Page 43 of Your Every Wish
“Then you go see her.”
“What about Hoover Dam? We could take one of those helicopter trips.”
He glances at his watch. “You ladies want dessert?”
“I’m good,” Kennedy says.
“You sure? Because I’m getting the chocolate molten lava cake. They make the best here.” I say it mostly to piss off Dex, who’s made it clear he wants to leave.
He flags down our server and orders two for the table. “We’ll all share.”
“Maybe Kennedy wants her own.”
“Then she can have the other one,” Dex says. “I’ll have a taste of yours.”
I can’t argue with that because I can’t finish a whole one anyway.
“Where are you staying, Kennedy?” he asks, and I think to myself at least he’s finally showing a modicum of interest.
“The Intercontinental.”
“On Howard? We’ll drop you off on our way home.”
“That would be great. Thank you.”
After that lively and witty exchange the table falls quiet again. Despite all the world events, we apparently have nothing to talk about.
Our desserts come, we race through them and Dex pays the bill, which is good of him, even though I want to punch him in the face right now. The valet fetches his car and we drive to the hotel in more silence.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I tell Kennedy as she gets out of the back seat.
She sticks her head inside my open window. “Thanks for the ride and for dinner.”
“Don’t mention it,” Dex says. “Nice meeting you.”
“You too.” But Kennedy doesn’t mean it.
“Would it have killed you to be a little nicer?” I say as we drive away.
“Not kill me. I was plenty nice. I paid for dinner, didn’t I?”
“Give me a break, Dex. You could cut the hostility with a knife. Why? What did Kennedy ever do to you?”
“I don’t like her.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I don’t like criminals.”
“She’s not a criminal.”
“Here’s a question: Why do you like her?”
“We have a connection, a bond,” I say because from the first moment I met her I felt it. As different as we are, we’re also the same.
“Because you share the same DNA?” He laughs. “Or is it that you’re doing what you always do, making someone else’s problems your own?”
I stop for a second to give it some thought because Dex does have a point. I’m a professional problem solver, an advice giver. “Even if that’s the case, which it isn’t, what’s wrong with it?”
