What She Forgot

by Tammy Falkner

  He winced at all the noise that was still going off. “Can you turn off the alarm?” he shouted.

  Shelly beat me to it. She entered my code and the noise stopped.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Shelly disappeared down the hallway, where MeeMaw still waited, probably scared out of her mind.

  “Did your MeeMaw set off the alarm again?” Jack asked.

  Back when MeeMaw first came to live with me, she’d trigger the alarms accidentally all the time. But she hadn’t done it in a really long time. I didn’t even turn the door alarms on most of the time, unless we were sleeping, because she tripped them so often. Instead, I relied on the cameras and motion detector alerts, which went straight to my phone. In this case, though, they’d gone to Shelly’s phone, too, or else she had just been checking on MeeMaw like she did sometimes. “No, this wasn’t MeeMaw. Somebody was in my house.”

  He walked to the back door, which was still open, and looked out. “Could have been the wind,” he said. “It’s blustery today.”

  “It wasn’t the fucking wind,” Shelly snapped as she walked back into the room. She went to the alarm settings on her phone and rewound the recording so the officers could see.

  “Somebody was in your house, Clark,” Jack said, as he stared at Shelly’s phone.

  “I told you it wasn’t the fucking wind,” Shelly snarled. She shoved her phone back into her pocket. Then he noticed the firearm she still held in her hand.

  “Is that yours?” he asked.

  She looked down at it. “Who else could it belong to?”

  He took a step back, his hand landing on his own gun. “I’ll have to ask you to put that down, miss.”

  “I don’t think so,” Shelly said as she held it near her thigh.

  “She’s licensed to carry,” I said.

  Jack nodded warily.

  “She’s safe.”

  “If you say so. I’d still feel better if she set it to the side.”

  “I wouldn’t,” Shelly said.

  I scrubbed a hand across my forehead. “Shelly, would you go check on MeeMaw?”

  She rolled her eyes, but she left to do it.

  “Who was that?” Jack whispered fiercely at me.

  “That’s my girlfriend,” I replied.

  “Holy fuck,” he replied with a whistle. “Where can I get one of those?”

  Chapter 28

  Shelly

  It felt strange with MeeMaw gone. As soon as Clark had finished with the officers, who filed the breaking and entering report, MeeMaw had fed them all, because apparently she fed them every time they came over due to an alarm, and then Clark had announced that MeeMaw was going to have to go stay with his Aunt Edna until this was all over.

  “She was in my house,” Clark said to me as we watched the taillights of the car MeeMaw was in heading away from the house.

  “I know,” I replied.

  “She was with my MeeMaw while she slept.”

  “I know.”

  “She could have hurt her.”

  “She could have.”

  “I should have sent MeeMaw away as soon as all this started.”

  “Why didn’t you?” I looked at him, watching his face.

  “MeeMaw was afraid to leave me with you,” he said, a grin forming on his lips.

  I pointed to my chest. “MeeMaw was afraid to leave you with me?”

  “She thought you might try to seduce me.”

  I snorted. “If I’d wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have cared who was here.”

  His scar crinkled as he gave me a real grin. “Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep,” he said, his mouth dropping really close to my ear.

  My stomach dropped down toward my toes, so I laid my hand on my belly to settle myself. “Who’s going to keep you safe now, PI guy?” I finally had enough breath to ask.

  “Who says I want to be safe?” he replied. He quirked one heavy brow at me.

  “Maybe Channing will protect you.”

  He snorted. “You mean like she protected MeeMaw today? She hid under the bed the whole time the alarm was going off.”

  “So it is just you she hates. She’s scared of everyone else.”

  “That little fucker would bite me before she’d protect me. She’d be more likely to protect you.” He jabbed his finger in my direction. “And since you insisted that she could stay, you get to take care of her.”

  “She likes me.”

  He stared at me. Hard. “So do I.”

  I took a breath, trying to push down the butterflies that were suddenly loose in my belly. “You think MeeMaw will be okay with your aunt?”

  “MeeMaw will be fine.”

  “Do you think Megan would have hurt her?” My heart lurched at the idea.

  “I think if Megan wanted to hurt her, she would have done it as soon as she got here. She was looking for something.”

  “Like what?”

  He shrugged. “Information, maybe. I have no idea. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re right. If she wanted to hurt your MeeMaw, she would have.” I searched the street, but was looking for nothing, really. “All I have here is a bag with some clothes in it. Nothing more. So I doubt she was looking for anything of mine.”

  “She didn’t know that.”

  “If she’d wanted to know something about me, she would have gone to my apartment.”

  “What makes you think she hasn’t already?”

  “I rigged my apartment to blow up if anyone opens my door.”

  He startled for a moment, and then he started to laugh. A grin tugged at my lips, even though I tried to bite it back. “You suck so bad, Shelly Punter,” he said. He turned and walked toward the house. “And you’re fired.”

  “You couldn’t fire me if you tried!” I called toward his back. “You need me too much!”

  He turned back only for a second. “You’re right about that.” He said it softly, but it was completely clear.

