“I
haven’t been happy at home, much less happy during the holidays. It just seems
so much more stressful, now,” she said.
“No,
I guess not. I mean, when we were dating and still in college we used to do all
sorts of things for the holidays. Sometimes it was tense at my parents or his,
but we always made time to enjoy ourselves. It wasn’t even always romantic. We
just got along so much better. I don’t know.”
I
didn’t have anything to say, and it was one of the awkward silences that
stretched too long. She looked blankly at the seat in front of her as she
continued twisting the ring on her finger. I opened my mouth, unsure of what I
was going to say, when Amanda interrupted.
“Excuse
me, Mr. Allen. You’ve been asked for.”
“Um,
okay. Be right back,” I said to the woman.
“Really, Matthew? You have yet to
ask the woman her name? It is getting quite tedious simply referring to her as
the woman.”
“Her name is Ellie, but I didn’t
find that out until later, okay. Didn’t think you wanted me breaking the
sequence of the story for convenience.”
“I wanted you to ask her name long
ago. How hard is it to introduce yourself to someone?”
“Today? It’s a real pain. Cassie
wants me to get on these social networks and make friends with her and people
from high school, and who knows who else is out there.”
“You were engaged in an intimate
and personal conversation, but you didn’t think to ask for her name?”
I shrugged. “I don’t like to intrude.”
“You are a private detective! It’s
your job to intrude!”
I grinned.
“You’ve been doing this
deliberately.”
“I don’t think you have enough
proof for that.”
“I will get you back for this,
Matthew.”