I tried reading, but my angle was bad. “What’s it say?”
“He was asked if there’s really an Eva out there and he said yes, there is, and he recently reconnected with her and hopes to make it work out a second time.”
“What? No way!”
“Yes way.” Cary grinned. “So you’ve got your rebound man lined up if Cross doesn’t get his shit together.”
I pushed to my feet. “Whatever. I’m hungry. Want something?”
“If your appetite’s back, that’s a good sign.”
“Everything’s coming back,” I told him. “With a vengeance.”
*
I was waiting at the curb for Angus the next morning. He pulled up and Paul, the doorman for my apartment building, opened the back door for me.
“Good morning, Angus,” I greeted him.
“Good morning, Miss Tramell.” His gaze met mine in the rearview mirror, and he smiled.
As he started to pull away, I leaned forward between the two front seats. “Do you know where Corinne Giroux lives?”
He glanced at me. “Yes.”
I sat back. “That’s where I want to go.”
*
Corinne lived around the corner from Gideon. I was certain that wasn’t a coincidence.
I checked in with the front desk and waited twenty minutes before I was given permission to go up to the tenth floor. I rang the bell to her apartment and the door swung open to reveal a flushed and disheveled Corinne in a floor-length black silk robe. She was seriously gorgeous, with her silky black hair and eyes like aquamarines, and she moved with a lithe grace I admired. I’d armored up in my favorite gray sleeveless dress and was very glad I had. She made me feel downright homely.
“Eva,” she said breathlessly. “What a surprise.”
“I’m sorry to barge in uninvited. I just need to ask you something real quick.”
“Oh?” She kept the door partially closed and leaned into the jamb.
“Can I come in?” I asked tightly.
“Uh.” She glanced over her shoulder. “It’s best if you didn’t.”
“It doesn’t bother me if you have company and I promise, this won’t take but a minute.”
“Eva.” She licked her lips. “How do I say this . . . ?”
My hands were shaking and my stomach was a quivering mess, my brain taunting me with images of Gideon standing naked behind her, their early-morning fuck interrupted by the ex-girlfriend who wouldn’t get a clue. I knew how well he liked sex in the morning.
But then I knew him well, period. Knew him enough to say, “Cut the shit, Corinne.”
Her eyes widened.
My mouth curved derisively. “Gideon’s in love with me. He’s not fucking around with you.”
She recovered quickly. “He’s not fucking around with you, either. I would know, since he’s spending all of his free time with me.”
Fine. We’d talk about this in the hallway. “I know him. I don’t always understand him, but that’s a different story. I know he would’ve told you upfront that you and he weren’t going anywhere, because he wouldn’t want to lead you on. He hurt you before; he won’t do it again.”
“This is all very fascinating. Does he know you’re here?”
“No, but you’ll tell him. And that’s fine. I just want to know what you were doing at the Crossfire that day you came out looking as freshly fucked as you do now.”
Her smile was razor sharp. “What do you think I was doing?”
“Not Gideon,” I said decisively, even though I was silently praying that I wasn’t making a total idiot out of myself. “You saw me, didn’t you? From the lobby, you had a direct view across the street and you saw me coming. Gideon told you at the Waldorf dinner that I was the jealous type. Did you have a nooner with someone from one of the other offices? Or did you muss yourself up before you stepped outside?”
I saw the answer on her face. It was lightning quick, there and gone, but I saw it.