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I imagined the judge interrogating Adam instead to get the truth out of him. Judge Judy didn’t tolerate any shitty non-answers in her courtroom.
In my head, the judge was just about to get the truth out of Adam when the doorbell rang.
When I reached the top of the stairs, Adam was nearing the door, gun in hand. “I ordered pizza. Please don’t shoot the guy.”
He checked through the peephole before tucking the gun in his waistband at the small of his back and opening the door. Dennis had his wallet out before I reached the bottom, and he tipped the guy while accepting my dinner.
“Thanks,” I called to the delivery guy as Adam closed and locked the door.
Adam’s eyes lingered on my legs before returning to the box. “What do we have here?”
“Wedon’t have anything.” I took the box and bag from him. “Ihave dinner.”
His brows creased as he got my meaning.
I waited for another just-like-a-Benson comment, but it didn’t come. What was that anyway? “A very Benson way of looking at the world,” he’d said with obvious disgust. It was as if I were a subspecies or something, based on my family name.
A delicious cheese-and-pepperoni aroma erupted from the box when I opened it on the kitchen counter. I salivated as I gathered a plate and silverware to attack my prize.
Adam followed me into the kitchen after snagging his beer from the family room. He opened the fridge and peered in, followed by the freezer. “What do you have to eat around here that isn’t diet?”
“You weren’t interested,” I reminded him.
A grunt was all he sent back.
I eased a piece of the pizza onto a plate. “You can always cook two Lean Cuisines if one isn’t enough for you.”
He nodded, but the grimace on his face saidnoas he continued his search.
I opened the salad container, poured it into a bowl, and added half the container of dressing. “There’s a squirrel in the trees out back if you want to shoot it and have some fresh meat.”
That got a laugh out of him before the sternness returned. “Very funny.”
With two pieces of my pizza on the plate, I added the salad, silverware, and napkins to a tray and ventured into the family room. Instead of Judge Judy, I found aFriendsrerun to start.
The ding of the microwave sounded from the kitchen. He’d chosen something frozen instead of my squirrel suggestion.
Good thing. I didn’t want Mrs. Hammond next door calling the SWAT team on us.
A few minutes later, he carried a tray in, took a seat in the wingback chair, and started eating without a word.
I finished my first slice. “When are you going to tell me about you and Dennis?”
He shook his head. “When are you going to stop asking?”
“Why do you dislike me so much?”
“I don’t.”
A typical guy answer.
“Then why won’t you talk to me?”
He stood. “Nothing to talk about.” He carried his tray into the other room.
I was alone with my salad andFriends. Collecting another piece of pepperoni from the box solved that. Now there were four of us: me, the pizza, the salad, and the TV.
After scarfing down the remainder of the warm, gooey pizza, but not all the salad, I cleaned up. Walking past Adam without a word, I went up to my room and dialed my sister Serena. If Adam wouldn’t talk to me, maybe she had the answers.
