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“I leave tomorrow. I need to meet the guy who named his restaurant after my best friend,” Syd says, pulling me from my thoughts.
“We don’t know that for sure. Maybe when he called me that, he liked how it rolled off the tongue.” I shrug dismissively, still paying close attention to the stranger.
“Mmm-hmm.” She narrows her eyes at me. “What or who has caught your attention, Detective Mason?” I laugh at the childhood nickname.
“You know me so well.” Leaning forward, I say, “So there’s a guy across the street, watching us. He’s been there for about fifteen minutes.” My voice is low and hushed. “I don’t know why, but I feel I know him from somewhere, but for the life of me, I can’t place him.”
I peek over Sydney’s head. I sit up straight, looking both ways down the street. “He’s gone.” Vendors are setting up shop for the day, city workers wash off the sidewalks, but no strange man.
“What did he look like?” Syd asks, turning around to look at the empty bench.
“Typical, nothing that really stuck out. Jeans, polo, baseball cap.”
“You’ve had a rough week. Maybe you’re reading too much into things,” she says. “Maybe he was just checking out two beautiful women.”
I sigh. “You’re probably right.”
“I am always right. Now get up and let’s get our shopping on.” She jumps out of her chair, picks up our trash then throws it away. The crisp morning breeze sends a shiver through me. The sun is peeking around the tall buildings, not yet spreading it’s warmth in the shadows.
“Let’s get in the sun. I’m cold,” I say.
“If you’d… I don’t know… drink a hot drink, you wouldn’t be so cold.”
“Okay, smartass. You know that’ll never happen. Now let’s go get lost in Macy’s.”
A few hours later and four armfuls of bags, we decide to make a pit stop at my apartment before continuing our shopping spree.
“After we drop these off, where to next?” I ask as we get off the elevator and head to my door.
“Let’s go to Soho and shop around the little bou—”
“Shh.” I stop her, holding up a finger to my lips as I grab my gun out of my purse. Syd stares at me with furrowed brows. “I went to unlock my door, but it was already unlocked. Stay here while I check things out.”
“I am not staying out here when you’re going in there with the gun,” she whisper-yells. Dropping her bags, she stands right behind me.
We walk in slowly. Syd’s touch is soft on my back, and I can hear both our hearts pounding. My gun is pointed and ready as I sweep the living room and kitchen. Sunlight floods the rooms; nobody could be hiding in either of them. Going from room to room, we don’t find anything. Everything seems fine.
I lay my gun on the kitchen counter, recounting my steps this morning when we left. I’ve never left my apartment unlocked before, but maybe I was distracted. I look at Syd with twisted lips.
“Don’t ask me. I left before you did to call home. I met you downstairs,” she says. I nod, remembering that.
“I don’t remember being distracted, but then I don’t remember exactly locking the door either. I must have rushed out so I wouldn’t keep you waiting.” I shrug.
I don’t tell Syd that I still have an uneasy feeling. I’m not sure if I’m overreacting because of the strange man this morning and now this, but nothing looks touched, out of place, or different.
“Would you feel better if you called Aiden?”
“Why in the world would I do that?” I ask.
She shrugs. “He’s FBI.”
“Really? I work for NYPD. Why would I call the FBI?” I look at her incredulously, my eyes wide. “I don’t need Aiden to come running to my rescue.” I sigh.
“Addie, you think you don’t need anyone, but I know you want that man. You’ve never acted this way toward any guy. And you haven’t seen him in almost a week. I thought maybe you’d want to talk to him,” she says, smirking.
“We’ve texted this week,” I say defensively. “And we’ve both been really busy with work. And that’s not true about not needing anyone…” I jut out my lower lip “…I’ll always need you,” I say, wrapping my arms around her. She hugs me back.
“Well, yea. I’m your other half. The better one, of course.” She snickers while I roll my eyes. “So now we know that nothing is wrong here, we have more shopping to do, girlfriend.” Syd grabs her purse off the table.
