“Glad you like them.” I thrust the vase into her hands and got out my keys. “They’re for you.”
She opened the card, read it, rolled her eyes, and flicked it down on my entry table. “Ryan was mad that I went with you to talk to Brandon. He said it wasn’t a smart decision.”
I hadn’t thought of it before but maybe he was right. Had it been irresponsible of me to involve Ridley in all of this? She didn’t work for the newspaper (despite what Brandon thought) and she was pregnant, after all. I glanced at the roses and felt a pang of guilt for using her as eye candy. But then I remembered it was Ridley who came to me looking for a way to help—not the other way around.
“Does he know about your ‘connection’ with David?” I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “I mean, could he have been jealous?”
“I doubt it,” she said as she nestled into my overstuffed sofa. Coltrane sat in front of her, panting, waiting for more of her attention. Traitor. I stayed standing in a subtle form of protest. Although, to be fair, I also got her a glass of lemonade, so as protests go, it was pretty weak.
“Sometimes I think he can be a bit controlling,” she said. “Like he knows what’s best all the time.”
This I could relate to. I had spent much of the past year thinking through all the ways Ryan had controlled the narrative of our seven years together. We ate at the restaurants he liked best, we went to the movies he wanted to see, and I even went to the college he wanted to go to. Don’t get me wrong, I was a willing participant, but that was one of the reasons we were able to be together as long as we were. I handed Ryan control over my life, which felt really good at the time because he didn’t over-think, he didn’t ruminate, and he did what seemed like a good idea at the time—and when I was with him, I did that too. It worked out great until he decided it would be a good idea to move on without me. If there is one lesson I learned going through heartbreak hell over Ryan, it was that I’d never abdicate again. It might not always be smooth sailing, but I was the captain of my own ship and I’d sink or swim by my own hand.
But I didn’t want to talk about any of this with Ridley. I still had a complicated sense of loyalty to Ryan and talking about him with his baby mama just didn’t feel right. It felt like a betrayal.
“So,” I said. “Maybe you should go talk it out with him? You know, clear the air?” That was my not-so-subtle way of trying to get her perfect butt off my sofa.
But she had other ideas. She turned on her side, laid her head down on my fuzzy ivory throw pillow, and closed her eyes. “Later,” she said in a sleepy voice. “I’m too tired to move now—this baby is stealing all my energy. Would you mind if I took just a little cat nap?” And then she fell asleep before I could answer.
Being the sucker that I am, I covered her with a blanket and quietly took my laptop and insubordinate dog into the bedroom. Then I texted Ryan and told her Ridley was at my place so he wouldn’t worry. As I closed the door, I could hear Ridley snoring like an eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear with a head cold. It was the first time I’d smiled since I got home.
I was sitting on my bed working on a story about the upcoming K–5 spelling bee when my phone rang. It was Jay. I knew it wasn’t rational, but I was a little mad at him for not having sent me flowers. It makes about as much sense as being mad at someone in real life when they do something bad to you in a dream—but I couldn’t help it. I had been so touched when I thought he sent me those flowers as an apology that when I realized he hadn’t, it felt like a slight.
“Hey,” he said. “How was your day?”
“Actually, it could have been better,” I said. He was driving home after working in DC all day and I knew that I-95 would be a parking lot, so I took my time filling him in about Kay’s decision to take me off the story, David being poisoned, and my visit with Brandon Laytner. I left out the part about Ridley coming with me, and of course the flowers.
“Tabitha confessed to killing Arthur Davenport?” Jay was as shocked as I had been.
“Yes, but she only did it to try to clear Thad’s name. Obviously, no one believed her.”
“Geez,” Jay said, “that’s the most selfless thing I’ve ever seen Tabitha do. But crazy stupid.” He was quiet for a moment and then asked. “Why didn’t you report it?”
I felt a surge of defensiveness. “Why would I report a fake confession?”
“Well, whether or not it’s fake isn’t really your call . . .”
I felt stung even though I knew he was right. “I know that, it was just . . . it was . . .” The adolescent in me wanted to say that part of the reason I had forgotten to report it was because I was so thrown off that he’d been following me, but I knew that wasn’t exactly fair. “I just screwed up. That’s all.”
“Maybe it’s for the best, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just that this is such a complex story and you’re, you know, still new. Maybe it’s better to cut your teeth on a less dangerous story.”
That spark of anger I had felt after I found
