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I nearly wept; it was beyond wonderful to have someone be nice to me, to be concerned with my problems Well, that wasn&039;t fair; Laura was nice, and Jessica had been concerned until I&039;d hurt her It wasn&039;t Laura&039;s fault Sinclair was taken with her What guy wouldn&039;t be? And it wasn&039;t Sinclair&039;s fault he&039;d decided I&039;d given off negative vibes one too many times

Poor Nick didn&039;t have a clue, but he cared That counted for a lot

"That&039;s so sweet of you I really appreciate it" We&039;d been sitting next to each other on the little peach-colored love seat, and he was inching closer to me Maybe he had an itch "And I promise I&039;ll keep it in mind But I really don&039;t want to talk about ht now" My incredibly lame, stupid, dumb problems

"I just-wanted you to know," he breathed, and then he kissed o for a few seconds, quite enjoying the feeling of a war in my ears He smelled like chocolate and cotton

It was actually kind of nice He liked me He&039;d always liked me Of course, since I&039;d died he&039;d found e of it Except for that one time Which Nick didn&039;t ree of innocent policeh without , so earnest-and as a cop, he&039;d coet rid of this annoying thirst for the moment, that&039;s what I could do I could-

What are you waiting for?

-get a little warmth, a little happiness, be needed, be touched, be wanted

It would be so easy

I jerked away, actually throwing Nick to the floor It would be easy Real damn easy Which is why I couldn&039;t do it

Is that why I read the Book to learn how to be an asshole va Jessica-take what I wanted when I could get it? Is that how my mom raised me? Is that the kind of queen of the dead I wanted to be?

"Jeez, I&039; the fact that I&039;d thrown him on his ass His face was red with blushes "I&039;m really sorry, Betsy"

"No, no, it&039;sto hear myself over his pulse, which alarmed him I lowered my voice "Sorry It&039;s my fault" It really was Nick had no idea why he foundGod kneas a ain You&039;d better go" I hauled him to his feet and showed hiies "Thanks for stopping by Great to catch up! &039;Bye"

I shut the door and leaned against it with h that was probably

"Is your date over already?"

My eyes popped open Sinclair was standing on the left side of the entryway; he&039;d obviously coh the back

"That was-"

"I know"

"He thinks-"

"I know"

"But he&039;s going now, I-"

"Yes, I iine you took care of it Good work," he added distantly

"It wasn&039;t-"

"I understand The last thing you-we-need is a police officer nosing about And the quickest way to get rid of hied "Well, you did what you had to do"

"Eric-"

"I&039;ll leave you to retire Oh, and Laura and I are having coffee to You need not join us"

He turned And walked away