Amanda quickly tamped down that thought, supremely glad that she'd insisted on bringing Joe along to prevent her from either embarrassing herself with Lee or taking things further than she should.
Pasting on a smile, she explained, "Well, I knocked, but you didn't answer, so I figured you were still sleeping it off and that I'd better check on you. You gave me a key awhile back so I could feed your fish, remember?" Though, she wondered why he hadn't asked her to look after his fish while he'd been in Malta. Though, he hadn't even bothered to tell her he was going in the first place. She was guessing it was because he'd been specifically going after Joe and for whatever reason, didn't want her to know about it since he'd told Joe not to tell her that it had happened. What she couldn't understand was why? Why didn't he want her to know about his heroism? That should be a good thing, shouldn't it?
Lee ran a hand through his hair, nodded to the takeout bag in her other hand. "My fish, not me," he groused.
"Oh, come on. Don't be your usual grumpy self. I mean, I know you're not a morning person, but first, it's afternoon now and second, you need to get something in your stomach after all that vodka last night. Now, I brought you some bagels from that place you like around the corner from the office and a big cup of coffee with cream and no sugar just the way you like it."
He shook his head and couldn't help smiling at her thoughtfulness as he took the bag from her in his free hand. "Thanks."
"You're welcome, but it looks like you could use more coffee than just the one cup that I brought, so I'll just go make you a fresh pot."
"Amanda, that's not-" Lee sighed because before he couldn't even tell her it wasn't necessary, she'd already made a beeline for his kitchen, leaving the two men standing awkwardly staring at one another.
After a full minute of uncomfortable silence, Joe remembered what Amanda had said to him about being friendly and spoke first, "Uh…hi….Lee."
"Joe…" Lee nodded curtly as he sat down on the sofa, set the aspirin bottle down on the table, turned his attention to the bag and gingerly lifted out the coffee cup. He took a sip from it wishing to God he had something stronger in his hand, not that he needed it with the way his head still ached. "Huh, she does know how I like my coffee," he grinned at the other man.
Joe frowned. "Sooo…a mutual acquaintance, huh?" He reminded Lee of what he'd said to him in Malta as he sat across from him and stared sternly at him. "You could've just told me you were talking about the mother of my children."
Lee took note of how he'd referred to Amanda specifically as the mother of his children, not simply his ex-wife. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was getting at. The gauntlet had been thrown. "I supposed I could have, but as I told you then, I have to operate in secret. Learning and keeping secrets is part of the job." He paused for a beat, smirked at Joe and then added, "And you wouldn't believe the secrets I've learned about your ex-wife."
Amanda rolled her eyes as she re-entered the room. Due to the small size of Lee's place and the close proximity of the kitchen to the living room, she'd heard every word and had become increasingly annoyed with both of them. "Okay, Boys, zip up and let's end this measuring contest right now. I swear the two of you are worse than Phillip and Jamie with they get into a battle of wills, but let me make one thing perfectly clear here. I'm not a contest to be won!" She glanced from one to the other, "By either of you!"
The two men continued to glower at one another, Joe being the first to speak, giving up any pretense of having kept their adventure in Malta to himself. "Look, I was just telling your acquaintance here that he could've been upfront about why he was there in Malta and how he just happened to show up at just the right time to save my ass."
"Well, it's a damn good thing I did or you wouldn't be sitting here right now to have this argument in the first place!" Lee fired back.
"I know that and I'm grateful, believe me," he replied sincerely, but then couldn't resist adding another little dig at Lee, "I mean, after all, I got to spend the whole last week with Amanda and the kids because of it."
Ouch, Lee thought, but still countered with, "That may be, but I'm the one she was with last night, wasn't I? And where were you?" He snapped his fingers as if realization had just dawned, "Oh, that's right. You were the one at home with the kids for a change while Amanda and I had a hell of a night on the town that ended right there in my bedroom when I asked her to stay and she said she wanted to."
