“Well, I mean, c’mon . . . Chloe? That shit was fucked up.”

Leaning back in my chair, I stared at an empty spot on my bookshelf that used to showcase my favorite picture of us.

“Yeah, I guess it was messed up.”

“Weird coincidence,” he added.

“Totally weird,” I agreed.

Shrugging to myself, I knew I could totally handle seeing Dave, and if I got a free lunch out of it, even better.

“Okay, fine. You want to try and grab lunch at Le Petit Greek on Larchmont?”

“Uhhh . . .” he stammered.

“Is that not a cool place?”

“Well, it’s just that a good friend of Madison’s works there, and it kind of wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“If it’s cool for us to ‘talk,’ as you put it, I was just figuring that your wife-to-be must feel it’s okay.”

Silence.

“So Madison doesn’t know you’re calling me?”

“Not exactly,” he answered. “It’s not like she would care or anything. I just don’t think it would be appropriate for us to go to that restaurant.”

It dawned on me where he was going with this. “So you’re wanting to get together, but we have to do it in hiding?”

“I just think it would be better if I came by your place,” he said smoothly. “Maybe some night this week.”

This was too funny. “Dave, are you thinking that you’re going to come to my house and get some sort of comfort from me about this whole thing?”

“Dani, hearing that Chloe was murdered was devastating. I mean, the police interrogated me for almost an hour. Interpol in New Zealand acted like I was doing some kind of O.J. run-for-the-border thing.” Dave was using his silky voice, his “you’re my baby and I need you” voice that always made me melt. For months after we’d broken up I’d prayed for this call, hoping he’d say he missed and needed me. Now he was asking me to console him about Chloe. “I could really use your friendship now.”

What a loser.

“I’m not interested.”

“Dani, I need you right now.”

“If you call me about this again, I’m going to call Madison’s dad and tell him that you’re trying to get a sympathy lay from your ex-girlfriend, about your dead ex-girlfriend. How do you think he’d feel about your marrying his daughter then?”

And with that, I hung up.

I shook my head. The future Mrs. Dave Gallagher was going to have a lot of fun with him.

Still smiling, I turned back to my computer.

Six Months Later

“I’ll take it.”