Page 15 of Fish out of Water
But this wasn’t that time or that place, which meant the best thing I could do for Julia was take the money I’m sure Vito owed the men scoping out the mailroom and leave her to do whatever it was women like her did on a Saturday along the Florida coast.
“Are you gonna feed his fish too?”
“Sure.” Whatever it took for her to drop this odd commitment she had to doing what Vito never should have asked her to do.
“That wasn’t convincing.” Julia shook her ruined shoe at me. “If Mr. Frazier comes home and that fish is dead he’s going to blame me.”
“He’s not going to blame you.” I’d make sure of it. Vito and I were having a long talk when he finally decided to show up and face the music. I couldn’t keep doing this.
No matter what my mother thought.
Julia slapped me with the bright yellow flip flop. “You were supposed to say the fish wasn’t going to die because you were going to feed it.”
I grabbed the shoe, yanking it away from her. “I’m going to feed it.”
She was the most difficult woman I’d ever met.
Which is why I should already be gone instead of standing here dragging out the inevitable.
I pointed the flip flop at her. “Stay away from Vito’s place. Pretend like none of this ever happened.”
Her dark brows lifted. “Fine.”
Shit. That was one of those words that was nearly impossible to decipher. “Fine, fine? Or fine like when a woman usually says fine?”
“Fine means fine.” She crossed her arms across the brightly-colored t-shirt she wore.
“So it’s fine then?” I still wasn’t positive I knew what sort of fine I was dealing with, but the longer I stayed here the longer I was away from Vito’s place and missing the chance to tie this up and get the hell back to my life.
Miserable as it was.
Not miserable. That was an exaggeration.
It was just…
Lacking.
I held my hand out. “It was nice to meet you, Julia Murray.”
“Firstandlast name.” She grabbed my hand with hers. “It must have taken at least an hour to get all that information.”
It took five minutes with Sharon Sherling. I saw her every time I came to Vito’s place and she was more than happy to tell me anything I wanted to know about Julia.
Including the fact that she was very, very single.
“I also know you eat too much take out.”
Julia groaned. “You found Mrs. Sherling.”
“She found me.” Julia didn’t realize it, but I was well-known around here.
Especially to the ladies of Sweet Side Apartments.
I’d originally hoped to keep a low-profile when I had to deal with Vito’s issues, but found out real quick that was an impossibility. These people didn’t miss a thing.
At least I’d finally been able to use it to my advantage.
Julia’s eyes dipped down my front as she continued to shake my hand. “I’m sure she did.” She smirked a little. “Mrs. Sherling’s got a thing for younger men.”
