Page 25 of I Need You to Read This
“Well, it’s no nine p.m. chocolate chip muffin.” He puts his fork down and smiles at her. “Now, I was hoping you could tell me what the name of your column is, because I’ve been reading theHeraldall week and I can’t find it for the life of me.”
She weighs her options. She can’t keep everything from him. Plus, she is starting to suspect that she might truly like Tom. Which means she’ll have to open up to him. This realization makes her stomach flip. She takes another sip of wine.
“I feel almost bizarre telling you this, because it barely feels real to me. I was hired just a week ago to be the new Dear Constance.”
She watches him put it together. His eyes get big. “The advice columnist?”
She nods.
“The one who—”
She nods again, hoping that he won’t focus on the sad part of her job. She realizes with some heaviness that her job will always be linked to Francis’s murder. That telling people will always have them scratching their heads and asking whether they’d ever found the person who killed her, and watching their eyes widen when she says no.
“That’s great, Alex. Amazing, really. What a cool job,” he says. And she smiles, relieved.
“I actually turned in my first column today,” she admits. “It’s why I texted you. I felt like I could finally relax a tiny bit.”
“Wow. I can’t wait to read it. I’m honored to celebrate with you,” he says. “Truly. What an accomplishment. I have no doubt you’ll be amazing at it. There is something about you, something I noticed right away—I hope you don’t mind me saying it. I think you make people feel comfortable.”
She reaches her wineglass to his, a tingling in her chest as the glasses ding together. Alexhasheard this before. She’s always been the kind of person who people feel at ease around, who they’d tell things to. Back in the before times, she used to joke that if someonehad committed a murder, they’d probably tell her about it. She wonders if that is still true.
There is a pause in their conversation as they eat. The wine has made her warm inside. Tom smiles at her over the candle. She holds his gaze. There’s no ducking away this time, no awkwardness. It is the first time in as long as she can remember that she has felt this calm. And then he puts down his fork, pats his mouth with the white napkin, and leans back.
“So, your boss istheHoward Demetri?” he asks.
“The one and only!” She expects him to be impressed, but instead Tom looks down into his lap. “Why?” she asks, confused. He hesitates, like he’s not sure he wants to tell her now.
“Well, when I said I recognized him earlier, it wasn’t the way you might think. I mean, now that you say it, of course I know his name. And I thought he had a familiar look to him. But there is something else I wasn’t sure I should bring up.”
“And now?” She feels her skin prickle.
“Now I’ve had half a bottle of this fabulous pinot and I am losing my ability to keep this extremely tantalizing gossip from you.”
Alex leans in. She raises her eyebrows at him, trying to ignore the anxious flutter that’s started in her stomach. “Tell me.”
“Okay, I know this is going to sound kind of weird, but I think his office window is directly across from mine. I’ve seen him in there at night…” He trails off.
“You spy on him?” Alex narrows her eyes at the stranger across the table. His cheeks flush and he holds his palms out to her, pleading innocence.
“No! I mean, not on purpose. My desk points right toward theHerald. When it’s dark out, those big windows are practically lit up like television screens.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” Alex asks, her elbows on the table. She is afraid of what he’s about to say, and she’s not sure if it is because of what it will reveal about Howard or what it already tells her about Tom.
He nods. “After seeing him outside the other day, I’m positive.I can’t see too many details, but I know it’s him. You can’t exactly mistake him for someone else with that height and that thick JFK hair of his and all.”
It’s true, Alex thinks. The shape of Howard Demetri is so striking that it would be almost impossible not to pick him out of a lineup. “So, what have you seen?”
His finger traces the top of his empty wineglass. “I hope what I’m about to tell you doesn’t make me sound creepy.”
“I hope not, too,” she says with a laugh, but her hands have gone slick as she tugs on her sleeves under the table.
“I don’t normally watch people at night through the window, you have to understand. But there was a while there where I was working on a big project for the bank and I was staying late, even later than normal. And let’s just say that, at least during that time, Mr. Howard Demetri had a semiregular nightly visitor, and it was very friendly.”
It takes her a second to understand what he’s referring to. “What! You mean they were having sex? In his office?” Alex asks, scandalized. “Did you see her?”
Tom blushes. “Not really. Just her back. They were, um, on the desk.”
“Wow. I would not have expected that.”