  I stood there for a minute and watched the street, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. Now I understood why people do stupid things while they’re dating. It was almost intoxicating, the feeling that someone likes you.

  But would he really like me if he knew who I was and some of the things I had done in the past? I doubted it. No sane person would.

  Chapter 29

  Shelly

  I danced in place as I held the phone to my ear, listening to it ring over and over. Finally, a man answered, breathing heavily. “Hello,” he said gruffly.

  “Mal?” I asked. Mal was Mason’s best friend. And his wife Aubrey was Lynn’s best friend. And I kind of needed Lynn’s best friend since I didn’t have any friends and Lynn was out of town, trying to stay safe.

  “Lynn?” he asked. He must have confused our voices.

  “No,” I said. “It’s Shelly.”

  Click. He promptly hung up on me. Fuck. That bastard. I dialed the phone again, trying to say calm. Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring…

  “Hello,” he said again.

  “Mal,” I said quickly, “don’t hang up, you motherfucker!”

  I could hear him sucking his teeth on the other end of the line. It was a grating, irritating sound, and he did it in person too, but it had never seemed quite so annoying in person. “What do you want, Shelly?”

  “Is Aubrey there?”

  His tone was crisp and curt. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I…” I stopped and took a breath, wincing inwardly as I tried to figure out how to say it. “I need some advice, and Lynn is out of town, and I don’t have anybody else to ask.”

  “Aubrey’s not here, and she wouldn’t help you anyway.”

  “She’s still not over it, huh?” I asked. Many years ago, Aubrey had made some disparaging remarks about Mason and Lynn in public, and I really wanted her to go away, so I took her away. I pretended to be Lynn so she would get in the car with me, and then I took her deep into the forest and shoved her out of the ca
r. She lived, but she had been pissed at me ever since, even though I had apologized to her face when I was in therapy. She’d accepted. But she still hated my guts apparently.

  “Over it? You tried to kill her!”

  I scoffed, making a noise low in my throat. “You and I both know that if I’d wanted to kill her, I would have.” He said nothing. Dead silence on his part, but I could hear him breathing. “She survived, damn it!”

  “No thanks to you,” he corrected.

  “Well, if she were to catch fire in front of me now, I would put her out.” That sounded perfectly logical until it came out of my mouth.

  “You’d piss on her and put her out, huh?”

  “Oh, I totally would,” I said, and then I realized that that didn’t sound any better than dumping her in the forest did. “I’d help her, I should say.”

  “Why would you do that?” he asked.

  “Because…” I couldn’t answer.

  “Because why, Shelly?” His words were clipped but strong.

  “Because she’s important to Lynn. And Mason. And their baby. And she’s important to you. And she’s a mom and she has kids she has to protect. And they might need her. So if she were to suddenly burst into flames in front of me, I’d totally piss on her if I couldn’t find a water hose. Or a bottle of water. Or something else.”

  “You’re such a giver, Shelly,” he groused.

  “I do try, Mal.” I took a breath. “So, can I talk to her?”

  “Hang on,” he said. “She just walked in the door.”

  I could hear the sounds of their children talking in the background. I’d never expected Mal to be a dad. He was like a male version of me, once upon a time. He was always up for a good time. But now he was settled and happy and a dad and a husband.

  And he still didn’t like me. Even though I’d once let him fuck me in the bathroom at the Pancake House. I knew how many germs there were in a Pancake House bathroom, and I still let him prop me right there on the sink and have at it. That should earn me a favor fifteen years later, shouldn’t it?

  Mal had covered the mouthpiece of the phone, but I could still hear him. “I have no idea why she’s calling…something about a favor… I know she’s fucking nuts, but she wants to talk to you… Lynn is out of town and she needs…well, something. I don’t know.”

  They muttered back and forth for about two more minutes, and I could hear only about half of what they said.

  “Hello?” Aubrey said cautiously into the phone.

  “Hi Aubrey,” I said, trying to sound cheery. “How are you?”

  “Fine, thank you. And you?” Her voice was clipped and crisp, kind of like the lady who answered the phone at my gynecologist’s office.

  “I’m doing well,” I said. I hesitated.

  “Shelly,” she said. I heard her blow out a breath and imagined her wincing. “What can I do for you?”

  “Well…” I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. “I need some advice and Lynn’s not here.” And I didn’t have a single friend I could call because I never thought it was important enough to make people like me.

  “Okay…” she said slowly. Then she rushed ahead and asked, “And what made you think it would be a good idea to call me?”

  “You’re the next closest thing I have to a friend.” It was true. Aubrey was Lynn’s friend, but I saw her when I went over to Lynn’s house all the time, and we had exchanged cordial words since I got out of the hospital, since I’d apologized. Sure, we had never been buddies or besties or whatever the fuck the word was nowadays, but she knew me and I knew her. “I’m going on a date tonight.”

  “And?” Again, clipped and short.

  “And I’ve never been on one before.”

  Silence. Then I heard a rustle as she tried to cover the mouthpiece like Mal had. She failed as badly as he did. “Mal,” she called. I heard him grunt at her, and then she said, “You and Shelly dated, didn’t you?”

  “Nope,” Mal replied.

