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I told him I’d leave that decision to Deck.
“So you said you’ve been thinking about what’s going to happen when this is over.”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re not going back to the agency. What are you going to do?”
“I’m thinking about joining up with the Invincibles.”
“They all despise me.”
“They don’t have any idea who you really are, Irish.”
When I returned to the apartment, my mother was in the kitchen, preparing lunch. Ali sat at the counter, setting up her new laptop.
“You’re back early,” said my mom, looking at her watch.
I nodded but had no intention of commenting on why to either of them. At least not until my mother left. I owed Ali a briefing, and I’d deliver.
“Sumner, are you all right?”
“Of course, Mom.”
“You seem particularly tense.” She looked at Ali. “Not that he isn’t always.”
Ali turned to me, cocked her head, and smiled.
“You’re welcome to head home now…I mean, if you have things to do.” My mother looked surprised and maybe hurt, but I was trying to be nice, considering I’d asked her to be here every day this week.
“You don’t have to go into the office?”
“No.”
“Very well, then,” she said, wiping her hands on a towel. “I’ll just leave this in the refrigerator for when Ali is ready.”
The woman seated at my kitchen counter turned her head toward me and smirked. Yes, I had caught her mention that the food wasn’t for me.
I walked my mother to the door. “She’s lovely, Sumner.”
I nodded and kissed my mother’s cheek. That Ali was lovely—gorgeous really, not to mention hot as fuck—wasn’t something that needed to be pointed out to me.
“You’ve a fan in my mother,” I told her, pulling out the stool next to her.
“The feeling is mutual.”
She said the words, but there was no feeling behind them. Even her eyes were hooded.
“Did everything go okay while I was gone?”
Her eyes scrunched. “Yes.”
“I owe you a story.”
She didn’t say anything. In fact, she turned her head away.
“Ali? Would you rather wait until later?”
“What I’d really like to do is go back to my apartment.”