Page 39 of The Truth in My Lies (Secrets of Suburbi 1)

The lack of anything juicy had made me come back downstairs. That with the combination of my growling stomach. I had given up on finding Ben’s flaw. Or maybe I had already found it. He was too perfect.

The only thing slightly odd was that his basement door was locked. At least, I thought it was the basement door. His house was a similar model to mine. And the only room I hadn’t found yet was the basement. The door was in a different spot than my basement door, but what else could be behind it? I was pretty sure every house in the neighborhood had a basement.

But even the fact that his basement door was locked wasn’t very suspicious. I kept mine locked. It was just annoying because his was locked with a key and mine was locked with a bolt. It just meant I couldn’t go down there and explore. But it was probably empty. Or filled with gym equipment. He clearly worked out and I hadn’t found any of that anywhere. That’s most likely what it was.

Although, I kept my basement door locked because I was terrified of intruders. Ben didn’t really seem terrified of anything. He had left a relative stranger alone in his house for God’s sake. I could have been a Russian spy. I could have been putting cameras up all over his house. I smiled to myself. Now that would have been a good idea. Then I could finally see him naked.

I sighed. I was definitely the evil one. And he was a goody-two-shoes. I poured myself a bowl of some healthy cereal I had never heard of and wandered back to his family room. My feet stopped at the basement door in the hall. I pressed my ear against the wood and then laughed at myself. What am I doing? I kept walking and sat down on the couch.

Searching through all his stuff had been a complete waste of time. Not only had I not found anything interesting, but I hadn’t found my sneaker either. And now that I thought about it, I still couldn’t find my purse. Where the hell was my stuff?

I looked over my shoulder into the hallway. At the locked door. It was going to drive me crazy. I could have searched how to pick locks on my phone, but my phone was missing. And I didn’t want to add anything suspicious to his perfect internet browsing history. I knew how to delete recently browsed things, but I knew that meant nothing to a computer nerd. Those guys could search through years of deleted data. What were the odds of Ben being a computer nerd? I hardly knew anything about him. But he did have those fancy binoculars. And he’d look damn good in a pair of glasses. It was probably better not to risk it.

I left my cereal to get soggy and walked back over to the locked door. Maybe I could climb in or see something through the basement windows outside. But then the neighbors would probably see me. And how would that look? I was hoping they believed my story from last night. I was also hoping they hadn’t noticed Ben run after me. Or me stepping out of his truck and into his house last night.

If Sally saw, maybe she’d keep her big mouth shut. Especially if she wanted her daughter to date Ben one day. Smearing his name wasn’t the best start to a relationship. Just the thought of Sally’s stupid daughter upset me. And it was even more upsetting that she wasn’t actually stupid. She’d probably be able to figure out how to pick a lock.

Bobby pins. I snapped my fingers. I had seen that on TV once. I pulled one out of my hair and stuffed it into the lock. Nothing. I wiggled it back and forth. Nothing. Was it supposed to click or something? I put my ear to the lock and wiggled the bobby pin again. Nothing.

I sighed. Maybe Ben had a movie that involved lock-picking. All I knew was that I had to get into that basement or it would drive me crazy.

I felt vindicated. The coffee definitely hadn’t made me anxious. It made my hyper-focused, just like I remembered. Hyper-focused to the point of destruction.

Chapter 20

I turned off Ocean’s Eleven and sighed. I had been fast-forwarding through a handful of movies for over half an hour. Why did no movies about robberies have a helpful lock-picking scene?

Probably because they didn’t want to aid lunatics like me. I’d just need to keep trying my bobby pin. I put the movie back on the shelf and walked over to the basement door.

Again, I pressed my ear against the wood. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to hear. Someone crying for help? An animal begging to be let up? But it was completely silent. I couldn’t even hear the whirl of a sump pump. Not that it had been raining.

It’s just a basement. A normal, regular, everyday basement. My thoughts didn’t stop me from dropping to my knees and stuffing my bobby pin back in the door. Come on. Opening that door had completely taken over my thoughts. I needed to get in. I needed to know what secrets he was hiding. Because I couldn’t be the only one with skeletons in my closet. There had to be something wrong with him too. I couldn’t be with someone so perfect.

That wasn’t really the issue. The question was, why the hell would he want to be with someone as messed up as me? He should have seen me fall and ran in the opposite direction. I was trouble. And Ben was out of his mind if he wanted me.

But he did want me. Every glance, every touch, I wasn’t insane. I wasn’t making our connection up in my head. He liked me. So he was the crazy one. Maybe that was his flaw. Wanting me. Desiring something so clearly broken. Wanting to save someone who couldn’t possibly be saved.

Come on. I wiggled the bobby pin to the left. My psychologist said I needed to think more positively. So for once in my life, I was attempting that technique. The lock would make a click or something soon. Any second now the door would open for me. Any second now. The bobby pin snapped in my fingers, half of it jammed into the lock. Shit. No! I put my eye right up next to the doorknob. Oh God, oh God, oh God. The end of it was lodged into the lock.

I grabbed the small piece that was jutting out and tried to pull it, but I couldn’t make purchase on it. It just slipped from my fingertips before I could even try to get it out.

How long had Ben been gone? An hour and a half? Tops. He said he had a few jobs. It took him a little less than half an hour to mow his lawn. That meant he could be home any minute. He couldn’t see this.

I had looked all over his house and I hadn’t seen a toolkit. Where did men keep their toolkits? I slammed my palm against the basement door. The basement. They kept them in the basement. What have I done?

My fingers slipped from the end of the bobby pin again. I couldn’t give up. There had to be something I could use. I ran into the kitchen and started throwing open drawers.

I lifted up the wine opener. With all the metal things sticking out of it, I thought one might be useful. But of course none of them were. I threw it back down and opened up another drawer. I almost screamed in delight. Tongs! I could use tongs!

I pulled them to my chest and thanked a God I didn’t believe in, before running back to the door. I knelt down and pinched the bobby pin with the tongs. The tongs immediately slid off the piece of metal. No. This was going to freaking work. It had to. I moved my fingers to the end of the tongs and tried to keep my hand steady as I performed what could have been classified as the hardest medical procedure ever known.

The end of the bobby pin was just starting to come out when I heard the front door open.

“Addy, I’m back!”

It felt like my heart was beating in my throat. Come on you stupid piece of… The bobby pin flung out of the doorknob, pinging against the wall behind me.

“Addy?”

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