My parents would kil me, if the ghosts didn’t get me first, and, to be honest, I didn’t want to be in any situation that would have me wishing Dex was with me.
He cocked his head. “You sure about that?”
OK. So I wasn’t. I looked down at my yucky rag ful of milk, then up at the counter where Shay and Ash were busy.
I was probably pushing it by continuing to talk to Maximus instead of working.
“I should get back to work,” I said, getting to my feet.
“Hey,” he said, coming around to me. Next thing I knew I was in a cinnamon-scented hug with someone over a foot tal er than me, wrapped in very firm, very wide arms. I had no choice but to rest my head against his hard chest.
“I’m real y sorry about what happened,” he said into the top of my head.
I tried to shrug but he held me there.
Final y he released me and my cheeks went hot from the unexpected intimacy.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said shyly, stepping back and avoiding his eyes.
“You don’t have to answer me now, you know. You can think about it. There’s some other stuff Jimmy has me doing on the side, so it’s not a huge rush. We just think it would be a great thing, for al of us.”
“I’l think about it,” I told him and shot Shay another glance. She and Ash were ful -on gawking at me.
I took a step toward them and was about to tel Maximus I’d see him sometime when he reached out and grabbed my arm. He pul ed me back to him. His boldness surprised me.
“That’s not the only reason I’m here,” he said, and for a change I saw his cheeks flush the same color as his hair.
He dropped his arm from mine and reached into the front pocket on his shirt. He snapped it open, pul ed out a cream-colored business card and held it out for me.
I took it from him as he handed me a pen from the other pocket.
“Could you write down your number? It seems you’ve changed yours.”
“Oh, right. Yes.” I wrote it down on the back and gave it back to him.
“I’m going to cal you now,” he said simply. “Wil you answer?”
“Um, yes?”
“What wil you say if I cal to ask you to the movies?”
“Um…” Now I was total y caught off-guard.
“Um, yes?” he asked hopeful y, his ful lips twitching at the corners. “Don’t tel me you’l think about it.”
I didn’t know what to say. He was asking me on a date.
This was more than surprising. It was intriguing. A rare butterfly fluttered around in my stomach and that’s when I realized I hadn’t felt any cramps for the last five minutes.
I tried to play it cool.
“Yeah, sure, yeah, that would be great,” I stammered.
“Thank you.”
So much for playing it cool.
He grinned at me in return and stuck my phone number into the pocket. He did a mini bow and drawled, “I’l be seeing you darlin’” before turning his sturdy frame around and sauntering out of the shop.
If this was a romance in the South, where he was from, I would have dabbed my face and chest with the rag ful of dirty milk.
I walked back to the counter, unable to hide the strange smile on my face. There were no other customers so Shay and Ash were able to interrogate me uninterrupted.
“Who on earth was that hunk of fine meat?” Shay asked, putting a thrust to her hips.
I laughed. “He’s an old friend of mine.”
Ash stil didn’t look too impressed. He gave me a funny look and turned to clean out one of the blenders. “He didn’t look like just a friend.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Wel he is. He was on the Red Fox episode when we were in New Mexico.”
“Thought he looked familiar,” he grumbled, and turned on the water ful blast so he couldn’t hear me. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Ash was jealous. Poor guy.
There was a chance he had been sending me signals al along but I was too clueless and self-absorbed to pick them up. Can men and women real y not be friends after al ?
Seemed al my friendships had something unrequited going on and they never ended wel .
“You gave him your number sweetie,” Shay said knowingly. “Something tel s me you may be more than friends now.”
I waved at her but smiled and blushed at the same time. I had never given Maximus much thought, despite thinking he was a good egg and a looker at that, but now things were different. Especial y now that I knew how he felt about me. It made my toes tingle.
After I reveled in my giddiness, Shay tapped me on the shoulder and placed a mop in one hand and a disinfectant spray in the other.
“Hate to burst your bubble, girl, but there’s a bathroom that needs cleaning.”
And there went my high.
I gave her a defeated smile while I swal owed my sigh of disgust and trudged off to the women’s washroom with the mop and spray in hand. I entered the empty room cautiously, afraid of the smel I knew what was lurking, afraid that for some reason it would trigger my cramps again or make me lose my lunch. At least I had a mop to clean it up.
The bathroom wasn’t too bad today, despite the shop being relatively busy. I locked the door behind me and got to work, making sure I was both thorough and quick in case a customer was waiting.
I tackled the toilet first, trying not to lean over the bowl too much. The smel was vague but it was present.
While I worked, I thought about how strange it was to have two people from my past show up in the last two days.
First Rebecca, wanting to check up on me – or make me feel sorry for Dex. Then Maximus, wanting me to rejoin Experiment in Terror, but with him, and then asking me out to the movies. It had been a good few months of anonymity, of avoiding the past, of hiding from it. But somehow, it had found me. No matter how hard I tried to stay away from ghost-hunting, from Dex, from that life, I was pul ed back into it. I wondered if it would ever go away and I wondered if there was a reason for it. Something I didn’t understand yet.
Something beyond this world.