Page 15 of Pour Decisions
“Tell me how you didn’t conspire against me to get me thrown out of the competition,” I urge.
“I already did,” he says.
“No, you didn’t. All you did is tell me you didn’t have some plan with Michael.” I set my coffee down and lean across the table toward him. My face reddening with anger.
“Exactly.”
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say about it?”
“What more is there to say?”
“I don’t know, this is your issue, not mine.”
“I’m not the one who is accusing you of something you didn’t do.”
“You also aren’t the one who is convincing me you didn’t do it.”
“Look, either you believe me, or you don’t.”
I fold my arms across my chest and glare at him, letting my actions speak for me.
“Wow, okay.” He stands while running a napkin across his lips, before tossing it back to the table. “I thought maybe we’d turned a corner, but I guess not.”
I shrug in what I hope is a show of nonchalance. “You didn’t even say anything.”
“Oh, but I did. I told you I didn’t do it. That should be enough.”
I turn my head away from him and look down, purposefully avoiding his gaze. Because it’s not enough. At least I don’t think it is. And I don’t know how to make it be enough, since it really should be. So, I trust the guy enough to go back to his hotel room with him telling no one where I’m going or finding out any information about him first. I spend the night with him. I let him into my house this morning when I’m home alone. Yet I refuse to take him at his word?
He pauses at the front door, like he’s going to say something else, one hand on the knob with the door partially opened.
I wait, not knowing what I want, but still knowing I want something.
Instead of saying anything more, Riggs disappears out the door, closing it softly behind him.
I attempt to smother my sorrows with that third donut. When that doesn’t work, I move on to a fourth.
7
“I’m sorry, could you repeat that please?” Tess says via video chat. “Because I could have sworn I just heard you say you let the man leave after all that.”
“I won’t repeat it because you know that’s what I said, since that’s what happened.” I’m pacing while we talk. I like the routine of doing so in the small space of my bedroom. One. . . two. . . three. . . four. . . five. . . pivot and repeat.
“Why did you let him leave?”
“Did you not hear anything that I just said?”
“Yes, I did. And he told you he didn’t do it.”
“Of course he’s going to say he didn’t do it, otherwise he’ll be in big trouble.”
“How?” Tess asks.
“What do you meanhow?”
“I mean how will he be in big trouble? What exactly is going to put him in trouble? He’s already got you out of the competition? He’s not getting into trouble with WCWA or he would have already. There’s nothing else he needs to concern himself with.”
She has a point.
