“Regular here?” I grumbled to him.
“Yes.”
“What did you do to get such perks?” I asked as he pulled out a chair at a table in a secluded section in the back. It was set with a crisp black tablecloth and ivory plates etched in turquoise and gold. Wine glasses and elegant water goblets sat at each setting, along with shiny silver flatware.
“Perks?”
“Yes,” I said, taking the chair from him and pulling it out myself before sitting down. “You must have done something to be allowed such liberties.”
“Are you asking if I’ve slept with that woman, Charlotte?”
“No,” I said. “And if I was, it wouldn’t matter. Because I wouldn’t believe whatever you said.”
He sighed. “Are you referring to the pictures of Katie that you found in my office?”
“Oh, those,” I said, laughing sarcastically as I picked up my napkin and set it in my lap. I had no intention of eating – I wasn’t going to be here long enough for that – but I needed something to do with my hands. “I’d almost forgotten about that, what with all the other things I found out you’ve been hiding.”
Before he could answer, a waiter wearing a crisp white shirt and tailored black pants appeared at our table.
“Mr. Cutler,” he said in a British accent. “It’s lovely to see you.”
“Thank you, Graham,” Noah said. “It’s nice to see you, too.”
“Will you be having the usual?”
“That would be great,” Noah said as Graham filled our water glasses with sparkling lemon water from a fluted pitcher.
“I’m not eating,” I announced. “So nothing for me, thanks.”
“She’ll have the same,” Noah said.
“Excellent choice, miss,” Graham said to me, as if I hadn’t spoken.
“You are infuriating,” I said to Noah once Graham was gone. “You know that, right? You brought me here because you’re supposed to be explaining yourself to me, and all you’re doing is trying to have your way again!”
“Is that what you think I’m doing? Having my way?”
“Yes! You just ordered for me! When I specifically said I wasn’t going to be eating.”
“You need to eat, Charlotte,” Noah said. “You have a hectic schedule, what with working for Professor Worthington and going to school. Not to mention anything else you might get up to.” He grinned wickedly when he said this last part. “You need to keep your strength up.”
I twisted my napkin in my lap and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. How was it that he was always able to do this? Any situation, any time I had the upper hand, he was able to turn it around so that he was the one in control. Was it because deep down, I wanted him to be in control? Or was he able to do it because he was just so good at it? Was he playing me or was I letting myself be played?
My thoughts swirled and burned in my head, making me feel like I was going crazy. I felt my eyes fill with angry tears and I hated when I saw Noah notice them.
His face softened.
“I didn’t kill Katie,” he said.
“You keep saying you didn’t kill anyone,” I say. “And yet people keep ending up dead!”
“I know,” he said. “I know it doesn’t look good. But you said you trusted me.”
“That was before I found out you were fucking Katie. And that you lied to me about it?”
He frowned. “You found out what?”
“That you were having sex with Katie.”
“I wasn’t having sex with Katie.”
“I saw the emails, Noah. You gave Professor Worthington your password, remember?” I took a sip of water. “You can imagine how exciting and interesting it was, reading about how good you thought she was going to taste.”
A look of confusion clouded Noah’s face, and then he laughed. “Those emails? Charlotte, that’s what you’re upset about?” He shook his head. “Charlotte, those emails are nothing. Yes, Katie did try to start something up with me when she first started working for me. But I put a stop to it.”
“You put a stop to it by asking her how she tasted? That doesn’t sound like putting a stop to it, Noah.” I took another sip of water, hating the way I sounded. I sounded like a jealous girlfriend. The issue here wasn’t supposed to be whether or not Noah was fucking Katie. It was supposed to be whether or not he murdered her.
“I flirted with her a bit,” he said. “It was six months ago, Charlotte. And that’s as far as it got. A couple of dirty emails. If you’d kept reading the chain, you’d see that was it. It didn’t even span a week or even a few days. It was over in a couple of hours.”