Hit Man

you? Huh?” He reached down and scratched the dog behind an ear. “You’re a good boy,” he said. “Oh yes, you’re a good boy, but you’re nuts.”
    There was a knock on the door.
    He sat up in bed. It was Andria, of course, and the door was open; she had knocked to get his attention. “He just can’t decide who he wants to be with,” she said. “Maybe I should just pack my things and go.”
    “No,” he said. He didn’t want her to go. “No, don’t go,” he said.
    “Then maybe I should stay.”
    She came on into the room. She had turned on a lamp in the living room before she came in, but the back lighting was not revealing. The pink flannel thing was opaque, and Keller couldn’t tell anything about her body. Then, in a single motion, she drew the garment over her head and cast it aside, and now he could tell everything about her body.
    “I have a feeling this is a big mistake,” she said, “but I don’t care. I just don’t care. Do you know what I mean?”
    “I know exactly what you mean,” Keller said.
    Afterward he said, “Now I suppose you’ll think I put the dog up to it. I wish I could take the credit, but I swear it was all his idea. He was like that donkey in the logic problem, unable to decide between the two bales of hay. Where did he go, I wonder?”
    She didn’t say anything, and he looked closely and saw that she was crying. Jesus, had he said something to upset her?
    He said, “Andria? Is something wrong?”
    She sat up and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “I’m just scared,” she said.
    “Of what?”
    “Of you.”
    “Of me?”
    “Just tell me you’re not going to hurt me,” she said. “Could you do that?”
    “Why would I hurt you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, why would you say something like that?”
    “Oh, God,” she said. She put a hand to her mouth and chewed on a knuckle. Her fingernails weren’t polished, just her toenails. Interesting. She said, “When I’m in a relationship I have to be completely honest.”
    “Huh?”
    “Not that this is a relationship, I mean we just went to bed together once, but I felt we really related, don’t you think?”
    Keller wondered what she was getting at.
    “So I have to be honest. See, I know what you do.”
    “You know what I do?”
    “On those trips.”
    That was ridiculous. How could she know anything?
    “Tell me,” he said.
    “I’m afraid to say it.” God, maybe she did know.
    “Go ahead,” he said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
    “You—”
    “Go ahead.”
    “You’re an assassin.”
    Ooops.
    He said, “What makes you think that?”
    “I don’t think it,” she said. “I sort of know it. And I don’t know how I know it. I guess I knew it the day I met you. Something about your energy, I guess. It’s kind of intangible, but it’s there.”
    “Oh.”
    “I sense things about people. Please don’t hurt me.”
    “I’ll never hurt you, Andria.”
    “I know you mean that,” she said. “I hope it turns out to be true.”
    He thought for a moment. “If you think that about me,” he said, “or know it, whatever you want to call it, and if you were afraid I might. . . hurt you—”
    “Then why did I come into the bedroom?”
    “Right. Why did you?”
    She looked right into his eyes. “I couldn’t help myself,” she said.
    He felt this sensation in the middle of his chest, as if there had been a steel band around his heart and it had just cracked and fallen away. He reached for her and drew her down.
    On the floor at the side of the bed, Nelson slept like a lamb.
    In the morning they walked Nelson together. Keller bought the paper and picked up a quart of milk. Back at the apartment, he made a pot of coffee while she put breakfast on the table.
    He said, “Look, I’m not good at this, but there are some things I ought to say. The first is that you have nothing to fear from me. My work is one thing and my life is something else. I have no reason to hurt you, and even if I had a reason I wouldn’t do it.”
    “I know that.”
    “Oh?”
    “I was afraid last night. I’m not afraid now.”
    “Oh,” he said. “Well, the other thing I want to say is that I know you don’t have a place to stay right now, and as far as I’m concerned you can stay here as long as you want. In fact I’d like it if you stayed here. You can even sleep on the couch if you want, assuming that Nelson will allow it. I’m not sure he will, though.”
    She considered her reply, and