pulled him away to the side so we wouldn’t get bulldozed by the kid. William’s gaze dropped to my hand on his arm, then still talking on the phone, he lifted his gaze up to me. I gave him a small smile and pulled my hand away.
He was still staring into my eyes when he ended his call.
‘I’m afraid I’m about to ruin your plans for tonight, Charlie.’
My face fell, but I tried not to show it. I was looking forward to just being with Pepp, cooking and watching romantic comedies.
‘What happened?’
‘We have a crisis with a dating app. It’s been hacked and some information has been stolen.’
‘We’re heading to the office?’
He stared at me for a few seconds. Calculating something.
‘I’m a little sick of seeing the office walls this week. How about we start the work at my place for tonight and head to the office tomorrow? You think everyone else can come?’
A smile broke out on my face. ‘That sounds great. I’m sure they’ll prefer that too.’ Then I remembered Pepp and the fact that my neighbours were gone for a little romantic weekend trip. He was perfectly fine with staying home all by himself now, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be apart from him, especially on the weekend.
William started to walk away. ‘I’m running low on coffee so I’m gonna get that, then we can leave. Can you call the others? We don’t need Gayle to come over for now.’
‘William,’ I called out and he stopped to look at me. ‘I don’t want to leave Pepp alone tonight. Can I bring him too? He’ll be good, promise.’
The way he kept looking at me… A girl could get used to that, I thought.
He tilted his head, a small smile on his lips. ‘Charlie, you never have to ask.’
Did it make me a little upset that our never would be too short since I would be leaving New York? Maybe. Maybe it did a little.
An hour later, everyone was at William’s place. Trisha had taken a spot on one end of the L-shaped couch, Stan on the other. Rick was standing in front of the windows overlooking my place, talking to the IT department of the dating app. I was sitting on the desk eating the last slice of pizza we had gotten for the team from Johnie’s. Pepp was sleeping right next to my chair, softly snoring after he had tired himself begging food from everyone. I had no idea where William was.
Because of the heat in the apartment, I had already secured my hair in a bun at the nape of my neck, but it started to feel hotter as the minutes passed. Wiping my hands on a napkin, I took off my thick sweater and released a sigh at the coolness of my tank top. I looked down at myself and pulled up the front a little bit. Since Trisha had come straight from a dinner date with her husband, her dress had more cleavage than my tank top, so I felt okay showing more skin. Nobody was interested or looking anyway. It was either that or sweat to death.
