“Maybe.” She had the bag open, reaching in without looking. “I also interviewed this kid at a pizza place today, and his attitude bothered me and hung with me all day. He was just one in a group of six, and it shouldn’t have really been a problem, but it seemed like, the longer the day went on, his attitude just got to me more and more. So that it’s all I can think about.”
“You need to get him out of your head because you know that guys like him exist everywhere.”
“I know, but it’s like he felt he didn’t have to answer my questions. He didn’t have to talk to me at all. Like, he wassomebody, and I should damn well know it. He didn’t need to stay at the crime scene, much less answer my questions or give me the straight truth.” She snorted, then shook her head, dumping whatever food she had retrieved onto her plate.
“That just means that, one of these days, he’ll get his comeuppance, whether it’s from you or somebody else,” he said.
“Maybe, and maybe not. It seems like these kids born with a silver spoon in their mouths always get an easy pathway ahead of them.” She took a big bite of whatever.
“Did you ever have an easy pathway?”
She stopped, looked at him. “I told you about my brother, right?”
He nodded. “A little bit.”
“Right, well, I’m sure you can fill in the rest.”
“Sure, I probably can, but it’s not the same thing as hearing it from you.”
“And that is one of the topics I really don’t want to discuss tonight.” For added emphasis, she pointed her fork at him. “Talk about a life cut short.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “You see? That’s why I didn’t invite you over.… I’m in a shitty mood. I get moments of clarity—where I’m okay for, you know, ten or fifteen minutes, like now,” she said, lifting another forkful of her food. “And then everything just comes back down again, and I crash.”
“You know that you don’t always have to be on. You don’t always have to be perfect.”
She stopped, stared. “It’s a damn good thing, since I’m a far cry from being perfect.” Her tone was harsh. She narrowed her gaze at him, and he shook his head.
“You can’t scare me off. I’ve seen way worse than you,” he said.
At that, she burst out laughing. “I don’t know what it is about you, but that sense of humor gets me every time.”
“And here I wouldn’t have said I even had one.”
She chuckled again. “See? It’s shit like that. And you don’t shoot me down for being in a pissy mood, but neither will you indulge it either, so that works.”
“Yeah, we work.”
She glared at him. With some heat this time. And not the good kind.
“Oh no, you don’t. I get that it’s not a conversation for right now, but neither is this a conversation about shutting us down.”
“It was part of my earlier mood,” she snapped. “And it’s something I have to consider.”
“No, you don’t. Remember that part about we’re all good?”
“We’re good, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.”
He stared, the anger inside him growing. “What the hell is unhealthy about it? What the hell are you even talking about?”
“I don’t know. I told you it’s a shitty day. Just leave me alone.”
“Happily.” He stood now. “Absolutely. But stop getting inside my head then too.”
She stared at him. “You mean that literally?”
“No, I don’t mean it literally.” He groaned, sat back down. “Why are we arguing?”