Page 9 of Reckless Liar

“Bizarre is more like it.” I wrinkled my nose, thankful for the change of subject. “I had a really odd patient. She knew Max. I guess she worked with Dana at the hotel.” I took a drink of my wine. “She kept making these weird comments about Max. She obviously had a thing for him. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Yeah,” Scarlett replied softly, as if she was thinking about something she couldn’t quite say yet.

“But the way she was talking about him, like she knew him,likereally knew him. It put me on edge. I’ve never heard her name before today, but the way she was talking about him...“ I hesitated, looking away from her. Out the window, I could see all the boats tied up on the dock. I twirled the stem of the wineglass in my hand, making three twists before taking my hands off the table and setting them in my lap. “You don’t think he might’ve...”

I expected Scarlett to refute my comment. When she was silent, I looked back, her fingers playing with the stem of her wineglass as she bit her bottom lip. Looking up at me with pained eyes, she sighed heavily. “I don’t know her. I haven’t heard about Max cheating recently.”

“Recently?”

“Oh, come on, Ana. Would it have been that surprising? If he did cheat, it wouldn’t have been the first time, right?”

I didn’t like to think about the first time we broke up. I caught him kissing another girl at a party. “But that was back when we were kids. Things were different then.”

She cringed at me. “Not that long ago.”

I knew how Scarlett felt about Max. She was with me through everything. Aside from Max and Xander, Scarlett had been my first friend when I moved to town. She saw the first inklings of a crush, was the first to hear about our first kiss. The first time we broke up and all the times after. She was the one who helped me box up all his things and send them to Boise when he left town in high school.

I knew her reservations weren’t baseless, but after what happened, it would hurt too much to go down that path.

Opting instead to change the subject, I picked up the happy hour menu between us. “Should we get some edamame too?”

Chapter four

“I'm staying at Scarlett's house tonight.” -Ana to her parents, Junior year of high school.

Iwasremindeddailythat the world was moving on without Max. Despite my ability to keep a firm grasp on his memory, the world had other ideas. I was getting better at acting like I was working on getting better.

After locking my car with the key fob three times, I walked into the house, carefully hanging up my jacket on the coat rack. Xander’s work boots were lying haphazardly on their sides in the walkway and I nudged them back flush with the wall. Through the kitchen, I noticed two empty beer bottles on the counter. The screen door was open, and I could see Xander sitting in a chair on the back porch. While it wasn’t especially early to be drinking, Xander rarely drank on nights when he had to get up the next morning. I bit my lip as I considered his back. He hadn’t heard me come in yet. It was possible he was having a hard day and would likely want his space as he quietly sulked. I considered going into my room and getting ready for bed. Like Xander, I needed to be up before the sun rose the next day for my six a.m. shift at the hospital.

I walked to my room but seeing the bottles on the counter irked me. I could at least put them in the recycling bin and out of sight. As quietly as I could, I grabbed them off the counter, placing them in the bin under the sink softly.

“Sorry about that.”

I jumped, startled by Xander’s voice at the door. He leaned against the doorjamb, one hand on the sliding glass door and another beer in his other hand. He nodded his head at the recycling bin. “I meant to do that before you got back, but I didn’t expect you to until after ten. I thought I had to time to hide the evidence.”

I laughed awkwardly. “Princess shift today. Only eight hours at the hospital, I got off at six.”

He nodded his head quickly at me. “How was work?”

I grabbed a cleaning wipe from under the sink to scrub a spot where it looked like Xander had dripped either peanut butter or brown mustard. “Fine. Short, which was nice. I think I’m going to take on another shift next week.”

He furrowed his brow. “Are you ready for that? You shouldn’t overload yourself.”

I rolled my eyes at Xander. “I’m fine, Xan. Honestly, another shift at the hospital would do me good. I’ve already blown through all my savings with the time I took off. I can handle work now.”

A pained look stuck on his face, and he looked away from me, taking a large slug of his beer.

“What?”

He avoided my eyes, looking into the living room. He tapped his thumb over the top of his beer bottle, making a low popping noise.

“What is it, Xander?” When he didn’t respond, my heart sped up in my chest, my breathing got weak. When he didn’t say anything, I threw the wipe on the counter. I was hoping for a dramatic noise, but only got a soft wet splat. “Goddamn, Xander. Are you okay? Something’s wrong, isn’t it? Is someone hurt? A friend of ours? Is it Scarlett? Is she sick? Are you sick? You are, aren’t you? Fuck, I can’t lose you, too.”

He glanced at me, a tick in his jaw. He shook his head at me. “No, nothing like that. God, is that the first place your mind goes?”

I slapped my hand down on the counter and narrowed my eyes. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t have the reaction you want. But you’re acting like you have some terrible news, and I’m rightfully freaking out here.”

“No one is sick, I promise.” He walked into the kitchen, setting his beer down next to our mail pile. He picked up an envelope and handed it to me. “But on the subject of money...”

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