Page 38 of No One Else

“Yeah. It’s just, I’ve never seen her and apparently, no one else here has even heard of her. That’s weird, right? That he wouldn’t talk about her ever? I figured you would know better than anyone.”

“Wait, wait. Rewind. He said he has a girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“He said that to you?”

“Yes.”

His expression goes blank and he carefully says, “You should probably talk to Evan about this.”

I scrutinize him closely. “What do you know, Luke?”

He holds his hands up and away from his body. “Nothing. Scout’s honor.” He shoulders his gym bag up higher and looks at me levelly. “Natalie, you’re a dog with a bone when you want to be, and I don’t want to get in the middle. I’m liable to get chewed up and spit out that way.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” I call after him as he heads toward the employee locker area.

I’ll get the girls’ opinion on it tomorrow during lunch. They’re always good to bounce ideas off of.

***

“IFEEL LIKE I’M INa courtroom trial,” Samantha exclaims, bouncing in her seat.

“Just the thought of jury duty makes me nauseous,” Eden groans, clutching her stomach.

“Will the galley please quiet down?” I ask with mock solemnity, banging my fork against the table like it’s a gavel. “Prepare for Exhibit A.”

Samantha, Eden, and Charlotte stare at me raptly around the table we’re sitting at in the student center, our lunches spread in front of us.

“You don’t really have exhibits, do you?” Charlotte asks with concern, like she wouldn’t put it past me to actually whip out a large poster on an easel to present to them.

“No,” I grin. “But Exhibit A is your boyfriend.”

She glances around as if she expects Luke to pop out from under a table, then furrows her brow. “What does Luke have to do with Evan’s alleged fake girlfriend?”

“Ooh, alleged, that’s a good word to use in a trial,” Samantha says, taking a bite out of her pasta salad. God, she always has the yummiest looking food. Much better than my sad pb&j.

I clear my throat, as if I’m preparing for a lawyerly oration. “I would argue that Evan is Luke’s best friend. At least as far as I know. Would you agree?”

“I’d say that’s a fair assumption,” Charlotte says. “They’ve gotten a lot closer in the last year.”

Samantha nods her agreement while Eden just looks back and forth between us all, a slightly confused expression on her face. She’s unfortunately out of the loop since she’s not dating or related to anyone we’re talking about.

“And yet, Luke had no idea who ‘Sarah’,” I say with air quotes, “was when I questioned him about her. In fact, he appeared shocked when I told him Evan had a girlfriend at all. Now, wouldn’t Evan’s best friend of all people be aware of her existence?”

“Damning evidence for sure,” Samantha grins.

“Exhibit B,” I announce, “is Evan himself. He never mentions her. I’d even go so far as to say he seems to forget about her until I bring her up. And even then, he’s always very vague and changes the subject quickly.”

Charlotte strokes her chin thoughtfully. “What has he told you about her?”

“Her last name and that’s it. Literally it. And you know that I’ve tried to pry.”

Eden nods her head. Even though I haven’t known her very long, she’s already aware of how determined I can be.

“Exhibit C is I can’t find any trace of her. None of our coworkers at the gym have heard of her. No online searches I’ve done have turned up any results. Not even the school database I have secret access to at work has any matching record,” I whisper.

Eden’s eyes widen like she’s scandalized, but Charlotte and Samantha grin.

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