She brought her face directly in front of his.
“Me too,” she said in a husky whisper.
Tim’s world shrank to the few inches that separated her smiling face from his own. The line that separated reality from his hopes blurred. Of course she was glad. He had been right. They were going to be great together. Happiness flooded through his body once more. Tim and Lesley against the world. He had never felt such oneness with another human being.
“That’s why,” she said, “isn’t it?”
Tim had no idea what she was talking about. He was going to ignore her and press his face into her neck again, but Lesley planted both of her elbows on his chest and looked down at him with her chin in her hands.
“Come on,” she said playfully, “that’s why you did it, right?”
Tim blinked in confusion. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he wanted more than anything to keep her happy.
“Did what?”
She grinned and moved fully on top of him, giving him a little hip wiggle that made him moan.
“You know,” she said, “like you were telling me before, what you did to the bank’s computer.”
Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him expectantly. Tim couldn’t remember talking about this earlier, but then again he wasn’t exactly thinking straight at the moment. All he knew was that she seemed plenty happy about it, and he was definitely up for anything that would put Lesley in a more agreeable mood.
She put one hand on his cheek and said, “You made it so we could be together.”
A warm feeling of acceptance flushed through Tim.
“Of course,” he said.
“Was it hard to do?”
He rubbed his stubbly cheek against the palm of her hand, luxuriating in the feel of her skin on his. “Hard to do what?”
“You know, coming up with the keyword and everything.”
Tim’s longstanding secretive instincts tried to bust through his internal buzz, but Lesley quieted them by leaning her forehead down to his and saying, “Hmmm?”
A sloppy grin appeared on his face.
“It’s you,” he said, “your name.”
A look of pure delight came over her face.
“You used my name for the keyword?”
“Yeah,” he said happily. “Lesley89. You know, the year you were born.”
Lesley blinked. Suddenly she pushed herself up and away. The warmth of her was gone, replaced by cooler air. Tim was disoriented for a moment, then lifted his head and saw her sitting at the foot of the pull-out bed.
Lesley’s lips felt numb. Her brain threatened to shut down from the shock.
“My God,” she whispered.
She had never thought about what to do if Rob’s accusations turned out to be true. She was simply doing everything possible to give her relationship with Rob a chance, and that meant testing what he had said about Tim. In truth, Lesley had been almost totally convinced Rob was lying, trying to save face. She figured she would end up apologizing to Tim for deceiving him and then she would move on. Rob would be out of her life, but at least she would have no regrets about not trying.
But now? How could Tim betray his friends like this? The treachery was beyond astounding, so huge she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
Tim scuttled over and sat on the edge of the mattress next to her.
“Hey,” he said, “are you okay?”
Lesley stared at him. She tried to speak but words failed her. She just shook her head in disbelief.
Then it hit her. What must the past few days have been like for Rob? What must he think of her? A solid lump formed in her gut, a lump that was growing, spinning, churning.
She rushed to the bathroom and was violently sick. Afterward she remained kneeling in front of the toilet, too dejected to even get up and rinse out her mouth.
Tim appeared in the doorway. “Do you need some water or something?”
“Go away.”
“I just want to help.”
Lesley turned her head and glared up at him. She was looking at a monster. Before she knew what she was doing, she sprang to her feet and tried to slap him. He jerked back so only two of her fingernails grazed the side of his face, then he backed up a couple of steps. Lesley stayed right in his face, matching him step for step.
Tim’s muddled mind reeled in complete shock, trying desperately to catch up with how suddenly his night had disintegrated. Every fiber of the woman in front of him quivered with fury.
“Help?” Lesley said through clenched teeth. “You want to help?”
“Well yeah, but—”
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
She practically spat the words at him. “You do your best to put my uncle’s bank out of business and send my fiancé to prison, and now you want to help?”
Tim’s mouth had gone completely dry. He had to think, find a way to fix this, figure out how to make her happy again.
“No, it’s like you said. I wanted us to be together.”
He hated the pleading tone of his voice but he couldn’t help it.
Lesley wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“How could you?” she said.
“But … you were happy. You know, about the keyword and everything.”
“I was lying you stupid ass,” she screamed. “You manipulating son of a bitch!”
Tim’s face went white. That’s when it sunk in. The dream was over. Finally and totally gone. He and Lesley would never be together. A feeling of utter despair washed through him, cutting through much of the alcoholic haze and helping him look back on the evening with more clarity than he really wanted.
This was the same old story all over again, one more girl rejecting him, telling him he wasn’t good enough. Anger lines appeared between his eyes and his mouth curled into a sneer.
“You tricked me,” he said.
Lesley’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You hypocritical bastard,” she shouted, and took another swing at him.
This time Tim caught her wrist and held on. When she tried to hit him with her other hand, he grabbed that as well.
Lesley yanked frantically, trying to free her wrists from his grasp. “Let … me … GO!”
Suddenly all the frustration Tim had been holding in for years welled up inside him, begging for an excuse to come pouring out. A snarl of rage transformed his face.
Rob stood looking at his Pathfinder’s damaged fender. Dim light from across the field reflected in the peaks and valleys of crumpled metal. The headlight on that side was smashed. He supposed in the daylight he would be able to see flecks of paint from the car he had pushed aside.
Damaged goods, just like his life. Except his car could be repaired. Order a few new parts, a little bodywork, and there you go, good as new. If only the rest of his problems were so easy to fix.
Rob’s face hardened in the darkness. Since when did he need things to be easy? He looked back at the cabin and something deep down inside clicked into place. He shoved his car keys in his pocket and lurched his way back across the field. The view in the window wasn’t as traumatic this time. The foldout couch was unoccupied. Or perhaps that was worse. Maybe they had finished what they had started.
As he neared the cabin, Rob wondered how to make his entrance. Was the door likely to be locked? They would hardly be expecting—
“Let … me … GO!”
Rob felt a surge of adrenaline when he heard the distress in Lesley’s voice. He hobbled the last few steps as quickly as he could and found the door unlocked. Bursting in, he saw Tim struggling to hold Lesley. Her eyes widened when she saw him.