Page 81 of Absolute Certainty
PRESENT DAY
It’s terrifying being open like this.
Setting the pen down like it burned him, Jay shook his fingers and wrist. Writing the letter to Sahar took more out of him than he thought it would.
He felt pathetic.Christ,he needed to pull himself together. He could never say any of this to her. She’d probably laugh in his face.No, she wouldn’t.She’d let him down gently instead. Sahar was too good and too lovely to ever be crude like that.
He tore the paper from the notepad, folded it into a square, and stared at it. What on earth was he supposed to do with it now? Where was he supposed to put it? Throwing it away felt wrong. Placing it somewhere where anyone could stumble upon it felt invasive.
And then it came to him. Standing up, Jay strode to the small table near the door where his keys and wallet were. He tucked the folded piece of paper inside his wallet, leaving it there for now until a better place came to him.
When he sat back down at the kitchen table, he willed himself to focus on Katherine’s letter instead.
If we get through this, then I’ll meet you at the spot where we had our first case together. You know the one. That’s where I’ll be.
His chest ached, and a hollow part of him ignited with an inexplicable sense of hope. How did he ever kill off Katherine in the first place? How had he allowed the story to end so somberly when he should’ve given them a happy ending instead?
It’d been so hard to tell this story before, but now, so much of it was beginning to make more sense. So much of it was starting to feel…right.
21
SAHAR
After she’d followed Alex on social media last week, Sahar had replied to a story aboutHatchard’s Academy, mentioning that if Martin was ever out, she’d want to come see the show again for Alex and Aisha.Ifit happened to be during their Thursday matinee, which Sahar could attend before going into work at night.
Last night, Alex had sent her a direct message saying Martin would be out from Wednesday to Saturday, which also worked in Sahar’s favor because she had a PT appointment at noon that Jenny squeezed in for her at the last minute.
And since theCluenight, Sahar had begun feeling more comfortable hanging out with Jay. She’d mentioned the show, asking if he was free to join her. He was.
Stepping out of the Hyacinth Theatre after PT, she looked around the street, taking in the city’s pulse in the early afternoon. Quiet, but loaded with the comforting boom that perpetually pounded from every building and passerby. An impact that could only be felt in the more secluded streets wedged in between the roaring Theatre District.
After a minute, she spotted Jay walking toward her, and the black T-shirt clinging to his body made Sahar suddenly more aware of the thick humidity crawling up her back.
She strode forward, meeting him in the middle of the empty sidewalk, hilariously right in front of the promotional shot of her as Jane. The corners of his mouth hooked up in a beguiling closed-mouth smile, once more contrasting how Martin would approach her like she was the fucking guillotine. Not that she and Jay were anything but friends. Still, she liked the way he moved toward her—head held high, eyes locked on hers like there was nowhere else in the world he’d rather be. And with that, she was once more confronted with the reality that the sight of Jay outside the coffee shop was becoming a rare beat of comfort she wanted to pocket for safekeeping.
Winding his arm around her as he drew closer, he gave her a cursory side hug while simultaneously turning both their bodies back in the direction he came from.
“How was your shift?” Sahar asked, her body itching to be closer to his.
A grunt toppled out of him in response.
She laughed. “That bad?”
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Was PT okay?”
His hand hovered over the small of her back as she stepped in front of him to avoid a group of people falling over each other in their path. Bending back while power-walking, she answered him with a “Yeah.”
They rounded the corner, passing Summer Nori, and her heart thundered at the memory of their first time having lunch together. She looked over at him again, overwhelmed by his sharp, dangerously tempting features.
“Did you think of what I owe you?” he asked, deep baritone coated with a softness concocted specifically to travel through her bloodstream.
“I thought we decided it didn’t count for us because you’re giving Henry and Katherine a happy ending for me. Plus, the letter,” Sahar said, amusement spreading across her face.
Jay clicked his tongue. “Nah, that’s not part of this. You gotta think of something.”
You. Your mouth. Your hands. Every square inch.“Let me think about it,” she returned.
Nodding his reply, he nudged her toward the queue forHatchard’s Academy.
