in irritation, “Alright, but Marina…”
“What?”
“Never draw it unless you’re prepared to shoot it.” His eyes met mine with a question.
“I didn’t,” I said steadily, adding, “It’s a good thing you didn’t make any sudden moves.”
We walked into the coffee shop to find Bill sitting down with Ruby at a table. She looked up at me and her eyes flicked over to Paul.
“Who do we have here?” she smiled flirtatiously.
“Ruby, Bill, this is my friend Paul,” I introduced him and took the paintings to start putting them up to fill in the bare spots on the wall. I could see Paul and Ruby talking, noticing how she twirled her hair flirtatiously. Somehow, I didn’t think that Ruby was his type, and her lips tightened with irritation when his gaze kept returning to me. Paul finally excused himself, and I walked him to the door.
“See you next weekend,” I told him, holding out my hand.
He flashed me his charming lopsided grin, surprising me with a sudden close embrace, bringing his lips close to my ear, “Listen… You be extremely careful with that firearm,” he whispered gravely. I nodded to reassure him, and he turned briskly and marched away with purpose in his step, like a soldier going off to do battle.
I turned back to see Ruby watching me with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
When I finished with the paintings, I looked at the clock on the wall, “Ethan should be done at the farmer’s market,” I said, thinking I was finally off the hook. We thanked Bill, and he slipped me another wad of cash for the paintings that had sold. It did not go unnoticed by Ruby’s gimlet eye.
We climbed into the car and she turned to me, “So… Does Ethan know about your…uhm… friend?”
“Paul works for my aunt,” I explained.
“Oh really?” she said sarcastically.
I ignored her tone, pulling out into traffic, “Really.”
“Exactly what does he do?”
I paused, “He’s a personal trainer.”
“Well, he could train me anytime!” she said with a laugh, “That Paul is one tall drink of water.”
I didn’t want to discuss my weapons training, or the reasons behind it, so I tried to change the subject, “You and Bill seemed to hit it off.”
“That guy?” she was dismissive. “What a total looser! Skinny hippie guys don’t do it for me. I only go out with the high rollers.”
“Wow,” I recoiled. I didn’t know what to say. Try as I might, my face couldn’t come up with a look to conceal my distaste. The more time I spent with her, the less I liked her.
“I suppose he was alright,” she said, trying to walk it back.
We drove along in silence. I don’t know what I expected from her, but Bill was my friend, and I didn’t appreciate her unkind remarks. I was exhausted from my sleepless night, and tired of keeping up the façade of pleasantness. I stopped trying to make small talk.
My mind was racing, running over and over everything that had happened in the past few days. I was certain that I was missing something, but I couldn’t quite pin it down. I was relieved to see Ethan’s truck parked at the apartment; I sighed as I pulled in and parked.
“I wasn’t born yesterday you know,” she snarked.
I turned to face her, “What?”
“I’m aware of how the game is played…” she smiled cynically at me. “I know what’s going on with you and that Paul guy.”
I’d had just about enough, “You don’t know anything at all about me.”
“I know more than you think,” she said cryptically. “I’ve been around the block a few times. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
“I told you,” I was exasperated, “He works for my aunt.”
“Yeah, right,” she smiled smugly, climbing out.
I trudged up the stairs behind her, completely drained.
“Sweetheart!” she threw her arms around Ethan when he came to the door, launching into a tale of what a fabulous time we’d had. She gushed about how nice I was, showing him the glasses I’d bought for her and praising my good taste. Ethan looked so pleased to hear it that I wished it was true.
I set my purse down on the counter and Ruby set hers right next to it, digging into it for a phone. She excused herself to go into Ethan’s room, saying she needed to put a call in to the office. The second she left, he was all over me, pulling me close and kissing anything I had to say completely off my lips.
He drew back and took my face in