“Okay, but only one. It’s Thursday. I have work tomorrow.”
“We’ll be over here.” Henry pointed to the waiting room chairs where they went to sit. Each whipped out the video device of their choice, instantly engrossed.
When their boss came by a minute later, on his way to a late meeting, Shay gave him a half smile. “Good night, Perry.”
He gave her a smile but didn’t break his stride. As far as she knew, Halifax hadn’t called to dump on her record of model employee nor to address her claims about Eric.
Or was Perry keeping that to himself?
Shay tucked her head down to finish the job before her, and pushed the anxiety away. It scooted four inches and then settled back to peer over her shoulder. Something was wrong. She couldn’t put it into words or even explain it. Yet she still felt watched. Sometimes when she was on the street and, most often, when she was arriving and leaving places. Hypervigilance turning to paranoia?
Shay sucked in a breath. She needed to distract herself. Think of James.
She had gotten his text earlier. And while there was nothing even remotely romantic about it, he had promised to call tonight. She had been waiting to tell him about her week, and what she had done. Maybe she’d tell him when he called, and have it out of the way. Then tomorrow he’d be back, in Raleigh, in her apartment, in her bed.
When she thought of James everything else faded. Nothing seemed to matter when she conjured up memories of him. In his arms, kissing him, loving him, the world stopped. She could breathe freely.
“All ready?” Angie flashed five fingers, a fist, and then five fingers at her. It was 5:05.
Twenty minutes later, they had wedged themselves into a corner booth of a local brewery, a different microbrew in front of each of them.
“Is James coming over to Raleigh this weekend? Or are you going down to Charlotte to crawl all over his gorgeous co—” She glanced at Henry and blushed. “Body.”
“Neither.” Shay hadn’t missed the glance Angie flung Henry’s way. Usually, Angie was unflappable. She said things just to see how outrageous she could be. But with Henry … hm.
“So, you got a guy?” Henry reached for one of the nachos piled on a plate in front of Shay.
“Sort of.”
“He’s a cop.” Angie reached for one, too.
Shay surged forward, circling her arms moatlike around her plate. “Hey! Order your own food. This is lunch and dinner for me.”
“Let’s see. You got your dairy, your protein and vegetable, and your starch.” Henry bobbed his head. “I guess that constitutes a meal.”
“There’s no green vegetable there.” Angie wagged a finger at the platter. “Without something green that doesn’t constitute a full meal.”
Shay reached out and dumped her side order of jalape?os over the top of the stack. “Green vegetable. Ta-da.”
“Damn. That was just mean, Shay.” Angie didn’t do jalape?os.
“Serves you right, criticizing my food.” She slipped a chip piled with beans and trailing hot cheese from her plate and leaned forward to bite into it. Maybe she wasn’t fluish, after all. Maybe she was just weak-kitten hungry.
By the time she stopped chewing, Angie’s and Henry’s orders had arrived.
For the next couple of minutes all that happened at their table was chewing and swallowing and more chewing.
Shay watched as each of them slanted speculative gazes at the other when the other wasn’t watching. Something up here. Time to test her hypothesis.
“So, Henry, you still seeing that girl from Durham?”
Henry darted a glance at Angie. “Ah, no.”
“She was so not his type,” Angie chimed in. “She claimed to be an old-school video-game nerd. But she didn’t know Samus Aran from Metroid. Can you even believe that?”
Shay grinned. That answered one question. “So, who are you seeing, Henry?”
He ducked his head. “Not really anyone, at the moment.” He half glanced at Angie again. “Just hanging with Angie.”
O-I-C. Shay formed the letters for the words “oh I see” with her right hand and then laughed. One really slow week at the office, they had had a contest to see who could communicate most effectively without actually resorting to speech. Nerd entertainment.
“It’s not like that.” Angie put down her fork. “Well, it’s not.”
Shay aimed raised brows at her. “Why not?”
“Because, well, because…” Angie glanced at Henry who had paused in chomping his burger to glance over at her.
Shay decided to push. “Why not?”
Henry dropped his burger onto his plate. “Yeah, why not?”
Angie went deer-in-the-headlights. “I didn’t think—you never said. I don’t know.” She glared down at her plate of Buffalo wings as if daring them to take flight.
Henry picked up his glass of beer, grinning. “I guess that’s settled then.”
Angie looked up. “How is it settled?” Her sweet face went all evil cherub. “You don’t just get to nod and smile, fella. Are we seeing each other or not?”