'No reason. I was just wondering, since you are always hammering at me
for keeping to myself, not telling you what is going on inside my head,
I was just wondering why you didn't tell me you were considering going
to work for Melissa Allison, that's all.'
Well. So much for his burn-in-hell resolve not to mention it.
She unfolded her arms, put one hand to her mouth, and she had, by God,
the grace to at least look guilty. She said, 'I... I'm sorry. I was
going to tell you.'
'When? When I saw them painting your name on your new parking
space?'
'Alex--' 'No, no, you don't have to explain. You can do what you want,
I don't have any strings on you. You want to work for the folks on the
other side of the compound, hey, it's not my business. You are going
to take the job, right?'
Her arms came back up and she crossed them tightly in front of her
breasts. She stared back at him.
'Yes. I am.'
His gut twisted. Well. There you go. Signed, sealed, delivered.
He stood.
'Congratulations. I'm so glad we had a chance to discuss it before you
made your decision.' He stalked past her toward the bedroom. Probably
not as impressive as it might have been, since he was wearing nothing
but his old ratty bathrobe with the frayed cuffs and torn shoulder.
'Don't do this, Alex! Don't shut down on me!'
'You have no room to say that right now,' he said.
'No room at all. I'm going to work.'
'If you do, I won't be here when you get back!'
'Fine, you're going to do what you want anyhow-why bother to tell
me!'
And that pretty much ended that conversation.
Wednesday, June 15th Washington, D.C.
In the cab on the way to the rental car place, Toni fumed.
Why did Alex have to be such a horse's ass?
All right, yes, she should have told him about the job interview, and
that she was seriously considering taking the offer. But, really, when
did she have the chance? After she had seen the director, Alex had
been out of his office and busy. He hadn't come back to his condo
until late, and she'd been in bed. The first time she could have
reasonably brought it up was this morning, and before she had a chance
to say anything, he'd jumped down her throat. How fair was that?
Uh-huh. You can make the case that way to him if you want, but let's
not bullshit ourselves, okay? You could have mentioned it before you
went to the meeting. And you were only pretending to be asleep when
Alex got home because you didn't want to talk about it. Try again.
All right, yes, yes, it was true. But even so, he still didn't have
any right to blow up like that. He wasn't her father!
No, but he's the man you love. And he was right about one thing--you
did to him what you absolutely hate to see him do to you--you kept him
in the dark about what was going on inside your head. And all that
business about you not being there when he got home? What was that?
