Eyes of the Innocent: A Mystery by Brad Parks Page A

just see her give you the little wave ?”
    “That? That was not the little wave. That was just … a wave.”
    She closed in and clamped her hand on my chin, lifting my face for closer inspection.
    “I thought so,” she said, the whisper getting even angrier. “You have glitter on your cheek.”
    “So?” I said, wiping both cheeks quickly.
    “So Sweet Thang was wearing makeup with glitter in it. Is that just a coincidence?”
    “Glitter has been known to become airborne,” I pointed out.
    Tina stuck her fists into her side, glared at me for a moment, then stomped off. Three strides into her stomping, she turned around and jerked her head, like I should have known I was supposed to follow her. I trailed after her. It was either that or get scolded in front of the entire newsroom.
    She went into the (thankfully empty) break room and was ready for me with an ambush when I entered.
    “She’s hitting on you,” Tina hissed.
    “Is not.”
    “And you’re flirting back!”
    “Am not!”
    “I heard her saying you gave her the first byline on that story. You want to tell me if she was dump-truck ugly with an ass she couldn’t fit through an elevator door you would have done that?”
    “She earned that byline—”
    “Liar!”
    “And besides, if her ass was that big she never would have fit in the booth at the restaurant and we never would have gotten the interview.”
    “Don’t change the subject.”
    “I’m not sure I know what the subject is.”
    “The subject is that every male under the age of ninety in this newsroom has been following that girl around with drool pouring out their mouths for the last month, and you, of all people, are not going to join them. It’s improper, it’s unseemly, and it’s gross. She’s a child.”
    I raised my right hand like I was taking the presidential oath of office and said, “I have absolutely nothing but the purest of intentions toward that young woman. And I have no indication her feelings for me are anything besides professional admiration.”
    “You are and always have been a dreadful liar, Carter Ross. You’ve been screwing her with your eyes ever since she got here.”
    “I don’t even think I said hello to her until this morning.”
    “And let me guess, you let her tag along with you all day long because, what, you’re deeply concerned about the quality of instruction she receives during her internship?”
    “Szanto told me to work with her,” I said, still sounding far more defensive than I intended.
    “Oh, sure. Did Szanto also tell you to jump in her lap the moment she asked you out for a beer after work?”
    Couldn’t exactly dispute that one. Tina sighed and waved her arms in the air.
    “Look at you! You can’t even defend yourself! Of course you want to have sex with her. She’s twenty-two. She’s got helium balloons for tits. I should probably be worried if you didn’t want to have sex with her, because it would mean you were dead from the waist down, which would mean you’re absolutely no use to me. All I’m saying is, if you sleep with her, don’t even think about sleeping with me. I’ll find some other guy with good breeding potential to get me knocked up.”
    With that, Tina stormed off.
    I looked at my only friend in the room, the Coke machine. “Did you get all that?” I asked it.
    The machine hummed back at me.
    “Just to review,” I said. “A woman who has expressed exactly zero interest in a conventional monogamous relationship just berated me for flirting with an intern. Can you figure out what to make of it?”
    The machine hummed some more.
    “Yeah,” I said. “Me, neither.”
    *   *   *
    Before I could make it back to my desk, I was interrupted by a strangling sound coming from Szanto’s office. It sounded vaguely like my name, so I stuck my head in.
    “You looking for me?”
    “Where is it?” he asked.
    “By ‘it’ do you mean the beautiful story I have crafted that you cannot wait to put on