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“Cool place,” I said.
“Thanks. You want to sit?”
“Before I get comfortable, Mandy said you were single. That meant
unattached. Completely unattached.”
Outside, a car started in the back alley. It wasn’t the rumble of an El
Camino, but the whirr of a new Camry.
“You mean Amilcar?” she said, eyebrows raised. “No, no. He’s a friend.
A good friend, but you know… just a friend.”
“Ah. Right. Just checking.”
“Full disclosure. I wanted him here to meet you. He’s a first
impressionist. It’s like a gift. One look and he knows.”
Every person who knew about what I was trying to arrange was a
potential leak, and if my family found out, I could kiss Crowne goodbye. I
didn’t know this Amilcar person well enough to trust him.
“You told him?” I asked.
“I said you and I are dating, if that’s okay.”
“And he gets an impression of everyone you date?”
“I wanted to make sure you’re not just trying to get laid.”
“I don’t need to go to this much trouble to get laid.”
“Or maybe you’re a serial killer.”
“I didn’t kill Millie. We just broke up.”
She laughed.
“Sit.” She indicated a worn couch and two chairs around a chest that
served as a coffee table. “I’ve got a pot of water boiling. Or soda. I have
Sprite. But…” She looked me up and down again, and I squinted at her as if
that would help me discern what she was seeing. “I can get you a glass of
milk if you want that.”
Milk?
“Whatever you’re having.”
I’d be fucked before I let her get milk out of the fridge just for me,
because even though it didn’t matter what she thought of me as a man, I
cared.
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