“You know Angie better than that,” Vanessa said as she started walking toward the kitchen. “Have some lunch with us, Victor?”
“What you fix?”
“I got the macaroni salad and fried fish that I made for yesterday and I’m gonna make a three bean salad now.”
“Sounds good,” I said and Vanessa went in the kitchen.
“And we got a big ass fruit salad we gotta get rid of,” Paul said.
“We need to go to the golf course,” I said the way they do at work when they want to have a private conversation that they don’t want anybody to hear.
Not understanding the reference, “What?” Paul asked.
I looked to make sure of where Vanessa was before I whispered, “We need to talk.”
“What about?” Paul asked loudly.
Once again I looked around for Vanessa. “About me seeing Bria at the cookout yesterday.”
“What you say?” Paul asked, suddenly discovering his quiet voice.
“I saw—” I started, but Paul quickly raised his hand to stop me before I said the name Bria again in his house and I understood why. Mentioning Bria’s name anywhere around Vanessa would not go well for Paul.
“While you make the salad, I’m gonna run to the store to get something to drink.”
“Pick up some hot sauce,” Vanessa yelled from the kitchen.
“Got it,” Paul said, grabbing me by the arm and practically dragged me out of the house. Once outside, I followed Paul as he walked quickly toward his car. He didn’t say a word until we were down the block from their house.
“You saw Bria at Amelia Island yesterday?” he finally asked.
“She was there and she was heading for the fam when I saw her.”
“Did anybody else see her?”
“I don’t know. I was with Natasha when I saw her.”
“Which explains why you didn’t hog tie her ass and send her home.” Paul shook his head. “This is not good.”
“No it’s not. How’d she know you was gonna be out there?”
“Huh?”
“Thought you said you hadn’t talked to her?”
“Okay, Vic, yeah, I talked to her a couple of times. But I haven’t seen her.”
I shook my head. “Yet. You haven’t seen her yet.”
“And I’m not trying to. Look, Bria called me and said she needed me to help her move some of her things out of storage and I told her that I couldn’t because of the cookout.”
“Okay, I get that, but why did you have to tell her that it was at Amelia Island?”
“I didn’t think she’d just show up there,” Paul said louder than he needed to, but I understood why. Bria was not to be played with.
“I don’t know why since she’s proved she has stalker tendencies.”
Paul head dropped a little and he looked dejected. “I know.”