  “Yes, you did,” she shot back.

  “Nope,” he said. “We fucked. We never dated.”

  I could hear him clear as day.

  “What’s the difference?” she asked.

  “Between fucking and dating?” he replied.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, one is fucking and one is dating.”

  “And that means…?”

  “One is biological and one is emotional.”

  “Which one’s emotional?” she asked.

  “Dating is emotional.”

  “And you and Shelly never had emotional…stuff.”

  “Nope. Just fucking.”

  She said nothing for a long moment. Then she blurted out, “Not going to lie, Shelly. I like you a little more now than I did thirty seconds ago.”

  A grin tipped my lips. “Why’s that?”

  “Because you’re gorgeous and smart and you fucked my husband before I did.”

  “So?” I didn’t understand.

  “It’s a little intimidating following after someone like you. I mean…” She laughed a bit nervously, I thought. “How do you follow an act like that?”

  “It doesn’t even compare,” I heard Mal say loudly in the background.

  “Why did you never tell me this before?” she asked him.

  “It never came up.”

  “It would have been good to know.” She sounded snarky and sarcastic and I loved hearing every word of shit she gave him. “What else have you neglected to tell me?” she tossed at him.

  “Oh, God,” I heard him moan, and I bit back a grin. “Can we discuss this later? Preferably naked?”

  “Wait,” I said. “Why would you need to be naked?”

  She let out a tiny laugh. “We talk better when we’re naked.”

  “Why?”

  This time, she snorted. “I have no idea. We just do.”

  “So, do you have time for a question?” I asked. Clark was supposed to pick me up, which apparently meant coming to the door of his own house, at seven o’clock.

  “Yes, I have time,” she said. “What is it?”

  “Well, normally I would ask Lynn, but she’s not here.”

  “Yes, I understand. Ask it. I’ll see if I can help.”

  “Should I wear panties?” I clenched my eyes shut as I listened to the dead silence. “Aubrey?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m here,” she said in a rush. And it sounded like she covered another snort. “I’m…thinking.”

  “I bought a dress.”

  “How long is it?”

  “It falls just above my knees.”

  “Is it windy out?”

  I lifted the edge of the curtain and looked out the window. “Not exceptionally.”

  “Do you plan to sleep with him?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been on a date.” I clenched my jaw. “I wouldn’t be opposed…” I let my words trail off.

  “It’s with Clark?”

  “Yes.”

  “How much do you like him?” I could hear her chewing something, the same way Lynn did when we had conversations on the phone.

  “Quite a bit,” I said quietly, hating the quaver in my voice.

  “Does he like you?”

  “I have no idea.” And I really didn’t. I knew I liked kissing him. And working with him. And being in his presence. And living in his house. But I didn’t know if he liked me. “How would I know that?”

  “You could ask him.”

  “That seems kind of obvious.”

  She made a humming sound in agreement.

  “So, panties?” I prompted. I had two pairs on my bed, one thong and one pair of briefs.

  “Wear the panties,” she said.

  “Really? Why?” I wanted to understand.

  “I think you like him and, God bless his poor little soul, he likes you back. And you probably shouldn’t sleep with him on the first date, unless you really feel it. So, wear the panties, Shelly.”

  I heard Mal yel
l through the phone, “Don’t wear the panties, Shelly!” He laughed and I could hear them scuffling for the phone.

  “Wear the panties, Shelly,” Aubrey said again. “If you want to take them off later, fine. But start the night with the panties on.”

  “Okay.” I’d wear the panties. “Thank you for the help.”

  “No problem. Call me tomorrow and let me know how the date goes, okay? If you want to, that is,” she rushed to add. “Since Lynn’s not here and all.”

  I smiled. “Really?”

  “Yes. Really.”

  “Thank you, Aubrey. I appreciate your help.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said briskly. And then she hung up on me.

  I smiled all the while I put on panties. Then I did a spin in front of the mirror.

  And when Clark rang the bell at his own house, I opened the door and blurted out the words, “I’m wearing panties.”

  His eyes dragged down my body. “Okay.” I felt every inch of his slow perusal.

  I leaned in the doorway, suddenly unsure of how I should feel or how I should act. He stood there holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand, which he held out to me. “For you,” he said.

  I lifted them to my nose and took in the heady scents. “They’re beautiful.”

  “So are you,” he said.

  And I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. When I opened them, he had stepped even closer. “You want to put those in some water?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes,” I said, as I jerked myself out of my stupor. “One second.” Then I closed the door in his face and ran to the kitchen.

  He waited outside and was still smirking when I went back to the door. He said nothing. He just extended his elbow and I settled my hand inside his arm as we walked toward his car.

  Chapter 30

  Clark

  “Do you think she’s nearby?” Shelly asked from the other side of the table.

  “Who?” I asked, without even thinking. All I could think about was Shelly, and the fact that she’d opened the door looking like she did. Her blond hair was piled on top of her head with little wisps of it framing her face. Her blue eyes sparkled against the blue of her dress, which was sleeveless, showing off arms that weren’t the least bit skinny. Her body was strong and muscular and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see what it looked like while she was on top of me.