The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [90]
He returned serene and sober and amused at the sight of her drinking. He took his seat at the table once again, pushed aside his half-finished plateful of grub, seized his grub-stained chop sticks and proceeded to play with them, making them dance like puppets across the place mat.
Melony swallowed and simply looked at him, amused herself and inquisitive.
“So,” Andrew began with mannered distraction, “where would you like to take the evening from here? Wanna watch a movie? Have you seen War of the Worlds? Strange Invaders? Communion with Christopher Walken? I got Invaders From Mars, the original and the remake. I’ve always been drawn to movies like those. You think you can tell me why?”
Melony didn’t know what to say. At first, to her, Andrew sounded as though he was purposely allowing the subject that sent him from the kitchen to drift over his head and the next minute he sounded downright sarcastic. Then she answered, “I enjoy those kinds of movies, too. You think you can tell me why?”
Andrew set the chop sticks down upon the table, coolly, crossed his arms, leaned into the table, and gazed at her. “Two possibilities here: either you know things about me that I’m not aware of or you don’t know shit. That’s not to offend you and I’m not angry. I figure the only way to carry on this evening is to discuss this topic frankly or to not discuss this at all. We could watch a movie and carry on with the date portion of this..., unless you wish to leave right now, in which case I will be convinced that there really is no date portion of this.”
“So...” Melony responded after little thought, “...if we speak frankly about this topic, and I remained here, would that mean there still is a date portion of this evening?”
“There is,” Melony said. “You don’t have to believe me. I’ve said enough to make you believe otherwise, so if I leave, it will be because you want me to. I admit there are numerous questions I have for you, some to satisfy personal curiosities and some questions preplanned for literal years. I take it that by now it’s occurred to you who my husband is.”
“Now that we’re choosing to speak frankly, I prefer you’d do most of the speaking. The more insight you can give me on my life, the more I’d be able to try to relate to what you know. You tell me something about myself and I’ll be able to see where you get that I’m a UFO alien out of all of it. A ridiculous assumption, but my life has been so abnormally bizarre that it merits some insight from an outside observer such as yourself. Such insight has always been a rare thing for me. Truth is, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this. And I’ve been waiting to sit down to dinner with a beautiful woman in my own apartment and I’m glad it turned out to be you. It sucks that you’re married, though, which decreases my chances with you dramatically, I’m sure. But, hey, I still gotta try. I’m open to affairs. Hell, I should be open to anything, considering my pathetic social life.”
He was a strange brew of personality, Andrew was, that was certain. But he sure talked a great deal for someone insisting that she’d do all the speaking. Somehow, it was eerie that Andrew seemed to pick up on how she was attracted to him against all the odds of the situation. Either that, or he was hard up enough for a woman to tolerate it.
Somehow, suddenly, it appeared quite clear that Andrew was capable of reading her with a keen accuracy. Was it simply due to the fact that he was a writer, or....
She found herself overwhelmed with the same uncomfortable sensation as one would have being scoped out by undercover security in a department store.
She waited for him to speak again and he remained silent. It came to her that he was waiting for her to begin the most of the talking rule he’d just laid out for her.
She began with the incident at the school playground, when Andrew met Ralston Cooper for the first time more than a dozen years ago and with the grisly murders which