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us.”
    “ And this is
so much better,” said Griffin. “The way this all worked
out.”
    “ How was I
supposed to know that I’d end up finding a dead body?” I
said.
    Griffin threw up his hands. “Because it’s
you, you always end up finding the body.”
    I wish I
could argue with him, but as I had been reliably informed by one of
the security guards at the agency I worked for, I was beginning to
get a bit of a reputation when it came to my ability to find dead
bodies.
    “ I am sorry,”
I said, because believe me, I was. “I understand that I’ve messed
up and I wish I hadn’t. I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just
trying to get this job done as quickly and easily as I
could.”
    “ But of
course Cooper knew about it,” Griffin
said.
    “The only reason Travis knew about this job
was because he was following a case that just happened to end up at
the bar.”
    “ That’s what
you both say,” Griffin said accusingly.
    I froze. “What do you mean by that?”
    “Stop being so naive Trudie. We all know that
Travis wants you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned up purely
because you were there.”
    “ It doesn’t
matter what he wants,” I said. “It’s what I want that
matters.”
    “Well what is it that you want Trudie,
really, just tell me so I know.”
    I took in a
deep breath. “Right now, I want you to stop and calm down, because
we’re getting close to saying something that we can’t take back and
I don’t want that to happen.”
    “ You know
what I think,” said Griffin.
    “ I really
don’t want to know,” I said.
    “I think that you’re keeping Travis around in
case you and I don’t work out. He’s obviously interested in you,
you keep him on the line. The second you and I fall apart you go
running into his arms.”
    I stopped the
nervous pacing that I had started when Griffin began this line of
thinking and looked at him. “What you just said,” I said quietly,
“was very, very ugly. I would hope that you would know that I would
never, ever do something so horrible, not only to you, but to
Travis. I thought you knew me better than that.”
    “ I thought I
did too,” said Griffin.
    “ Get out,” I
said.
    “ What?” said
Griffin.
    “ I don’t want
you in my home at the moment,” I said. “I know I did the wrong
thing but I don’t deserve what you just said. It was ugly and it
was mean, and frankly, I deserve better, so I want you to leave my
home.”
    Griffin looked like he wanted to argue but
something in my face must have convinced him that he’d actually
crossed over the line.
    “ Fine,” he
said and stalked towards the front door.
    I heard it
slam. I walked over to it, very calmly, flicked the lock, put my
back against the door and my knees crumpled. I fell to the ground
and the tears started. I don’t know how long I sat on the ground
crying. All I knew was that I had to pull it together. Griffin and
I had argued before, but I’d always been pretty sure that we could
get past it. At the moment I wasn’t so confident that we were going
to get past this. I had a shower, cleaned up my tear ravaged face
as best I could, sent a text to Monique explaining the situation
and fell into bed. Despite my emotional turmoil, or perhaps because
of it, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Tomorrow had to be a
better day.

Chapter Four
    The next morning I was woken by the sound of
my phone ringing. I cursed my habit of putting it beside my bed as
I blindly slapped the bedside table looking for it without opening
my eyes.
    “Good morning ma petite.”
    “ Oh hi
Monique,” I said tiredly.
    There was silence.
    “ Monique,” I
ventured wondering what I had done this time.
    “ I just
wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Monique said.
    “ Why wouldn’t
I be?” I asked .
    “ Well,” she
said. “I found a text message on my phone this morning. It came
through some time last night. Do you remember what you
wrote?”
    I was still half asleep so I was having a