Page 50 of Save the Drama for your Mama
I turned to Melody. “This is all just a coincidence, obviously.”
“If you say so,” she said with a playful smile.
“What are you saying—that it’s not?” I asked.
“I’m not saying anything.”
“Yeah, but the way you say nothing makes it sound like you’re saying something.”
Melody laughed. “You’d make an excellent lawyer. Or detective.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if I don’t finish my book,” I said, chuckling. “Got any bright ideas for busting us out of here?”
“That door’s not budging, obviously.” She glanced around the attic space. “We need a metal rod or a crowbar or an ice pick.”
I pretended to check my pockets, then grimaced. “I left my serial-killer toolkit in the trunk of my car.”
Melody shook her head in amusement. “Okay then, maybe we can squeeze through the window and then jump off the roof?”
“I’d like to avoid breaking my neck, or at least keep it as a last resort,” I said.
She placed her hands on her hips. “You’re not helping.”
I mirrored her stance. “And you are?”
“It’s called brainstorming ideas,” Melody said. “If we keep tossing mud at the wall, eventually something’s going to stick.”
“Are you sure that’s mud? Because it looks more like—”
Melody held up her hand. “Don’t say it. And are you telling me you don’t brainstorm your stories with someone before you write them?”
“I told you, I work—”
“Alone,” Melody said. “Well, good luck finishing your book, since it looks like we’ll be stuck here forever.” She glanced around the attic, then got her eyes back on me. “I guess this is what marriage feels like.”
I snapped my fingers to play along. “We didn’t even get a honeymoon.”
“And you knew how much I love Paris in the spring, but you didn’t make it happen.” Melody scrutinized me in dramatic fashion. “What kind of man are you?”
“I ask myself that question every day.”
“We were doomed from the start. But you’re my favorite mistake, if that helps.”
I couldn’t believe she was flirting with me so blatantly.
And I was eating it up inside.
Melody appeared so relaxed about being stuck in the attic, almost like it was fun for her. It wasn’t as if we were going to die up there or anything, but still, some people would freak out. Even though Chip and his crew had left for the day, we both had our phones, so all we had to do was make a call. Someone would come to get us out, even if they had to break down the door.
Still, neither of us seemed to be in a hurry to do anything about it as we pretended it was the end of the world. Being stuck in an elevator would have been a different story, but luckily, we didn’t have to worry about that.
“Have you ever been married?” Melody surprisingly asked.
“No, never even came close. You?” I asked.
“All the princes are gone,” she said.
“It’s a jungle out there.”
