“So I haven’t seen you for dinner lately.”
“Kind of a conflict of interest, dontcha think? Since we’re going to be tearing each other apart next week and all.”
Truth was, I hadn’t been able to break bread with him when I was banging the hell out of Carly and lying about it to people I considered friends.
Maybe I was the pale-bellied pussy.
“Not to me. I don’t have a problem with it, why should you?”
I made a noise in my throat and sped up. Maybe he’d give up if it was obvious I couldn’t carry on a conversation.
“Gotta be frank, brother, a guy’s gotta wonder if there’s another reason you haven’t been coming around. Like, oh, I don’t know. Maybe you’re having a problem with Mia?”
I sent him a look out of the corner of my eye. “If this is about that Vanity bullshit I heard about, I don’t know where she got the idea I touched your girl. Certainly not from me.”
“Nah. She’s taken care of. Somehow Emerson got her to promise to leave Mia alone or else she’d land her butt in jail. I’m not sure how he got it to stick, but she’s gone back to Mark’s Gym with her tail between her legs.”
“So now she’s their problem?” Didn’t really sound like the best way of solving the issue to me, but since I’d had a hand in that situation too, however unintentionally, I wasn’t going to voice my opinion.
I had enough shit to deal with.
“Long as she’s not ours. Dude, she was incensed over you. What’s up with that?”
“Looking for tips?”
“Nah. I tend to stay out of the cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs lane if I can help it.”
I didn’t laugh, but it was a close thing.
“So, hmm, if you don’t have a problem with Mia, and you’re cool with me, that only leaves…” He snapped his fingers as if he’d just been hit by a lightning bolt. “Carly. But you couldn’t be having an issue with her, could you?”
I didn’t like the way he stressed the word issue, not one bit. Fox could go fishing in another hole, because this snapper wasn’t biting.
“No.”
“You know, funny thing about Carly. She’s been gone an awful lot just recently. She’s always had an active social life, like I mentioned to you some weeks back, but lately, it’s been on hyperdrive. She rarely seems to sleep in the apartment two nights in a row.”
He barely panted between sentences, though he was running at a damn good clip. I wished he wasn’t quite so physically fit, because maybe then he’d choke and shut the hell up.
“Maybe that’s because you make her sleep on the floor.”
“Oh, you know that, do you? How’d you hear about that?” His genial tone made me want to punch him. In the face.
“The night I bandaged her finger,” I responded, as if it made all the sense in the world. It was a damn good save. I just wasn’t sure if it was good enough.
Fox was about as affable and unassuming as a copperhead snake.
“Huh. Interesting. See, I figured she’s been getting closer to her salad shop guy. But I don’t think that’s it. I have this odd feeling it’s not him she’s been cozied up with. Wonder who else it could be?”
For a moment, panic flared in my gut that Marco and his fuckers had sent pictures to Fox just to screw with him. Then I realized they wouldn’t bother. Their hits, if they came, would be much more direct than anonymous photos.
“Is there a reason you’re telling me all this, or did you just forget to take out your tampon this morning?” I was winded, though I wasn’t altogether sure if it was from the run or from Fox’s nearness to the truth.
“I thought we were buddies. Friends don’t lie to each other. And they also don’t judge, regardless of all the evidence.”
I didn’t say a goddamn word.
“Sometimes what it looks like on the surface is only half the picture. And I gotta think that if Carly believes…that guy is worthwhile enough to spend time with, there has to be damn good reason.”