Page 87 of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates
“Ew, never call it that again. You don’t have the mumps, for God’s sake. So now that that’s out of the way, what’s next?”
“In what way?”
“In the nonsexual way, you virginal perv.”
“Already I regret confiding in you. But yes. Absolutely. Except.” He gave her another long, sweet kiss, and they were both just a bit out of breath when it was done. “There.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been depriving the world of you.”
He snorted. “As you would say, ‘aw, that’s sweet.’ Meanwhile, I’m having trouble believing you’re real. You really—ouch.”
“See?” She pinched him again. “Real. Need more proof?”
“No. I’m relieved—ouch!”
“Yeah, this whole Ava-and-Tom team-up is definitely going to be a mixed blessing for you.”
“Intriguingandfrightening. Perfect.”
She was about to retort when her phone vibrated; she reached for her phone and nearly dropped it when she saw who was calling.
“Dennis! Fuckingfinally.”
“Excellent.”
Forty-Three
Except it wasn’t Dennis, and it wasn’t excellent.
“What did you do?” Xenia shrilled in her ear at such a pitch, Ava abandoned the idea of putting her phone on speaker.
“Xenia? What are you talking about? Are you okay? Where’s Dennis?”
“I’m askingyou, bitch!”
“Rude. I have no idea where he is. I’ve been calling his cell for the last couple of days.”
“I know!”
“You—well, that would explain why he hasn’t called me back. Xenia, I haven’t seen him since I drove him to the funeral home to scope the vandal damage. God’s truth, not a peep—no texts or calls or messages.”
“Liar,” she hissed.
“I was starting to get worried.”
“Liar.”
With an effort, she ignored the redundancy.Come on. Dennis’s cell doesn’t just make calls; it has a thesaurus. Just like yours. Dissembler. Falsifier. Deceiver. Mix it up a little!“But ifyou haven’t seen him and he didn’t take his phone—wait, how did you get it?”
“The funeral home called. He left it there.”
“Wait, just now? Or it’s been there for a couple of days?”
“How should I know?” she shrilled.
“Xenia, I think it’s time to call the cops.”
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
