He sucked on his cigarette and looking back at me gave me his usual menacing, chilly gaze that could cut and bore into your guts with arthroscopic accuracy.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Look, I’m sorry”—and went back to my books. I had overstepped my bounds again and there was no getting out of it gracefully except by owning that I’d been terribly indiscreet.
“Maybe you should try,” he threw in.
I’d never heard him speak in that lambent tone before. Usually, it was I who teetered on the fringes of propriety.
“She wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“Would you want her to?”
Where was this going, and why did I feel that a trap lay a few steps ahead?
“No?” I replied gingerly, not realizing that my diffidence had made my “no” sound almost like a question.
“Are you sure?”
Had I, by any chance, convinced him that I’d wanted her all along?
I looked up at him as though to return challenge for challenge.
“What would you know?”
“I know you like her.”
“You have no idea what I like,” I snapped. “No idea.”
他吸了口煙,回頭看看我,又是他平常那種冷眼眼帶有威脅的凝視,仿佛能以關(guān)節(jié)鏡般的精準(zhǔn),切開、鑿穿你的內(nèi)臟。
“好吧,我很抱歉。”我聳聳肩說,繼續(xù)看我的書。我又越界了,除了歸咎于我太不謹(jǐn)慎之外,沒有任何更好的解釋了。
“或許你應(yīng)該試試。”他突然插話。
我從來沒聽過他用這種機巧的語氣說話。通常,我才是那個為說話得體與否反復(fù)掂量的人。
“她不會想要和我有任何瓜葛的。”
“你希望她想要嗎?
這是要扯到哪里去?
為什么我覺得陷阱就在幾步之遙?
“不希望吧。”我小心翼翼地回答,沒意識到我的畏縮讓我的“不希望”聽起來幾乎像個問句。
“你確定?”
我是否在偶然間讓他以為我一直對奇亞拉有意思?
我抬頭看他,仿佛要正面迎戰(zhàn)。
“你知道什么?”
“我知道你喜歡她。”
我厲聲反駁:“你才不知道我喜歡什么。完全不知道。”