“Busy? Really? I thought you just said you were bored?”
“Okay, I’m here because I want to get better.”
“Are you just saying that or do you mean it?”
“I don’t know, which answer do you want?”
“I can play games with the best of them, Michelle, but it does waste a lot of time.”
“Is that what you’ve been telling Sean, that I’m wasting his time, and his money? I know he’s paying for all this.”
“And does that matter to you?”
“I know he’s trying to help me. He’s a good guy. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“I think he could probably spend his time and money better elsewhere, that’s all.”
“Meaning you’d rather he abandoned you to your fate? You going melodramatic on me? Do I have to add that to the list of weird shit to look out for in you?” Horatio’s smile managed to defuse this comment.
Michelle studied the floor for a few moments.
“Do you think you know Sean well?” Horatio finally asked.
“Of course. We went through some pretty dangerous things together.”
“He told me you saved his life, more than once in fact.”
“He did the same for me,” she said quickly.
“If you know Sean so well you have to realize that he’s not going to walk away from you.”
“All I’m doing right now is holding him back.”
“Oh, he told you this?”
“Of course not. He’d never say it. But I’m not stupid.”
“Were you two ever physically intimate?”
Horatio’s question caught Michelle so off-guard that she could only gape.
“It’s a fairly standard query, Michelle. I need to understand the different roles that people close to you play in your life. And sexual roles are very powerful influences for both good and bad.”
“We were never intimate like that,” she said in a mechanical tone.
“Okay. Did you want to have sex with him?”
“You can ask me this shit?” Michelle exploded.
“I can ask you pretty much anything. It’s up to you to answer or not.”
“I don’t understand the question.”
“It’s not too difficult, is it? Sean King is tall and handsome, smart and brave, honest and true.” Horatio smiled. “Frankly, I think those traits are given inflated importance in life, but who am I to say? And he’s a good guy too, as you said. You’re a young, attractive woman. You worked closely together.”
“Just because you work with someone doesn’t mean you have to sleep with him.”