Caroselli's Baby Chase by Michelle Celmer

you score with a woman at work, you’re a stud. If I do that, I’m a slut.”
    “Really. Was there a particular woman at work that you’re interested in?”
    She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
    “We could just tell people the truth, and say that I picked you up because it was on my way. Or, if it makes you feel better, you can go in first, and I can come in a few minutes later.”
    “That could work,” she said. “And even if people suspect we’re together, they’ll eventually get the idea that we don’t like each other. At all.”
    “Exactly. Get your coat.”
    She hesitated. “Before we go, I have to ask you something.”
    “Okay.”
    “You have to promise not to make fun of me.”
    Oh, this should be good. “All right. I promise.”
    “When you told me that thing about the lady in the basement, you really were kidding, right?”
    “Of course I was kidding. Why? Did you feel the hand again?”
    “No, I did not.”
    “But something happened, didn’t it?”
    “At first I thought it was a fluke…”
    “What?”
    “The basement door has been sort of…opening by itself.”
    He cast her a disbelieving look.
    “I’m dead serious. I close it, then check it a little while later, and it’s open like an inch or two.”
    “You probably aren’t latching it all the way.”
    “No, I most definitely did latch it.”
    “If you did, it wouldn’t have opened.”
    She propped her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “Are you honestly suggesting that I am incapable of latching a door?”
    It was more plausible than the door opening by itself. “Let’s take a look at it,” he said. She followed him through the kitchen, her heels clicking on the tile floor. The basement door was open about an inch.
    “See?” she said. “I closed and latched it less than fifteen minutes ago.”
    She was letting her imagination get the best of her. He pulled it closed and made sure that it was latched securely. He tried to open it without turning the knob and it wouldn’t budge. There was no way that door would open without someone physically turning the handle. “Okay,” he said, watching the knob. “Let’s see it open.”
    “It doesn’t work that way. I sat and watched it for like fifteen minutes and it didn’t move, so I walked away. Five minutes later it was open again.”
    “Then let’s go in the other room.”
    “I have to finish getting ready.”
    He looked her up and down. “You look ready to me.”
    That earned him another eye roll. “If you want to drive me, you’ll have to wait.”
    It wasn’t that he wanted to drive her. It just seemed rude not to. And if it increased his chances of getting her naked again tonight, why the hell not?
    Knowing how long women could take getting ready, he shrugged out of his coat and made himself comfortable on the sofa. After a moment or two, curiosity got the best of him. He pushed himself up from the sofa and quietly sneaked through the kitchen to look around the corner. The basement door was as he’d left it. He tried the knob and it was securely latched.
    As he suspected, there were no supernatural forces at work here. She had probably been in a rush and hadn’t latched it, or maybe she really didn’t know how to properly latch a door.
    He went and sat back down on the sofa to wait for her, checking the door two more times with the same results. It was still closed tight.
    Carrie reemerged several minutes later, pulling on her coat. If she’d done anything different to her appearance, he couldn’t tell. Maybe she was one of those women who just didn’t feel the night was complete unless she made a man wait for fifteen or twenty minutes.
    “So, did you check the door?” she asked him.
    “Three times. It didn’t budge.”
    Looking discouraged, she said, “I swear it opened by itself.”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. If it had mysteriously opened I would have told you.”
    “I did close it all the way.”
    “Okay.”
    “But