That had just come to her for the first time. What if he had a woman
in his bed and they were giggling and playing games under the sheets?
The grinning, green-eyed monster popped up like magic in her mind and
chortled its nasty laugh. This jealousy crap was really hard to take.
It wasn't like somebody coming straight at her she could elbow or
throw, it was this sneaky, insidious beast that popped up
unexpectedly,
stabbed her with a long trident when she wasn't expecting it, then ran
like hell before she could gather herself to react. She hated the
feeling, and she really hated not being able to prevent it. Toni
wasn't altogether dense about this kind of thing. You don't spend more
than half your life learning a martial art that would allow you to kick
serious butt without recognizing that you have some... control issues.
She didn't really think Alex would have found somebody else, given his
track record--he hadn't dated anybody to speak of for years after he
and his ex-wife split--but you never knew. Having jumped back into the
pool finally, maybe he would have found a new partner for synchronized
swimming. And certainly that would screw things up, wouldn't it?
Toni shook her head at her thought. Okay, fine. Whatever.
She wasn't going there for some kind of tearful movie reconciliation,
she was going there for some answers.
Answers that Alex, by God, owed her.
And thinking of there, all of a sudden, here they were.
Alex's condo was on a fairly quiet street in a solid upper-middle-class
neighborhood filled with condos and houses much like his. Rich people
wouldn't stoop to live here, poor couldn't afford to, but the
residences were comfortable and in keeping with the kind of job Alex
had.
Nice place, nice neighborhood, and until that horrible moment in
London, nice guy.
She had to know what had happened to change that. It didn't make any
sense.
Toni paid the cabbie, towed her single suitcase on its built-in wheels
to the front door, and stood there.
And stood there. And stood there some more.
There were lights on inside, and it wasn't that late. All she had to
do was push the doorbell.
She realized that she was breathing too fast, and that her hands were
damp. It was a warm, humid night, but that wasn't what was causing her
to sweat. She was, she realized, afraid. And coming from a solid base
of being able to protect herself, that was really scary.
She took a deep breath, let half of it out, and gathered her resolve.
She pushed the doorbell. She heard it ring.
There was a space of time, how long she couldn't say, but subjectively,
about ten or fifteen thousand years.
'Yes?'
His voice over the intercom was the first time she'd heard him speak
since he'd left London seven weeks ago.
It was a sound she hadn't realized how much she had missed until she
heard it, and the simple question stunned her, so that all she could
