Rating: PG-13
Summary: Samantha Bevins's murder from her point of view. Jealous husband this chapter.
Disclaimer: See chapter one.
*******Chapter 2*******
My best friend was waiting in the lobby when we came out. She sized up the mecha with a very approving look.
"Nice one, Sam!" she complimented. "I've been hearing all about your new friend," she grinned at the desk-clerk, "but I didn't think anyone that good-looking could actually exist!" The mecha looked incredibly smug.
I wondered what to say next. I had a lot of experience with guys, but I had no idea how you were supposed to ditch a bought one. I was saved from having to say anything by this pager the mecha wore around his neck going off. (He had already given me its number in the bedroom.)
He glanced at it, and then moved off smiling. He turned around again at the door. "Excuse me. Musn't keep a lady waiting." He managed to make what was an obvious catch-phrase sound sincere. Then he was gone.
"C'mon! I got my cruiser parked outside," my friend said. She gave the desk-clerk a smile. "Nice to have talked!"
In the cruiser, she asked me, "So I take it I'm supposed to let something 'slip' in Alexander's heraring?!"
"Uh-huh."
"I knew you shouldn't have married him!"
"Okay, so maybe I made a mistake, but who else around here has anywhere near the kind of money he has?"
"So stay his girlfriend or something."
I grabbed my seat as she turned the corner at top speed, narrowly missing a cop ticking someone. Whoever gave her her license was an idiot.
"We're talking about my husband, the cheapskate. There's no way he would spend more than a pittance on a mere girlfriend, and he'd spend his whole time glaring at any other guy in a ten metre radius instead of paying attention to me. As his wife, on the other hand, I get all the money I want, he assumes I ignore other guys, and he waits on me hand and foot. Or he normally does."
I had to grab my seat again as she slammed on the brakes for a red light.
******* ******* *******
My husband didn't come home until halfway through dinner. My best friend had hung around in order to catch an opportunity to drop hints to him.
Anyway, we were busy eating when he suddenly appears and just drops down into his chair. It took him five minutes to realize there were other people at the table with him. I'm supposed to be the first thing he notices!
"Oh, Samantha, you didn't have to wait dinner for me."
"I didn't," I muttered. "Idiot."
He didn't hear. "And, er, Alyssa Parker, isn't it?"
"Just `Lyssa, a full name every time is a bit too much, isn't it?!" She gave a laugh.
"Um. And did you enjoy a profitable day, Samantha?" I hate it when he gets all pompous like that. It means he's off in his own little world and not paying any attention to reality, including me.
My friend giggled. "I'll say she has! She's found herself a nice new friend, didn't you, Samantha?" She giggled again. That made him take notice.
"Friend?" he said, trying to be casual and falling miserably short. "What sort of friend?"
She laughed again. It was becoming really irritating. "Oh, just some three-year-old with gorgeous green eyes," she said innocently. I was impressed - she'd obviously gotten a lot out of that desk-clerk, stuff I wouldn't have thought to ask. "I think his name's Joe - that right, Samantha?"
"Uh-huh," I said, glaring at her for my husband's sake.
He completely fell for it. He spent fifteen minutes trying to surprise information out of her by springing would-be-casual questions, but she acted all embarrassed, and kept changing the subject. He eventually gave it up, and wouldn't say another word for the rest of the meal.
I couldn't help grinning to myself. By the end of the week, I was going to have one very interested husband. He was going to be very, very sorry he'd ever ignored me.
******* ******* *******
A.N: Right, I realize that was a really short chapter, but on the other hand the whole let's-get-the-husband-jealous scene was only supposed to be in a quick explanatory paragraph, so it's a lot longer than I originally meant it. A quick note on names: Alexander means "helper of man", and it's the name of the guy who invented penicillin, so I figured it was appropriate for someone who found the cures to a bunch of stuff. Alyssa is the name of this girl I know who's really shallow and really annoying, but is still pretty friendly (the cheerfulness is only slightly exaggerated).
