Carl gave me the finger, jumped off his booster chair, walked into the living room, and turned the television on.
“Does he know that’s rude?” I asked Diesel.
Diesel forked into a piece of chicken. “It’s hard to tell what Carl knows.”
“Are you making any progress on the latest message?”
“We’re back to Shakespeare. The silence of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails is a quote from The Winter’s Tale. Basically, it means sometimes silence speaks louder than words. The second sentence references Tichy.”
Diesel got up and returned with a notepad.
“Peder Tichy was a Danish paleontologist, geologist, and engineer,” he read. “Born May 11, 1790. Died March 17, 1862. He grew up in Copenhagen and, after emigrating to the United States, became a professor of natural history at Harvard.”
“Interesting but not helpful.”
“He was a pretty influential guy. There are a bunch of landmarks around Boston named for him. There’s a neighborhood in Cambridge called Tichytown, a town in Northern Algeria named for him, and a dinosaur resembling Stegosaurus named Tichasaurus Armatus.”
“If the next clue is in Algeria, you’re on your own.”
“I thought we’d start with the landmarks. I have four, and they’re all in Cambridge.”
“Tonight?”
“No. Tomorrow. It’ll be easier in daylight. And I have a date tonight.”
This produced an instant sick feeling in my stomach. The guy who slept next to me naked last night had a date. And it wasn’t with me. Okay, so nothing actually happened between us, and he had every right to see other women, and it wasn’t like he was my boyfriend. So why did I feel like someone just stuck a fork in my heart?
He stared down at his empty plate. “Is there dessert?”
“No.”
“Jeez,” he said. “I was just asking.”
“Sorry. I guess that came out snappy. I have ice cream.”
“Ice cream would be great.”
I had vanilla, chocolate, and coffee ice cream. I knew chocolate was his favorite, so I brought him coffee. I wasn’t liking him a whole lot.
He finished his ice cream and checked his watch. “I have to run.” He pushed away from the table and kissed me on the top of my head. “I’m leaving Carl here.”
And he was gone.
“Scumbag!” I yelled at the closed door.
Carl turned the television up a notch.
“And you better watch your step,” I said to Carl, shaking my finger at him. “You’re on thin ice.”
I collected the dishes and huffed off to the kitchen. I was such a dope. I should never have brought him ice cream. Let him get his own dumb ice cream. And he wasn’t sleeping in my bed tonight, either. Let him sleep in her bed. Okay, that was unrealistic. I had no way of keeping him out of my bed. He just unlocked the door, dropped his boxers on the floor, and sneaked under the covers. Not to mention, I had no way of knowing if he was seeing other women. It wasn’t something we discussed. And it would be logical to assume a guy with that much testosterone would want to deposit it somewhere once in a while.
“Men!” I said, dumping the dishes into the dishwasher.
Cat 7143 was sitting on the counter with his half-tail curled around him.
“My life is confusing,” I said to Cat. “I can’t get a grip on it. And I’m ridiculously attracted to an idiot.”
Cat blinked and I took that as a suggestion to have a glass of wine. I cleaned the kitchen, had a second glass, and trudged upstairs. I shucked my clothes and dressed for bed in sweatpants, sweatshirt, and thick socks. I couldn’t keep him out of my bed, but I could insulate myself from him.