"Okay, stop," Amanda insisted. "You're both right and you're both wrong." She wagged a finger at both of them in turn, first at Joe. "You…yes you've been staying at the house for the past week, but you can just stop with trying to make it sound like it was anything more than it was when you've been sleeping on the pullout in the living room the whole time."
"I-" Joe shut up immediately when she shot him a "Don't you dare" look.
"And you," Amanda turned her icy glare to Lee. "Yes, we ended up in your bedroom last night, but you and I both know why…because you were too damn drunk to stand up under your own power. And yes, you asked me to stay, but do you know what would've happened if I had? Absolutely nothing! If you were too drunk to walk by yourself, I can pretty much guarantee you wouldn't have been able to manage anything else."
Joe shot a gloating grin Lee's way to which Lee replied, "Don't look so smug. She may be right on that part, but who was she kissing at midnight? It sure as hell wasn't you."
"Okay, you know what? I've had it!" She pointed to the entry table. "Your car keys are on the table in the hall and as far as I'm concerned, you can take a cab back to the embassy to get your precious car. And while you're at it, call one for Joe too to take him to the airport. The way you two are acting, I don't want to drive either of you anywhere!"
"But my luggage is in your car," Joe protested at the same time, Lee complained, "But you promised."
"Then both of you need to stop acting like two little kids fighting over a toy and I mean it! You!" She gestured wildly to her ex. "You still treat me just like you did when we were married; as if my thoughts, feelings and opinions don't matter, just what you want! After getting divorced over it, you would think you'd have learned your lesson by now, but noooo….you're still just as damn stubborn as you always were!"
Lee burst out laughing at her rant toward Joe, but his mirth soon faded when she turned on him and let him have it too. "And you! You couldn't care less what's going on in my life if it doesn't directly concern you! You spend half your time acting like you don't want me around until you need me or until God forbid, another man pays me the slightest bit of attention. Oh, boy, then you act like you care! You act like a crazy, possessive lover as if you had the perfect right to do so when you yourself have never expressed any real interest until last night with you were too loaded to think straight!"
"Hey! You wanna' talk about being stubborn. Maybe you should look in the mirror," Joe argued as Lee also yelled back, "Hey! I was just trying to look out for you last night when Borchov was making an ass of himself and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer! Would you have preferred to have him pawing you half the night?"
"Okay, no, I wasn't interested in Borchov, only my date and I think I made that perfectly clear to both of you. And just in case you were so drunk you've forgotten that date was you." She again turned back to Joe and told him pointedly, "As for you, I already told you last night, I do not want to rehash what went wrong in our marriage because it won't do either of us any good." She took a deep breath. "Now, if you'll excuse me, that coffee should be done by now. Just remember, I can hear you from in there." She turned on her heel and marched back to the kitchen.
Lee couldn't help laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, but all the yelling hadn't helped his headache in the slightest and he again reached for the aspirin bottle, hoping that he'd be able to stop fighting it now that he was more awake.
When he saw him struggling with it, Joe chimed in, "Here, let me. Since, as you mentioned, I was at home with the kids last night, I wasn't drinking."
Lee shook his head and let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, thanks." He had to admit, Joe was right.
"It's the least I can do since you pretty much saved my life in Malta," Joe replied in a much calmer tone. He opened the bottle, pulled the cotton from it and handed it back to him.
"Well, you're the lifesaver now," Lee commented as he finally downed a couple of the coveted pills hoping they would ease the pain in his throbbing head.
"So, are we all ready to act like adults now?" Amanda asked coolly as she returned with the coffee service from Lee's kitchen.
"Yeah," Lee nodded while Joe said, "Sure."
"Can I just ask one question?" Joe added. "You can feel free to tell me it's none of my damn business since it really isn't, but-"
"I'm listening," Amanda answered, but with an apprehensive look toward her ex-husband as she sat beside Lee on the couch and began pouring coffee.
