Page 13 of Stay Away from Him

Thomas extended a hand toward a table in the corner, where a woman raised her hand and waggled her fingers in an awkward, unsmiling wave. It took Melissa a beat to recognize her from the night before.

“You remember Amelia, right?” Thomas asked.

Melissa followed Thomas to the table. “Amelia. Of course. You were sitting next to us at dinner.”

Amelia gave a thin smile. She sat on the other side of the tableon a pale wooden bench, which ran across the length of the wall. She’d draped an arm on the back of the bench and sat with one leg folded casually across the other. On the table in front of her was a ceramic cup with the foamy remnants of a cappuccino clinging to the sides. Melissa took the moment to examine Amelia more closely than she could the night before, in the haze of candlelight and wine. She was red-haired; fair-skinned; a dotting of freckles scattered across her nose and the delicate skin of her upper chest, bare above the low V of a tight-fitting black shirt with long sleeves.

She took her hand off the back of the bench and reached across the table. “It’s good to see you again. Melissa, right?”

Melissa nodded and clasped her hand, feeling intimidated. Amelia was classy, put together, with a vague air of aloofness about her. Melissa couldn’t tell, but she thought Amelia might dislike her a little.

Thomas pulled out a chair for Melissa, then brought another to the table.

“I’m not always so good with names,” Amelia said, a small smirk coming to her face. “But I remember yours because you were the talk of the party last night.”

“Lawrence and Toby’s gorgeous tenant,” Thomas added, then nudged Melissa’s knee with his under the table. “Didn’t I tell you?”

“Lies,” Melissa said. “Stop flattering me.”

“He’s not lying,” Amelia said. “That’s what people were saying. But then, this is a small neighborhood. We’re hard up for gossip. Last night, the talk was about you and Thomas, actually. Practically sitting in each other’s laps down there at the end of the table. People asked me about it, you know. After you both disappeared downstairs.” She raised a hand, palm forward in the air like she was taking an oath, closed her eyes, feigning innocent ignorance. “I told them I didn’t know anything about it.”

Heat rose to Melissa’s cheeks, but Thomas laughed a booming laugh that filled the coffee shop.

“You jealous, Amelia?”

Amelia only shrugged, giving him a thin and opaque smile, and for a second Melissa thought shemightbe jealous—that that was where the cold vibe Melissa sensed was coming from.

And actually, Melissa might have been feeling a little tug of jealousy too, as she thought of what was happening here, the scene she’d come upon. Thomas, the man she met last night, the man she’d given her number to—albeit reluctantly, and later regretfully—out for coffee with a beautiful woman. A woman wearing a skintight shirt and showing more than a bit of cleavage as she leaned over her empty cappuccino cup and half-eaten pastry, her arm lying on the table and extended toward Thomas like an invitation. There seemed to be something between them, some friction, some heat, and Melissa would have bet every last penny she had to her name that these two hadhistory.

“Amelia and I have known each other since college,” Thomas said, seeming to read her mind. “We’ve stayed friends since then. She’s my next-door neighbor. We do coffee once a week.”

“Every Monday,” Amelia said. There was the hint of a brag in her tone, of possessiveness, like she was making a point of communicating how much better she knew Thomas than Melissa did. How much more claim she had to him.

Thomas glanced at his watch. “I need to go, actually. I’m needed at the clinic.”

“Saving lives,” Amelia said.

“Hardly,” Thomas said. “It’s mostly bonked heads and strep tests.” He turned to Melissa. “We’ll talk soon about that date?”

Melissa hesitated. She thought it was a little unfair of Thomas to put her on the spot like that, especially after she had asked for more time the night before. At the moment, though, she wasstruggling to recall why she was hesitant to say yes to him in the first place. Struggling to recall everything Lawrence had told her: the dead wife, the murder case, the rumors, the news stories. None of that seemed real. Thomas couldn’t possibly be a killer. Not the man sitting before her.

“I’d have to get a sitter for Bradley,” Melissa said, deflecting. “I don’t know anyone in town yet.”

“Make Lawrence do it!” Thomas said, then snapped his fingers, getting an idea. “Or my girls! They’re responsible, I promise. It would be perfect.”

Melissa let out a laugh, delighted at his eagerness. “We’ll talk. You go to work.”

Thomas glanced at Amelia, then back to Melissa. “You two will be okay alone?”

“We’re big girls,” Amelia said with a trace of sarcasm in her voice. “I think we can handle ourselves.”

Thomas stood, leaned across the table to give Amelia a kiss on the cheek, and then, before Melissa was prepared, he was leaning toward her to do the same. Melissa wasn’t used to this—her friends back in Montana weren’t the kind to kiss hello and goodbye—and she had a little moment of panic when she wasn’t sure what to do. Was she supposed to rise from her chair and meet him halfway? What should she do with her hands? Flustered, she ended up turning toward him just as he was about to kiss her, and he ended up catching the corner of her mouth instead. She blushed, heat rising fast all the way to the crown of her scalp, and was about to apologize, but he was already out the door as though nothing had happened and they didn’t just accidentally kiss on the lips. Maybe he didn’t even notice.

Melissa took a second to collect herself, and when she looked up, Amelia was looking at her like she knew something Melissa didn’t. She realized that she actuallywasa little nervous to be leftalone with Amelia. They barely knew each other, and Amelia cut an air of sophistication that made Melissa feel like a pitiable rube by comparison.

“What is it?” Melissa asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No,” Amelia said. “Only…you two seem to be getting along.”

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