Page 108 of Cross My Heart
Lanie
Is this real life?How is it possible that Julia’s Boston is Dexter’s Trevor?Holy fuck here goes nothing.Sitting down across from Trevor, I try to find the words but they come out in a rush.
“Okay, well, right before my attack, Julia was scheduled to go to a conference in Boston. I was trying to push her out of her comfort zone a little. I got her to agree to a new wardrobe and made her promise she would put it to good use. I just thought she needed a one-night stand, so I told her she didn’t even have to use real names if she didn’t want to. How was I to know you guys would keep the game going all week?”
“I called her Angel, so she called me Charlie,” Trevor says with a crooked smile, obviously lost in a memory.
“Right… I didn’t know the part, we called you Boston when she got home. Anyway, the day she left, she was already planning on telling you her real name and exchanging numbers. You had dinner plans at the hotel that night.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t show up. I searched everywhere for her for months, it was like she disappeared.” Trevor says.
Dexter’s head is going back and forth between us like a pinball machine, all news to him apparently.
“Her not showing up was my fault, Trevor.” The familiar feeling of guilt washing over me. “About two hours before she was supposed to meet with you, she got a call from her parents that I had been attacked. She wasn’t thinking, she just left. She didn’t even pack up her stuff from her hotel room, just grabbed her keys and took off. I’m so sorry, Trevor.” I tell him. “We have been looking for you ever since, but with no real information to go on, we’ve had no luck.”
“I’d say luck just smacked you in the face,” Dexter laughs. Then his face pales, and I know he is about to spill Julia’s biggest secret.
Before I can stop him, he blurts, “Holy Fuck, Trevor, you’re a dad. You are Charlie’s dad, that’s why he always seemed so familiar. He has your fucking crazy colored eyes.”
I hang my head and sigh.
Trevor is up and screaming before I catch a breath. “What? Is that true, Lanie? Do I have a Goddamn son no one told me about?” he yells.
“Trevor, I’m going to tell you again to calm the fuck down. Did you just hear Lanes? They looked for you, they had no way to contact you.” Dex tells him.
“She needs to come back here right now,” Trevor growls, reaching into his pocket for his phone. Pressing dial a few seconds later, we hear the telltale ring coming from the floor covered in pickle juice.
“What the fuck?” he says, walking over to the mess and pulling out her phone. “She left without her phone? And her wallet? What the hell?” he mumbles, staring down the hallway, “she didn’t even leave with any shoes on, where the hell could she be?”
He is pacing the floor now, looking as frantic as I’ve ever seen him and mumbling incoherently. “Julia is Angel. Charlie is my son. Fuck, my father, what am I going to do?” Stopping abruptly, he asks Dex, “Is she in Lanie’s car?”
“Yes,” Dex replies, seeming uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“Then you can trace her car, tell me where she is.”
“What?” I screech, “you track my car?”
Embarrassed, he shrugs his shoulders. “It’s a feature that came with the car,” he says by way of explanation.
We will be talking about this later, for sure.
Dex pulls out his own phone, presses a few apps, then scowls as he follows the dot. “Ah, I don’t think she is coming back tonight.”
Trevor runs over and grabs the phone from Dexter’s hand.
“Where the hell is she going?” He asks, looking at us both now.
I peek over Trevor's shoulder and cringe. “It looks like she is headed to her parent's beach house in Corolla,” I tell him.
“How in the hell is she going to do that with no phone, no money, and no God damn shoes?” He bellows, pacing once again.
“I-I don’t know,” I tell him
Doubling over, hand on his knees, Trevor tries to catch his breath. Oh shit, I think he is having a full-blown panic attack.
Running to him, I say, “Deep breaths, Trevor, full deep breaths.” After a few minutes, he composes himself. Standing to his full height, resolve in place, he turns to me.
“Give me the address, Lanie. I need it now,” he says.