"Okay, well, you said last night that…he…" He nodded to Lee. "Um…you said that he's not your boyfriend, so how is it that you know so much about him, how he takes his coffee and for that matter, how it is you seem to know your way around his apartment so well?" He also couldn't help noticing just how comfortable she looked sitting beside Lee despite the fact that he was still half-dressed. He wondered just how truthful she'd been last night about her relationship with the other man. After all, through the whole argument, one thing she hadn't countered was when Lee had said she'd been kissing him at midnight. She also didn't deny that she wanted to spend the night with him, a taunting inner voice added.
Amanda sighed. "The coffee thing I learned early on at the office when we first started working together. As for the apartment, I already told you, when he goes on long trips for the job, I feed his fish."
"While we're on that subject," Lee interjected. "I'll take that key back. If I'd known you were going to abuse it, I'd never have given it to you."
"I don't see how I was abusing it when I just came to keep my promise to you to go get your car and if you'd have answered your door, I would never have used it in the first place."
"Okay, fair point, BUT there was a reason I didn't answer." He indicated his state of undress. "On that note…" he drained the rest of the to-go cup and rose from his seat. "I should get cleaned up if we're going to go pick up my car."
"Yeah, good idea," Amanda replied as she breathed a sigh of relief.
Joe noticed the visible relief on Amanda's face when Lee had left the room and let out a soft chuckle. "So, you're not quite as comfortable with this situation as you appeared to be, huh?"
"Oh, you mean, having to help a co-worker get undressed when he was a mess because of landing on the buffet table and then coming here to find him still half-undressed after he asked me to spend the night with him? Perhaps you mean how you made him feel as if he's an unwelcome part of my life even though he's not? Or maybe you mean just how awkward you made him feel in his own home by insinuating that there's still something going on between you and me when we both know there isn't?"
"So, you're not denying that what he said is true? You did want to stay when he asked you to?"
Amanda gaped at him incredulously. "Really, Joe? Is that all you got out of that?" She shook her head. "Look, it doesn't matter if I wanted to stay or if I didn't because, for one thing, like you said, it's not your business and for another, I wasn't lying when I said he wouldn't have been up for anything anyway."
Joe couldn't help laughing at her word choice. "I bet," he teased.
Amanda flushed and looked down at the floor. "Bad choice of words, bad, bad, bad," she scolded herself for not thinking before she spoke. She took a deep breath and met his eyes again. "But bad or not, it's true and what I said last night was also true, nothing really happened. I left here before it could."
"I still don't hear you denying that you wanted it to," he pointed out.
"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't, but I didn't let anything happen, partially because if something did happen between Lee and me, I'd want it to be because we're both on the same page about it, not because he's just blurting things out because alcohol wiped out his inhibitions, but also partially because I just don't quite know how he really feels about me, regardless of what I feel for him. While I said some things in anger a moment ago that I probably shouldn't have said, I wasn't lying when I said his mood changes toward me, some days he acts like I'm his best friend in the world and other times, like I'm a nuisance."
"Amanda, whether you see it or not, the guy is crazy about you. That's probably why he acts the way he does. You called us both boys earlier and you don't know how close you were to the truth. He's acting just like a grade-school kid that doesn't know how to get the attention of the girl he likes, but is too afraid to just come right out and tell her that he likes her."
"No," she shook her head adamantly.
"Trust me, Amanda, I know guys. Think about it." He rose from his seat. "Listen, do you think your 'friend' would mind if I use his phone? I think I should call a cab after all and let you two sort this thing out between you without a third wheel involved."
"Joe, you don't have to do that."
"Yes, I do. I've overstayed my welcome already." He shot her a pointed look to indicate he wasn't just talking about their visit to Lee's apartment before going off to find the phone.
Amanda stared into the depths of her coffee cup as if it were a crystal ball and she were willing it to give her answers. Was Joe right? Was Lee just afraid to tell her how he felt? He certainly had no problems showing his feelings when another man was involved so why couldn't he just tell her what was on his mind?