I was about to drive over to Alejandro’s estate the next day to get the Stratocaster authenticated. But before I did that, I needed to talk to Vance, so I wandered over to his car and knocked on the window. He rolled it down with a sneer. “What?”
“Hey, Vance. I’m heading over to the mark’s place now. Could you do me a favor? Since you can’t come into the estate, would you please park a little farther than normal from the gate? They have cameras all over, and I don’t want them to know I’m being followed.”
Vance nodded with a big smile. “You’re good, Dee. I like working with you.”
What was his problem? “You’re not working with me, Vance. You’re working against me.”
“Aw, don’t be angry. We make a good team. Maybe some night we can get a drink together. Beats sitting in your room watching television, I figure.”
Poor Vance. He still had a thing for me, even though the only intimacy we ever shared happened once, over fifteen years ago. After that first kiss, he started acting even more mean, which baffled me at the time. Unwilling to suffer his attitude, I got over him quickly. And Vance seemed to get over me, too, never giving me any indication to the contrary.
Suddenly, though, he liked me again. I could see how spending all day watching someone could affect a person’s feelings, so I tried to let him down lightly. “Don’t go falling for me just because you’re stalking me. You have to keep your emotions separate from the job.” I figured he could use a little advice, even if it was the sort of advice I needed myself.
Vance laughed. “Following you around isn’t making me like you, Dee. I’ve liked you for years. And by the way, love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Of course. I understood men much better now than I had back then, and I realized that his mean act had merely been a way of covering his feelings. I’d thought we had a mutual dislike going on. Now it turned out he had a crush on me the entire time. How annoyingly typical. For some reason, I kept running into these damaged men, from Vance all the way to Roman.
“Sorry. Not happening, Vance. Besides, you’re married now, and you’ve got a kid, right?”