“You were?” I sat up straight, determined to ignore the flutter in my stomach.
“Yeah, I was wondering if you made it home okay. Did you get your alternator checked?”
I blew out a sigh as I remembered the battery. “Not yet,” I confessed. “But I will. Thanks for your help the other day.”
“I was just glad for the chance to see you again.”
A reluctant smile pulled at my cheeks. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay longer.”
“I was hoping you’d stop by the bar last night, but it’s probably for the best that you didn’t. The place was nuts. We wouldn’t have had much time to talk.”
“Oh?” The hair on the back of my neck prickled at the sudden shift in his tone. “Nuts how?”
“There’s some police investigation going on. A detective came by. He kept pulling the waitstaff off the floor to ask questions. I was in the weeds all night.”
“What happened?”
“Some guy’s wife reported him missing. He was at the networking event on Tuesday night and no one’s heard from him since.”
“Really?” I swallowed. “Did the detective … talk to you?”
“He was mostly interested in talking to the waitstaff who worked the floor, but the waiter who served the guy was off last night, and the rest of us were too busy to remember much.” A relieved breath rushed out of me. It caught in my throat when he said, “One of the busboys remembered seeing him leave the bar with a blond woman in a black dress.”
I drew my knees to my chest, hugging them tight. “Oh?”
“I told the cop I could count at least two dozen blond women in black dresses at The Lush on any given night. But the only one that stood out in my mind was you.”
“Me?” I asked around the knot in my throat. “Why me?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re beautiful and easy to talk to?”
A nervous laugh broke free. “Did you … What did you tell him about me?”
“Only that I bumped into you in the parking lot as you were leaving. And that, try as I might to persuade you otherwise, I saw you get into your car alone.” My head thunked against my knee. Good. This was good. Julian wasn’t a witness. He was an alibi.
An alibi who thought I was beautiful. And easy to talk to. And possibly wanted to date me.
I’m sure Vero would agree it would be smart to keep the lines of communication open, right?
“So, you thought I stood out?” I asked, picking at a loose thread in my sock.
“Without question.”
“Did anyone else in the bar … you know … stand out to you?”
“No one else ordered a Bloody Mary at nine o’clock at night, if that’s what you mean.” His laugh was soft, disarming, unwinding something inside me until a laugh bubbled out of me, too.
“You didn’t … by any chance … happen to notice if anyone followed me when I left … did you?”
“No.” Julian’s silence was tinged with concern. “Why? Did something happen?”
“No, no, it’s fine,” I said quickly. Of course he hadn’t noticed. He’d probably already gone, while I’d lingered in the parking lot those few extra moments to call Patricia. And now he probably thought I was paranoid and clingy. I raked my hair from my face, surprised he couldn’t hear the rush of blood to my cheeks through the phone.
“Seriously, Theresa.” I loved the way he said my name, low and close, like we were in the same room. And I hated that the name he was whispering wasn’t mine. “Bloody Mary aside, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. So, to get back to your original question, yeah, I’m really glad you called. And if you want to know the truth, I’m still a little worried about you.”
I bit my lip, wishing I could take back so many things. Wishing I could start the week all over.
“You want to tell me all about your crappy week? I’m a bartender, which makes me highly qualified to listen.”
“No,” I said through a weary smile, wishing I could. “I’m better now. Thanks.” I was surprised by how true it felt. All I needed to do was plan a birthday party and not kill anyone else. Simple, right?
“I’m here if you change your mind. And I’d still like to take you out sometime.”
Sometime … when I wasn’t hiding from the police and the mafia. When I wasn’t pretending to be someone else.
“Maybe I could call you again,” I said, “when things aren’t so complicated.”