The next morning, I woke without the assistance of my alarm. I couldn't believe how good I'd slept. I didn't remember having any dreams and I felt surprisingly refreshed.
Looking at the clock on the wall, I saw it was only six. I did a double take, looking at the clock again. Wait a second, my bedroom didn't have a clock on the wall. I rolled off the couch and looked up at it to see Nate staring at me, smiling from his still relaxed position on the couch.
"Good morning. I'm happy to report you don't snore when you sleep, much to my surprise."
Like I cared whether I snored or not. A man was on my couch and I'd most recently been on it with him.
"Please tell me this is a nightmare I'm having. I knew the relaxing sleep was too good to be true. You were supposed to leave by midnight. Did someone forget to teach you how to tell time? Even if they did, you should've got a clue when the sun started rising," I said as I maneuvered into a position I could stand up from. I could've gone on blurting out anything that came to my mind, but I decided to give Nate a chance to explain himself.
"I know, but you got so comfy snuggling into me; I couldn't bear to wake you. It would've been cruel and I may be a lot of things, but cruel isn't one of them." He stood up from the couch and made a show of stretching.
"I guess that opinion depends on who you ask," I muttered. "You can use the bathroom if you need to, but after that you're out the door. I need to get ready for work and that's not going to happen while you're here." I picked up the glasses from the night before and walked into the kitchen.
When I came back, he was exiting the bathroom. "Look, we're both going to be heading to the office and you aren't allowed to take public transportation, so it makes no sense for me to leave and then come back to get you. I keep a spare set of clothes in my car. I can head out for fifteen minutes and give you a chance to shower and get ready.
"I'd give most women longer, but I'm pretty sure you can be ready in that amount of time or at least showered and dressed. While I'm out, I'll grab some breakfast and then borrow your bathroom for ten minutes to get ready." He picked his keys up off the table. It was a miracle he found them among all the leftover food.
"In case you were wondering, I've never met a more frustrating man than you. I guess the transportation part makes some sense. If you can be ready in ten, I can too, so hurry up and disappear."
I didn't bother waiting for him to make a move as I hurried to the bathroom. Showers in my world were usually fast, but I wanted to make sure I came in under the time I'd quoted. I didn't trust Nate not to just run down to his car and come right back.
After quickly washing my hair, I towel-dried and wrapped the towel around my hair. From the wardrobe, I picked out some standard jeans and a shirt that said?The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's on the list. It had a list on it that included shopping and laundry just before "hurt you". I thought it'd be the perfect shirt for the day.
I started to go back to the bathroom to brush my hair, but the phone rang and stopped my progress. Remembering that my mom mentioned calling back to talk in person, I decided I better get it. If she had to talk to the machine twice in a row, the chances of her appearing on my doorstep within hours went up tenfold. I didn't even bother looking at the phone to verify it was her, because I doubted it could be any one else.
"This is Avery." I tried to add some cheerfulness that I wasn't feeling. I doubted it came across that way, anything I forced never worked for me.
A distorted voice responded, "Avery, you're disappointing me. I know he's trying to protect you from me, but you don't need protection and he really shouldn't have spent the night. I think that's a little above and beyond his duty."
"Hey listen," I sniped back, "We fell asleep before his self-imposed protection duty was over. You don't have to insinuate something happened between us, because it didn't. I don't know where you get off thinking there's something more to our relationship than meets the eye, because there isn't. We barely get along and he'll be on his way back to Chicago as soon as he can. So why don't you knock off all this silly business with the notes and the calls. I don't appreciate you trying to frighten me."
"I'm glad to hear you won't shed a tear when he leaves. It's the best thing I've heard all week. You must not see the way he looks at you, though, and don't think I haven't noticed how you look at him when you think no one is watching.
"Word to the wise, I am watching, and even if you guys aren't acting on the emotions, I can see them plain as day and I don't like it. It looks like lover boy is back, so I'll leave you to your breakfast."
The line went dead before I could say anything else. I was pretty sure a miracle happened; I found someone more irritating than Nate, who just happened to be looking at me with the phone in my hand talking to air. Well, not talking anymore. I imagined I looked a little strange.
"Guess who I just got to chat with. As you can imagine, it wasn't the captain of the Rangers asking if I wanted season tickets," I quipped as I walked to the bathroom to brush my hair.
After being harassed and seeing a dead body, I couldn't muster much of a reaction. I was mad, but not really any more than I had been.
"You've got to be kidding me. Who was it?" He'd followed me to the bathroom and was standing in the doorway.
"He used a voice distorter so I couldn't tell who it was. Technically, it could still be a girl pretending to be a guy because she wants you all for herself. All they said was he or she was disappointed in the fact that you stayed the night and we evidently seem to look at each other with stars in our eyes when we think no one will notice.
"I'm not sure what they've been smoking, but I know I've only worn annoyed eyes when it came to you. Oh, and they knew when you were back from bringing me breakfast, so that means the person is watching or at least was five minutes ago," I said, relaying what little information the person gave and adding in my own commentary.
Nate disappeared from the doorway. I was fairly certain he'd taken off in a run, but he could've just vanished. I figured he wanted to try to find the person, but I highly doubted he would. If he wanted to run around, more power to him.
