Strip Joint by Clare Kauter

Author:Clare Kauter [Kauter, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery
Google: -ki5DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07ZNSQS1G
Publisher: Author
Published: 2019-10-26T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

A Relationship High

Whatever case-relevant information I’d uncovered at the church flew from my mind the second I arrived back at the club and saw Adam flirting with Chastity.

(The person, I mean. He wasn’t just contemplating a major life change.)

It was the hand-on-arm, actually smiling and laughing at whatever she’d said kind of flirting. Was he for real? After our (completely platonic) snuggle session this morning, he was here blatantly enjoying having a conversation with a nice, attractive woman who could dance really well and walk properly in high heels and most likely didn’t have a criminal record. And that was probably due to her not committing crimes rather than technicalities and shoddy police work like it was in my case.

Luckily I had experience seeing Adam flirt with other people and knew how to deal with the accompanying tiny twinge of jealousy. Last time I’d reacted… badly. (Although I swear that weeing all over Carol’s living room was an accident.) But having gone through this before meant I was able to behave appropriately in the moment rather than become irrationally angry with Chastity. This wasn’t her fault.

Instead, I became entirely appropriately angry with Adam. How dare he be so flirty with someone else when we weren’t dating and he needed to extract information from her and I didn’t have any right to be annoyed? And while I was at it, how dare he lap dance other women knowing there was nothing going on between us and he needed to do it for the case? What was wrong with him?

He looked up and saw me. Rather than hang around and risk doing something regrettable – like, I don’t know, weeing on him (I got pretty weird when I was cranky) – I turned and headed to his dressing room. I wasn’t going to wee in there either. Or lick the apple he’d brought for a snack later. Or cut the crotch out of his jeans with the pocket knife I definitely needed to stop carrying around with me.

Really. I just needed somewhere quiet to practise my yogic breathing.

By the time Adam returned, I was totally serene. Really. Completely.

Cough.

“What’s up?” Adam asked. “You look furious.”

“Don’t I always look that way when you’re around?”

He walked over and sat on the stool next to me.

“Charlie, please,” he said. “This is the last chance we have to spend time together. I know you’re angry with me, but could we maybe put that on hold and try to have fun while we can?”

“Or you could just not leave.”

He inhaled and exhaled slowly before replying. “I can’t do that, Charlie.”

I swallowed, stomach tightening. “What did you call me?”

He looked like he was thinking about rolling his eyes. “Charlotte Regina Davies.”

Only he could make a name sound sarcastic.

“Why not?”

“You know why not,” he said. “We need someone to sort out the Sydney office after all the problems we’ve had over the past year. It’s a big job.”

“Can’t someone else do it?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

“So spend a couple of months there getting it up and running and then come back here.

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