Object of My Affection Read Online Free PDF Page A

later.
    She kept insisting that I get a cell phone, but that would only give people even more opportunities to bother me at a bad time. Still, I’d probably end up getting one soon.
    Ever since I’d felt Marco leave I’d been in a bit of a funk and couldn’t seem to shake it. When I pulled up in front of the house, Sam was sitting on the top step fanning himself with the front of his shirt.
    “Need help?”
    “Probably,” I replied quietly.
    Sam walked over and opened the back door beside me.
    “He’ll be back.”
    I looked up at him and started to ask how he knew what I was thinking, but decided against it. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear I was that transparent. He helped me get everything in the house and stored away before fixing himself a turkey sandwich and a glass of tea.
    “You stop by to see your friend?”
    “No. I’ll go back after lunch.”
    “She’s gonna be pissed.” He grinned.
    “You think?” I asked as I rummaged through the fridge for some mightonnaise.
    “I could be wrong, but I doubt it. There was obviously something on that gal’s mind besides decorating.”
    He was right. By the time I made it by Kat’s shop she was practically bursting at the seams to tell me what had been going on. Kat had a new boyfriend that I had yet to meet.
    However, she was in the back when I arrived. I walked in and took a deep breath of the potpourri Kat always had simmering and took a minute to look around. She had repainted since my last visit and added some faux Greco Roman columns along the walls. The shop was a large open room filled with a variety of furniture and flower arrangements. If it could be used to decorate, Kat sold it.
    The bold colors of the flowers spaced about added some flare and contrasted nicely with the grayish tan of the walls. I walked back toward the window and noticed that the new display revolved around a large, beautifully framed picture of Elijah and myself at Ms. Wilson’s tea party. As I looked at our smiling faces I was amazed at how happy we looked together.
    I almost didn’t recognize myself. It was a good picture. Kat had two large boards directly behind her display windows so that the inside of the shop could not be seen from the street except through the glass of the front door. These boards were painted tastefully in a soft beige and draped with several cream and dark brown cloths. A decorative tea set was displayed in front of our picture as well as a vase filled with what looked like the same flowers in the picture. I had to admit, Kat had done a good job helping to spread rumors about Elijah and me, as well as sprucing up her shop.
    In the opposite window there was a mixture of the same colors, but in the middle was a bold red sash. It looked as if it had been thrown casually over the board, and at its feet sat one of my paintings of the beautiful Don Juan roses growing on my balcony. I had to at least keep up the front of being an artist, so Kat sold some of my paintings in her shop. It probably wouldn’t go over well with the community to know that I was really a werewolf hunter.

Chapter Three
    “Where have you been? It’s after lunch!” Kat had finally noticed me milling about the shop.
    “I had to buy groceries, remember?”
    “And that took all day?”
    “All morning, yeah. We were out of everything.”
    I walked to the back of the shop with Kat where she had an office as well as a small sitting room. We both flopped down on the couch as I said, “So come on, spill it.”
    Kat chuckled and asked, “What do you want to know first?”
    “I want to know how things are going with Charles, of course.”
    She launched in to a soliloquy about how things were going well, how they were both pretty compatible. They had been to the movies, been to dinner. They both had a bizarre love of Chinese and Brazilian restaurants also. When she finally stopped to take a breath I decided to give her the routine she usually gave me.
    “That’s nice, but how was