Page 30 of Lake
It wasn’t much. A small room that held a tiny round table and three chairs. There was a short counter on the right side that held a microwave and a mini-refrigerator that was mostly full of water and soda. Which I offered to her and she pointed to the red and white can.
“Sorry about earlier,” I said because I did feel all kinds of wrong about it.
I wanted to give some sort of explanation but telling her that we were overly cautious seemed to sound a bit more like we were just plain paranoid. Plus, I didn’t want to give her any kind of hint that we sometimes found ourselves in the middle of danger.
“I get it.” She didn’t sound mad as she took a huge bite of her burger.
“So, you drove all the way from Tampa in that thing?” I asked completely shocked that her car had made it that far.
“Yep.” She laughed like she couldn’t believe it either. “I didn’t have much of a choice. Had I known that I would have to drive for over ten hours, I might have turned it down. But then again, I wasn’t the one that took the case.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but I offered because Art, my partner, is older and his health isn’t the greatest. Besides, I kind of got the feeling like he didn’t want to do it.”
“What’s it like being a PI?” I asked. I wanted to keep her talking and not because I was trying to find out information for the club. I genuinely wanted to know more about her and I hoped it came off that way.
“Oh, it’s great. You know, sit around and wait for people to call and then more sitting after you get a case. Usually outside of seedy motels. Sometimes I get to hang around in bars. Real fun stuff.” She didn’t sound like she hated it though her words kind of made it sound bad. “Sometimes I get to see people doing it, so… yeah, okay, it’s not that great. Most people should just leave their clothes on.”
I dropped my burger so I could cover my half-full mouth as I laughed uncontrollably. It was all I could do to swallow and not choke.
“You’re funny,” I said after I took a swig of my soda. “I think I like it.”
This shocked us both and while I was trying to process what and why I’d just said that, her eyes went wide. I was pretty sure there was a hint of pink in her cheeks, too.
“Well, you’re not as bad as that first impression made you seem.”
She didn’t say anything else and I stared at her like I was waiting for something.
“Okay,” she said with a huff and a dramatic roll of her eyes but her smile was a dead give away that she wasn’t irritated at all. “You’re kind of adorable… and maybe I find myself liking it.”
Hold up a minute.
Were weflirting?
No, I had to be mistaken on that.
Would I even know what flirting was if it slapped me in the face? I got lost for a moment trying to figure out the answer to that. What was the difference between being really nice and flirting? I mean, she wasn’t batting her eyelashes at me and all that. And I wasn’t trying to… to… get her to like me? Or was I?
So maybe I kind of wanted her to like me but only in a friendly way. She was tough and pretty cool. I liked that she didn’t seem to bullshit around, but then again, I didn’t know her all that well. There was this feeling I got though, and not like a fluttery-love-stars-in-the-eyes feeling. It was more a poke in the brain that told me she wasn’t the type of person that liked to play games and hide things. Which I thought was pretty awesome.
Plus, she talked about porn and people getting naked.
That was shockingly funny to me.
Clearly, I was still a perverted twelve-year-old boy at heart.
But really, weren’t all men?
Anyway.
“You have this weird look on your face,” she said snapping me out of my strange life ponderings. “Do you have gas?”
“What?! No!” Well, I didn’t until she said that. “I was just thinking about things.”
“Oh. Well, maybe you should work on your lost in thought face. I’m going to do the thing that no one has done for you, not even your club buddies, apparently. And that is, let you know that your thinking face makes you look like you’re in pain and in desperate need of a bathroom. It will scare women off.”
I snorted. I mean, I wasn’t one to brag, but I didn’t have any problem when it came to women.
