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She had I backtracked "No, of course Ha But that hen you decided you liked art I meant, like, when you wanted to, uh, arandmother’s spoon collection, and a pencil she stole from her postman It was a well-told story, funny and s almost immediately Instead, I took her hand insort of way

"Do you have any of that old work up there?" I asked e reached the door

"I don’t," she said "Are you trying to get iven ht be"

I watched her think about it The tip of her nose was pink in the cold, and she earing soht lipstick that made her look like she’d wandered in out of a fairy tale And I didn’t want to kiss her How did I not want to kiss her? I’d been completely ruined

"Okay," she said shyly "I’ll show you s"

"Is anyone else around?" I asked as she fiddled with the keys

"It’s only a few days till Christht be the last one here"

"Good," I said, too eagerly There’d be feitnesses, fewer occupied studios, and I wanted to dig around If I could, I wanted to rule out Nathaniel’s students as suspects I liked Marie-Helene In another life, I could’ve liked her a lot, and I wanted to stop wondering how I could use her as a tool in our case

The studios were dark, except for the pale winter afternoon streah the s, and Marie-Helene didn’t bother to flick on any lights as ent along Not until we got to her space at the end of the row, and she hoisted herself up onto her worktable, kicking her legs

"Hi," she said, biting her lip

Crap, I thought Because of course Of course I’d be expected toher an LAD song--do so to live up to the ridiculous texts Hol

They were ridiculous texts, and in e this otten friendly last night, why hadn’t Holone and met Marie-Helene herself? She was the better detective We both knew it

Okay, I’d been kind of petty that night before, keepingto Holirl likedaround, I have soht she’d brushed it off, and Ohto totally cock this up, or--

Or she kneas going to cock this up, and she wanted o after Marie-Helene and leave her, Holust about it--You knohat Watson’s like, she’d say It’s never been about irl right now, I thought, that wantsout of his cave I slipped my arms around Marie-Helene’s waist and kissed her like ahome from war