“Freddie!” I shouted, banging my fist against the door. “Open up!”
Still no answer. I had been banging for at least five minutes.
I banged some more. “Seriously, get up!” I took a couple of steps back to look up at his bedroom. Yup, the window was open. He could totally hear me. Fine, if he wanted to play it that way. I whipped out my phone and called him. It went to voice mail. Okay, I would try texting.
Answer your phone.
I called again a moment later.
It rang twice then I heard, “Why are you calling me at I hate you o’clock? Don’t you have a murder to be solving?”
“Get down here and open your door.”
“It’s like two in the morning. Go home.”
“I’m not going home until you talk to me.” I originally thought I could wait until morning to talk to Freddie, but after a couple of hours of tossing and turning in bed, I couldn’t stand it anymore. This had to be settled now. “Come down.”
“No.”
“Freddie.”
“No.”
“Come down now.”
“No.”
“If you don’t come down now, I’m going to start singing.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“And I’m starting with Aretha.”
I saw the light come on upstairs. I knew that would work. Freddie hated my singing voice. He especially hated it when I went for the big voices.
A minute later, the door opened. “What do you want?” he asked, looking very grumpy in his bathrobe and slippers.
“Okay, you need to explain to me why you did what you did,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
He frowned. “What did I do?”
“Not invite Sean to the wedding. Because of me?”
“Who told you?” he snapped. “It was Candace, wasn’t it? I knew it was a mistake to talk to that well-intentioned, troublemaking bride.”
“It’s not important who told me,” I said, arms still crossed. “The question is, why would you do that in the first place?”
He let out a disgusted-sounding sigh. “I just knew how difficult this wedding was going to be for you. Given the side-by-side comparison of you and—”
“Gah!” I threw my hands in the air. “There is no side-by-side comparison between me and Candace.”
He frowned. “I meant you and me.” He moved a hand back and forth between us. “Like you’ve been trying to get a relationship going with Grady for years now, and Sean and I just fell into one like the first night we met.”
Huh. Wow. Hadn’t thought of that comparison either.
“I didn’t want to rub that in at a wedding of all places, so I thought it would be good if I could devote my complete attention to your needs. And then Sean went and blew it completely out of proportion—”
“And you took it out on me,” I said, making sure the sentence finished exactly where I wanted it to.
“Oh,” Freddie said, tightening his bathrobe. “I’m so sorry that being a good friend to you puts me in a bad mood.”
We blinked at each other a moment then I gave my head a shake. “Freddie, I don’t want you putting your relationship at risk out of some misguided belief that I need you to take care of me. And why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?”
“’Cause then you would have blamed yourself,” he said with a sigh, “and it would have been Wah, wah, wah, I’m Erica, relationship destroyer.”
“I would not have been— Wait a minute.” I wagged a finger in the air. “Wait, just one minute.”
Freddie straightened up. “What?”
“You said you didn’t invite Sean to the wedding because you wanted to devote your attention to my needs.” I shook my head. “But that … that doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m sorry. Again, what?”
“First,” I said, popping up a finger, “devoting your complete attention to my emotional needs? That doesn’t sound like you, and—”
“You are very rude at two in the morning. I do not like two A.M., Erica.”
“And two, I think there just might be another reason for why you didn’t invite Sean to the wedding. A deeper reason,” I said, pointing directly at his chest. Freddie brought his hand up to cover the spot. “A reason that you are probably too afraid to even admit to yourself.”
“Are you doing a Poirot thing right now. Is that what this is?” Freddie drawled. “What are you even talking about?”
I jabbed another point at him. He took a step back. “The reason you didn’t invite Sean to the wedding is because you’re … chicken!”
“Chicken? That’s it.” He moved to shut the door. “I’m going back to bed.”
“Oh no, no,” I said, pushing it back open. “You weren’t worried about me falling apart at the wedding.”
“I’m always worried about you falling apart in public places.”
“No. No. No. That was just the cover-up. This is about you.”
“Seriously, what are you talking about?”
I moved my pointing finger to the air. “My mom hinted at it … but I didn’t listen. You’re afraid to bring Sean to town as your boyfriend.”
Freddie frowned. “No I’m not.”
“Yes, yes you are. It makes complete sense.”
“You’re crazy. This—”
“Give me your phone,” I said, holding out my hand.
“No.”
“Give me your phone.”
“No,” he said, taking his phone from his pocket and clutching it to his chest. “Don’t you remember how this ended the last time?” He backed up farther into the house.
I followed him in. “Just do it.”
He rolled his eyes and tossed it to me. “Take it. I don’t want you tackling me again. Besides, you’re not going to find anything. I haven’t called—”
My thumbs flew furiously over the screen.
“What are you doing?” he asked, a tinge of nervousness coming to his voice.
I didn’t answer.
“Are you texting someone?”
I quickly walked past him and hustled a few steps away, making sure there was a good distance between us before I started reading out loud what I was texting. “‘Hey Sean, I know it’s late, but…’”