Page 10 of Pleading Innocence

I hesitated. It was the middle of the day, and I was a new dad now. I needed to be sharp. However, there were still a few hours left until I had to be back at home. “Well…,” I said, scrunching my face in consideration. “Since I don’t have work for the rest of the day, I guess no harm, no foul,” I said.

“That’s the spirit!” Anthony grinned, patting me on the back as we headed through the door.

“Hold on, don’t you have to get back here for work?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it’s never too early for a drink. And there’s never a wrong time.” He pulled me in by the shoulders with a chuckle.

“I think some people would disagree with you on that one,” I said. “But I gotta make one stop first, so I’ll meet you at the bar, okay?” I gave him a slight playful elbow in the stomach for him to release me before hurrying away, remembering that I wanted to stop in to see how Tiffany was first and I didn’t want him to invite himself along for the ride.

“Hey, I’m not in any rush, I’ll come with you,” he said with a shrug.

Ah, shit. Well, that backfired quickly. My heart raced with indecision. We were just talking about our friendship and Tiffany, and I was thinking about giving him the benefit of the doubt, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to accompany me on my way to see her. I wasn’t that comfortable yet. Maybe I should be though. Besides, I was going to be there, so it wasn’t like I was sending him over to her address on his own, right?

He’d be mad to try anything with me standing there because he wouldn’t be able to walk out of there on two legs if he did. But that wasn’t the only problem. I didn’t want him to know where she lived.Maybe he could stay in the car?

I was standing outside the doors on the tile-like concrete, frozen in place, while he was staring at me in confusion. I already felt like I was being too hard on him before, and now if I made up some excuse for him not to come, he’d see through my bullshit. He was a frickin’ lawyer, for heaven’s sake. Fine. I would figure out how to handle it on the drive over there.

I wasn’t planning on staying long, and if it happened to take longer than I expected, I’d have to tell him to go on over to the bar without me. I couldn’t expect him to spend the rest of his lunch time in the car, and I wasn’t feeling confident about him accompanying me upstairs.

“Yeah, okay, sure. But take your car too, just in case it takes a little longer than I think it will,” I said to him, hoping desperately that I wasn’t making a huge mistake.

Chapter 7

Anthony

Iwasn’tsurewhyChris was acting so secretive about coming to the apartment complex that Mario owned. There wasn’t any need to hide this from me, so I was unsure why he was so hesitant when we showed up here. I still came because I’d wanted something to distract me from work today and seeing Chris was perfect. Any moment I could steal to hang out with my ever-busy best friend was a moment I was willing to seize. And also, I was nosy. Once he’d started acting weird, my antennae were positioned on my head to detect what he was being so secretive about.

However, arriving at the apartment complex was anticlimactic. Okay, so he wanted to head over here. For what? It couldn’t be to meet Mario when Chris was just at Crawford & Beam. Yeah, Mario left early…to come here, though? That didn’t make sense. If Chris was stopping by Crawford & Beame, why would Mario choose to leave the office to meet him here? Unless he wasn’t meeting Mario.

Unless…

No. It couldn’t be. Not Chris—Mr. Responsible, ‘I’ve got a wife and kids, a house and stability.’ But, I mean, if I were to put myself in his shoes…?

There was no way.

I recognized this building for one other reason. It wasn’t just Mario’s apartment complex to me. When Mario first bought the place, we used to come here a lot together, and let’s just say, I got pretty familiar with the residents. I spent many a night here, in quite the mix of beds. So, if Chris wasn’t here to meet Mario, could it be possible that he was here to meet a…lover?

No judgments but even I was beginning to feel sorry for his wife even, though I thought marriage in general had a higher probability of failing than it had of lasting. Oh shit. I should’ve backed out and opted not to come. I was beginning to understand the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat.’ For the first time in this friend group, I was the one lagging behind, tipping on my toes, trying to convince the villainous character to turn around and forget about committing the crime. It was like a weird mystery crime show that would end with us in cuffs and I wasn’t sure how I felt being some kind of accomplice in this.

As we stepped into the elevator, I kept looking at him and looking away, in shock and because I wasn’t quite sure what to say or how to handle these thoughts in my head.

Chris caught a glance at me before I turned my head away again. “What the hell’s the matter with you?” he asked, cocking his eyebrow at me.

I was shifty and jittery. I looked at him for a bit before I came right out and said it, lowering my voice even though we were the only ones in the elevator. “What are you doing here, man?” I asked him.

“I’m just here to visit somebody. I told you to wait in the car,” he said as his eyes narrowed on me in irritation.

“Now, how much fun would that be for me just sitting in a car? I’d have a much more fun time at work if that was to be my fate. Besides, while you’re on your ‘visit,’ I might make a few ‘visits’ myself, check up on a few people I haven’t seen in a while,” I said, throwing hints, hoping he’d just come out and say it.

“Oh, I know all about those ‘people.’” He snickered, then paused. “Wait, why’d you say it like that?”

I raised my brows, closed my eyes, and pulled my head away with a scoff. “You know why I said it like that,” I whispered a little louder.

“No. I don’t. Why’d you say it in all ‘quotations’ like that?” he asked, making air quotes with his fingers.

“Chris, come on. We’re both men here. We’re best friends. I’m in the frickin’ elevator with you. I’m going to see who you’re visiting eventually, so let’s cut the shit. Are you cheating on your wife, man?” I asked him.

His face slackened and his mouth fell open before he began to grimace as if one of us had farted in the enclosed space. Redness flushed his skin making his beard appear a lot more ginger. He looked like he was about to throw up. “What? No! Fuck, no! Dude, geez. Why does your mind always have to go there, man? Drop it.”

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