"I think the kids are thinking the real tragedy is that you survived."
I didn't know what else to say, so I wandered over to look at the pastries. I felt like a chocolate cake. An entire one, just for me. I looked back over at Sarah, who had moved away from our cart to grab some pizzas in the frozen food aisle.
And she had left her purse sitting in the cart, unguarded, where anyone could walk off with it. Maybe she was only going to be a second. But then she looked at the frozen juice, and some frozen vegetables, the whole time with her back turned to her purse.
I returned to the cart and guarded her purse until she was done with the frozen foods.
"What?" she said. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Your purse," I said. "Anyone could have walked off with it. You shouldn't leave the cart unattended like that. You'd lose your cash, credit cards, everything. Wasn't there something on the radio, some woman had her purse stolen in the grocery store, lost all the pictures she'd just had developed of her sister's wedding?"
"We carried the story on the Metro page."
"There you go," I said. "So you already know, and still you leave your purse unguarded."
Sarah looked at me long and hard. "You need to learn to pick your moments better," she said. "And another thing."
"Yes?"
"Go fuck yourself."
o o o
I was actually working when Sarah got home. Not building a kit. Not flying a model of the starship Enterprise around my study, humming the theme from Star Trek. Not playing Star Wars computer games. I was working on the last chapter when I heard Sarah unlock the front door and come in.
I didn't call out. I didn't know whether she was still angry with me about the keys thing. But I started hitting the computer keyboard with more intensity, so she'd know I was home, hear where I was, and possibly think I didn't hear her come in because I was consumed with work. Soon, there was some racket coming from the kitchen, where it sounded as though she was putting away some food, and then it was very quiet, save for the sound of my typing. Although shortly before her arrival I'd actually been writing, I wasn't, at that moment, being overly creative. What I'd typed since I'd heard Sarah's key in the door was "Sarah's home so I better sound busy and it sounds like she's inside the house now and she's going into the kitchen and she must have bought something for dinner and I hope it's something good because it's just occurred to me that I've eaten nothing this afternoon what with finding a dead guy which can have something of a negative effect on your appetite and"
And then I could sense her presence behind me. I work with my back to the door, which means the screen is visible to anyone walking in, but fortunately, Sarah doesn't have telescopic vision like the Superman statuette up on my shelf.
"Hey," she said, standing in the doorway.
I whirled around in my computer chair. "Hi."
"Sounds like it's going really well," Sarah said. "I didn't know, after what happened to you today, whether you'd feel like working."
I shrugged, clicked the mouse in the upper right corner and made the text vanish from the screen. "I only got back to it in the last hour or so. Got an e-mail from Tom that kind of encouraged me to get going."
I turned back to the computer and heard Sarah come up behind me. She rested her hands on my shoulders.
"I was wondering if we could be friends," she said.
I didn't say anything.
"I picked up some fettuccine and some chicken, thought I'd make us something nice for dinner."
I hesitated. "Sounds nice," I said.
"And just so you know, not only did I take the keys out of the door, I set them on the table, and locked the door behind me."
I definitely said nothing.
"You know what that means?" she asked. She slid her hands down more so that they were rubbing across my chest.
"What does that mean?"
"It means we're locked in the house, and I think we're all alone."
"The kids will be home any time now, I think."
"Why don't we give them twenty bucks for pizza, tell them to get out of the house, and after I've made you some dinner, maybe we could mess around."
I spun around slowly, nuzzling my head between Sarah's breasts. They were very nice breasts. "That might be nice," I said. "That might be very nice."
Sarah slipped her arms around my head, drawing me in even closer, if that was possible. "I don't know how much work you've got left here, but I'll have dinner ready in about twenty minutes. Okay? And then you can tell me more about finding that man's body. That must have been awful."
I came up for air and looked into her face. "I'm sorry for being such a jerk. With the keys, and the car, and everything."
Sarah smiled. "You can't help yourself."