Death of a Blue Movie Star (Rune 2)

Silence.

Healy said, "I want to be honest with you...."

Oh, shit. She hated that word: Honest. It was like Sit down, dear. Right up there with There's something we have to talk about.

"Cheryl called," Healy said.

Hey, not the end of the world.

Not so far.

"Is Adam okay? Is anything wrong?"

"No. Everything's fine."

Another pause.

"She wanted to see me. To talk about ... our situation."

He's told her about me? A warm burst of pleasure in her stomach. Rune asked, "Our ..."

"I mean, Cheryl and me," Healy said.

"Oh." That our.

"I know we made plans but I thought I ought to ... I wanted to be up-front with you."

"Hey, not a problem," Rune said cheerfully. I'm not going to ask. No way in the world am I going to ask.... Where they go, what they do, that's their business. I will not ask. Rune asked, "Is she going to spend the night?" Oh, shit, no, no, no ... "I'm sorry, it's none of my business."

"No, she isn't. We're not even goi

ng to have lunch or anything." He laughed. "We 're just going to talk. On neutral ground."

Discuss their situation? The bitch dumped him. That's not a situation; that's warfare.

As politely as possible: "Well, I hope you both get everything resolved."

Big grin on my face. I'm so proud of myself.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he said.

"No phone, remember?"

"You call me?"

"Will do."

"You don't sound pissed ..."

Don't I? I'll try harder....

"... but you probably are. The thing is, I like you a lot, Rune. I didn't want to lie to you."

"Honest, yeah, I appreciate honesty, Sam. That's very important."

They hung up.

"Fuck honesty," she said out loud.