Page 24 of The Hang Up
Kinda…
Before she realized she’d made up her mind, Miriam had her clothes on and her makeup done to perfection. Nothing too dramatic—a little mascara, some blush, a hint of lipstick. She wore a pale yellow cotton sundress chosen to look like she’d thrown it on haphazardly after work instead of standing in her closet for twenty minutes trying to choose just the right thing. With a light spritz of perfume, she picked up the gloves and headed toward the door.
“Be back in just a second,” she said to Phuzeei as she scooped up the bottle of red wine she’d chosen from her well-appointed wine rack. “But don’t wait up just in case.”
She walked more quickly than usual, her sandal-clad feet easily covering the two blocks from her house to the blue duplex he’d pointed out earlier. She hesitated on the doorstep, realizing she didn’t actually know which place was his. The doors looked identical, but the one on the right had a tiny bronze nameplate on it. Miriam squinted at the letters, trying to make out the word.
Sanders.Yep, this was definitely his place. She’d just lifted her hand to knock when the door flew open.
A slender blond woman with her hair in a ponytail stared back at Miriam. She pushed wispy bangs off her forehead, revealing an enviable pair of blue eyes that looked stunning without a trace of makeup.
Miriam resisted the urge to want to gouge out those eyes. “I’m sorry,” she stammered, glancing at the nameplate again. “I was looking for Jason Sanders, but I must have the wrong?—”
“I’m Ellie,” the blonde said, and offered a friendly smile that made Miriam regret thinking evil thoughts about her eyes. “Jason just ducked out for a sec, but can I help you with something?”
“Ellie,” she repeated, trying to make sense of things.
Had he mentioned a roommate?
The woman smiled and leaned against the doorframe, giving Miriam a glimpse of the framed photo on the wall behind her. An image of Jason and Ellie perched side by side on matching mountain bikes on the edge of a canyon. Before Miriam could peer closer to see if they were holding hands or striking a friends-only pose, Ellie shifted again.
“He’ll be right back,” Ellie said. “He just ran to the grocery store to grab tampons and baby aspirin, but he shouldn’t be more than five more minutes.”
Tampons? Baby aspirin?A faint buzz started in Miriam’s ears, filling her whole brain with a chorus of self-doubt and dread.
But that crescendo was nothing compared with the sound she heard next.
“Mommy! Who’s there?”
Miriam felt her gut hit the floor. She looked down to see a little blond boy with pale blue eyes magnified by plastic-rimmed glasses and a dimple that matched Jason’s.
Holy shit.
Miriam took a step back, feeling like an idiot. For crying out loud, the guy had a wife and a kid. She’d locked lips with a married man.
Before Ellie or Miriam could respond to the kid’s question, the tyke grinned up at her and shoved his glasses up the bridge of his freckled nose. “I have a penis but mommy has a fa-chyna,” he announced.
Miriam took another step back, nearly falling off the front step in the process. “Um—yes. Yes. I’m sure she does.”
She tried not to look at Ellie, not wanting to consider the fact that Jason was clearly quite familiar with the other woman’s fa-chyna, if his son was any indication.
How could you be so stupid?
“I should go—” Miriam said, but Ellie cut her off.
“Oh, awesome—you brought my gloves back.” She pointed at Miriam’s hand, and Miriam looked down at them, trying to think of an excuse for having Jason’s wife’s gloves. “Right,” she said, and handed them over. “I was just—washing them.”
Ellie looked at her oddly but didn’t question the likelihood that Jason might have hired someone to wash a pair of stretchy pink Dollar Store gloves. Miriam tried to think of something else to say, but her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.
Seemingly unperturbed, Ellie set the gloves on an end table and gestured toward her living room.“You’re welcome to come on in and wait for Jase,” she said. “He shouldn’t be more than a few minutes. I’m sorry, how did you say you know him?”
With a start, Miriam realized she hadn’t said a word about why she’d come, but work seemed like a good enough cover. It was true, pretty much. Hadn’t they agreed to keep things strictly business?
Never mind that kiss.
“Right,” she said, finding her voice at last. “I’m—um— Miriam. I work with Jason.”
Work. Is that what he’d been doing with his hand up Miriam’s shirt while his wife and kid waited at home for him?
