Death Before Facebook

gets it.”
    I should have listened to Kenny.
    But he said, “Hey, I didn’t mean anything. Just light banter, you know? Hate dark banter—enough dark things in the world. That better?”
    “You’re a case, you know that?”
    “And that’s without coffee. Notice half my sentences don’t have subjects? Caffeine deprivation. Taking shortcuts.”
    Well, anyway it worked. A lot better than a hot fudge sundae.
    She spent the rest of the morning lounging, desultorily reading the paper, but mostly thinking about the case, about a young man murdered while trying to rescue a cat; about a young mother who might not be ready for motherhood …well, two actually. Lenore now and Marguerite twenty-odd years ago.
    She was ready for Darryl, ready for his self-described “light banter,” his sunny disposition, the way he made her feel good. Was that a trick of his or was it something in her? Was it that melted caramel kind of feeling she always got when she was starting to fall in love?
    Not so fast, there. It’s only lunch.
    Lunch and a walk, actually. A stroll through the ’gators—pretty romantic.
    Darryl was waiting for her. “How ’bout some jambalaya? They do a good one.”
    “Okay. That and a root beer. My treat.”
    “You crazy? I’m the man.”
    I noticed.
    But she didn’t say it, didn’t dare. She settled for, “I asked you.”
    “Uh-uh. I asked you—left you a message, remember?”
    “Okay, I won’t argue.”
    “Good thing. Or you’d be ’gator bait.”
    They picked up their jambalaya and sat down on a roofed deck overlooking a simulated bayou. “How’s Sheila?”
    “In love with you, I think.”
    He laughed. “That’s me. All the kids love me—they’re under fifteen, they want to take me home to Mama.”
    “How about the big girls?”
    “You mean about six feet? Well, I don’t know; I was kind of wondering that.”
    Oh, God, don’t blush. Whatever you do, don’t blush.
“You mean
moi
?”
    “I mean
toi
.”
    “You get right to the point, don’t you?”
    He nodded. “I hate wasting time—I mean, not that time with your lovely self is wasted. I just hope we’re going somewhere, that’s all.”
    “Somewhere like to bed? This afternoon?”
    “Why, Miss Scarlett, how you do ran on. I just wondered if there was anything you needed to tell me.”
    “You mean, like, whether I have a boyfriend?”
    “Bingo, baby.”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “Oh, no. Don’t tell me it’s going to be one of those.”
    “Well, I did have a boyfriend, out in California. But I hung up on him last night and—”
    “And called me this morning. Damn! Had my heart set on a happy ending.” He made his face so droll she had to laugh.
    “You mean you don’t have anybody? Or do you just need your harem rounded out?”
    He was so electric the first seemed almost impossible. But on the other hand, she’d caught him on Sunday morning in bed alone—either that or with a masochist, to put up with that conversation.
    For the first time since Sheila turned up missing, he looked troubled. “Just broke up with somebody.”
    “I guess I did too. How long ago did you do it?”
    “Mmmmm. ’Bout three days. No, four. Four and a half.”
    “Pretty recent.”
    “Well, how about you?”
    “Oh, we haven’t actually talked about it yet.”
    “Hmm. One of those future-type kind of things. Like space travel and stuff.”
    “Hey, what happened to light banter?”
    “Am I gettin’ too dark for you? You should see me with a tan. Or better yet, yo’ mama should. You thought about that?”
    “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”
    “Not sure you are. Let’s go see some bears.”
    “How ’bout the ’gators?”
    “Bears are more autumnal. All that fur and stuff. Makes you think you’re warm.”
    As they finished lunch and dumped their garbage, a gust of wind blasted through the swamp exhibit. “I wish something would.”
    “Oh, yeah? We can arrange that.” He put an arm around her waist and drew her to him. “You ready for this?”
    She smiled up at him—she liked a man she could look up to; there weren’t that many. “Ready and waiting,” she said.
    As they walked to the bears’ enclosure, his arm very warm around her, she tried to get her balance back. One of the things she loved about Darryl was that openness of his—the way he was right out there, the way most men weren’t.
    In her experience, they mostly liked to let things ride until a situation was so intolerable you couldn’t