I finished up brushing my hair, leaving the bathroom open for whenever he decided he couldn't find the guy. I found a bag full of donuts that Nate had left in his wake. My brain and stomach both rejoiced at the thought of savoring one. I picked a vanilla frosted one with sprinkles and dug in while I waited.
It took Nate five minutes to find his way back. I couldn't decide whether it was sooner or longer than I expected.
"I didn't find anything suspicious other than a note on my car that instructed me to leave you alone. I'm pretty sure this is a guy wanting to get with you, my little butterfly. Even if he wasn't going about that all wrong, he'd still have problems getting through me to get to you," he said as he chose a butterscotch donut.
"I wouldn't go that far, but one thing is for sure, it has nothing to do with the Zuba case. I'm still not willing to admit it's someone with the hots for me. If it were, it'd have to be someone who came into my life since you arrived, just because of the simple fact it didn't start until then.
"If he was around before, he could've asked me out. It's not like I had a string of boy toys I was working through or anything," I mumbled as I took the other butterscotch donut.
Nate was lucky he got two or we would've been fighting over the one he demolished. After having breakfasts of grab-and-go bars, a fried dough sugar fix hit the spot.
"It could be a guy you see all the time or a waiter you've only seen a handful of times. They could've been just shy or biding their time to ask you out. Me showing up might have them thinking they're missing their chance at a fairytale life," Nate explained.
"He sure came out of his shell if it's someone who's shy. I'm shy and there's no way in the world I'd start doing that for a little crush. Anyway, there aren't many people I see, since I only work and come home. I occasionally go out with Frannie, but I haven't noticed any creepers."
"Who's to say you'd notice him. Maybe that's part of the problem. You didn't notice him, then I sweep in and we're spending all sorts of time together. Granted our relationship hasn't been romantic, but he still sees me as taking his place." He looked up at the clock and added, "I need to get in the shower if we're going to get to work at a decent time."
"Good idea. I want to see if we have any updates on the email or text. I'm guessing you haven't heard anything back from Rick?"
"Nope, which can only mean they haven't got anywhere. The email and text really are our best options, because they had to come from somewhere and should be traceable. Chances are good, as long as the person hasn't been living under a rock, they wore gloves or something to make sure evidence wasn't left behind to trace back to them."
With his statements of the obvious out of the way, he headed towards the bathroom and shut the door. A few moments later I heard the water start, so I went to the kitchen and got a glass of milk to wash the donuts down.
I loaded the dishes from the night before in my little studio-friendly dishwasher, not bothering to rinse them off since Nate was in the shower. Even if that would've been a fun way to get back at him, dealing with my stalker had taken a little bit of the wind from my sails.
The amount of dishes I tried to cram into the dishwasher was close to the amount I'd have accumulated by myself in a week. The poor dishwasher was probably going to start smoking midway through the cycle. I heard the water turn off in the other room, so I went ahead and flipped the switch.
Two minutes later, Nate emerged from the bathroom, dressed perfectly, as usual. He had to have a shaving bag with him, because the five o'clock shadow I'd noticed when he woke up was gone.
He was wearing a dark blue, long-sleeve button-up shirt and a pair of tan pants. His hair was still a little damp and his feet were bare. He walked over to the couch to sit and put on his socks and shoes. I took his cue and retrieved my sandals from their spot by the front door.
I preferred not wearing shoes at all. As long as the weather was nice and I wasn't taking Winnie out for a spin, I settled on wearing the sandals. For some reason, most people frowned at others walking around barefoot.
In my case, my toes liked to be separated. Even when I was forced to wear socks, I picked ones that had toes. If I didn't, I'd spend all day wiggling my toes trying to keep them apart.
"You ready to head in?" Nate asked as he finished tying his shoe. He stood up and grabbed his wallet and keys.
"As ready as I'll ever be. I'm crossing my fingers for some good news."
I followed him through the door and turned to lock it. I had the lock on the door knob and a deadbolt. Some of my neighbors had a few extra locks, but I'd never thought I needed more than two.
"I'd take good news, but I'll settle for spending my day trying to not be the 'you' your shirt indicates you want to hurt," he said as we walked down the hall.
"Good luck with that. The only thing you've got going for you is that my stalker has moved ahead of you in the list of people I want to hurt. Before you say it, I didn't think it was possible either, but miracles do really happen."
"I love your sense of humor. There's a lot of women who wouldn't be taking this stalker business as well as you are."
"Would you prefer it if I cried a little and refused to leave my apartment?"
"Not for the stalker, and not real tears, but I could imagine a scenario where I'd like what you just said very much."
We were almost to his car and I stopped in my tracks to stare at him. He could be in my life for fifty years and I doubt I'd understand him at all.
"You can't say those kinds of things to me, Nate. We've got the stalker and the Zuba stuff to deal with. You can't act like there's something, or going to be something, between us. It's sending some really messed up signals to me."
"I'm trying to keep you on your toes until we can discuss things once the case is over."
I didn't bother pointing out he was an idiot. I wanted to find some buffers to keep the weird conversations to a minimum, so I started walking again and climbed in when Nate opened the door for me.
CHAPTER 17
Eel, the white meat that should have stayed in the ocean