Husband Next Door. Anne Ha
a few minutes.” He led her to the kitchen and produced a sheet of paper from his drop-front desk. “Here. Make a list or something while I take a shower.”
“But—”
He laid a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “Shelly, I know you’d like to help, but I can clean myself pretty well. Save your instructions for things I’m not already good at.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” she muttered, but he was already gone.
She sat down at his kitchen table and drew up a plan for teaching Aaron how to be a better man.
Shelly had filled half the page when she heard him calling her name. She got up and walked cautiously into his bedroom. The inner door leading to the bathroom was open, and Aaron stood in front of the sink wearing nothing but a towel.
She’d never seen him wearing only a towel before. He’d wrapped it low around his hips, leaving more of his torso bare than was, Shelly thought, quite necessary. She tried to ignore the strength in his shoulders and the beautiful lines of muscle that rippled as he moved.
With a hand towel, Aaron cleared the steam from the mirror right in front of him. He met her eyes in the glass. “I decided we should be efficient. You can talk to me while I shave.”
Shelly didn’t think this was a very good idea, but she didn’t see how she could back out of the situation without him guessing why. “Okay. Where do you want to start?”
He splashed water on his face and dampened his shaving brush. “You said I should learn how to dump a woman properly. Why don’t we start there?”
“Okay,” she said, distracted by the supple movements of his body as he drew the brush through his shaving soap and lathered his face. The clean citrus scent of the soap drifted out to fill the room, and she inhaled deeply.
“I’m waiting.”
She closed her eyes and forced herself to focus. “You’ve been getting rid of your girlfriends in a mean and manipulative way. I’m going to teach you to be more honest about your feelings.”
Aaron rinsed out his razor and began to shave.
“When you break off a relationship,” she said, “you need to be straightforward about it. Don’t drag it out or pretend you’re not doing what you’re doing. Insincerity is really hard to deal with when someone is giving you the ax. Do you understand?”
Aaron shrugged. “I guess.”
“Okay, then.” She cleared her throat. “You can practice on me.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Dump me.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He held her eyes in the mirror. “Because I can’t. We’re not going out.”
Shelly sighed in exasperation. “Use your imagination, you big oaf!”
He rinsed his razor and took a few more strokes. “Okay, but if we were going out, I probably wouldn’t want to dump you.”
Shelly tried to stay calm, though she felt her temper rising. “Your delaying tactics are getting on my nerves.”
He turned his head and smiled at her. “I’m only trying to be honest and straightforward.”
“You know, I think you’re just sensitive about having a woman teach you how to be a man.”
“Certainly not.”
“Then prove it. Dump me.”
Again he paused. “What should I say?”
“Try, ‘I’m not in love with you anymore.’”
His brows drew together. “But what if I never was in love with her?”
“Just say it.”
He swallowed. “I’m not in love with you anymore.”
“Say it like you mean it.”
“But I don’t mean it.”
Shelly thought for a minute. “How about, ‘I don’t think our relationship is moving in the right direction.’”
He said it. It even sounded as if he meant it.
“Good,” she said. “Really good. You’ve opened up the dialogue. Now, what if I started to throw a fit? What if I got all distraught and weepy?”
He smiled into the mirror at her. “I’d take you in my arms and—”
She felt her pulse accelerate. “No, no, no! That’s not right at all. You’re trying to break up, not get back together.” She paused. “Try saying, ‘I’ve lost interest.’”
“I’ve lost interest In this ridiculous exercise.”
Shelly expelled her breath impatiently. “You are so aggravating!” She retreated farther and sat down on his bed. “If you’re not going to cooperate, I might as well not help you.”
Aaron turned around to look at her. Flecks of lather dotted his smooth-shaven cheeks. “Are you giving up so soon, Shel?” He sounded genuinely curious.
“Of course not. I’ve still got a few things to say, but they can wait until you’re finished. I want your full attention.”
Shelly lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She heard a rustle as he turned around and the splash of water in the sink.
Aaron came out of the bathroom a few minutes later. He’d slipped into his dark blue bathrobe and was toweling his hair. Shelly sat up, but turned her face away.
He tossed the towel onto the bed beside her. “So, shall we continue?”
She stood up. “Yes. Um, I want to compliment you on how clean your bedroom is. You must have made a special effort for…”
“Amanda,” he said.
“Right. Amanda. You’ve cleared away the evidence of previous female visitors. That’s good. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve simply hidden the stuff. In the closet, perhaps?” She threw open the closet doors and peered inside. Sure enough, a tube of lipstick sat on the shelf at the top. She turned to Aaron with a victorious look.
He ignored it. “Could you hand me the brown trousers hanging in the middle?”
Sighing, she reached into the closet. “These?”
“No, two over. Yes, those.”
Shelly slipped the trousers off the hanger and held them out.
He laid them on the bed. “Thanks. You were saying?”
“Oh, nothing.” She stepped away as he moved to the closet and selected a linen shirt to wear. “I don’t know why I even bother.”
Aaron crossed to his bureau. He picked out boxers and a pair of socks, tossing them on the bed with the other clothes.
The room was starting to feel quite warm, Shelly thought. And Aaron was entirely too casual about his state of undress. “Uh, I’ll leave you alone for a minute.”
He winked at her. “That’s probably a good idea.”
Shelly breathed a sigh of relief as she escaped from the room. It shouldn’t be like this between two friends, she thought, more disturbed than she cared to admit. It especially shouldn’t be like this right now, when she was thinking of marrying Eric. Why did Aaron’s attractiveness suddenly seem inescapable, when she’d always managed to ignore it in the past?
Well, she told herself, she would just have to be stronger. She would have to get her nervous system under control and keep things on the right level.
Aaron