Minders by Michele Jaffe Page A

turned to face her, his mind staying even and unaffected. “I do.”
    “No you don’t,” Lulu told him. “You say ‘you too’ or ‘me too’ or ‘uh-huh.’”
    Ford laughed and turned back toward the door. “Agree to disagree.”
    Lulu narrowed her eyes. “That’s my line. You can’t just take it.”
    He pantomimed catching something in his fist midair, grinned, said, “Too late,” and shut the door.
    • • •
    Cali’s bare legs over the top of the couch, one ankle crossed over the other, were the first thing he noticed walking down the hall toward the living room, and the reaction in his body was immediate. Sadie felt his lower abdomen tighten and heard something that sounded almost like music in his head.
    “I hope you don’t mind, I made myself comfortable,” Cali said.
    He slid onto the couch next to her, his arm coming around to rest conveniently on her breast, his crotch against her leg. “You look like you might still be a little uncomfortable. Maybe you should get out of your shorts.”
    Cali laughed. “I was thinking, on Friday you could wear the blue checked shirt. You know, the one you were wearing the first time we met.”
    “Mmmm?” His lips roamed over the smooth skin along the base of Cali’s neck, and tiny clusters of sound and color broke loose in various parts of his mind, like dandelion seeds being blown free in a breeze, a momentary poof and then gone.
    During training Sadie had resolved to use any intimate time her Subject had to review her findings and take down new data, but now she found herself unable to break away. She felt the tension building inside of him as though it were inside of her, each trill and riff adding another layer. It was like having butterfly wings tease over her skin, making it tingle and prickle in the most exquisite and exquisitely distracting way. She let herself slip into it, willingly, even gratefully, breathless to find out what happened next—
    From very far away a voice said, “You know, the one you wore on our first date.”
    It had happened again, she realized—a world of experience in the space of a heartbeat. The music in his head stopped, the tickling evaporated, and Ford blinked his eyes open, saying, “Friday? What’s happening Friday?”
    Dinner with her friends , Sadie volunteered. Remember when you were too stubborn to ask what she was talking about? I guess we know who is the best now.
    Cali laughed and shimmied up him, setting off a momentary tinkling of bells. “Silly. Going out with Georgia and Clinton. We have a reservation at Trattoria Olivio.”
    The tightness in Ford’s lower abdomen shifted from pleasure to something more like pressure. “Sorry, babe, I have another commitment.” Sadie didn’t need the feeling of the lights suddenly dimming to know he was lying. Why do that? Why not just say “I don’t want to go”?
    Cali’s perfectly arced brows came together in a frown. “You told me you were free all weekend. You just said Friday was just fine.”
    “To see you,” Ford answered. “You didn’t tell me about Trattoria Olivio. You know I don’t like going to those frou-frou places.” His mind filled with pointillist images of bread sticks, a carafe of wine wrapped in straw, salad—
    “How would you know you don’t like it if you’ve never been?” Cali asked.
    Ford said, “It just seems stupid.”
    It didn’t seem stupid when you were picturing it just now , Sadie observed. Why would you say something so intentionally antagonistic?
    Cali pulled as far from him on the couch as she could. “Do you care about me? Love me? Because if you want to end this, you should do it now. It’s not fair to drag it out.”
    Ford sat up, the noise in his head spiking with surprise. “Whoa, where is this coming from? Because I don’t want to pay forty dollars for some crappy Italian food?”
    Cali took a deep breath and, like someone jumping off the high dive, said, “I got a new job.”
    Ford sat up even