I sighed in exasperation. “Whatever. I don’t have it because I forgot to include a spot for phone numbers on the application.” The excuse came to me easily since I’d once forgotten to include a spot for city, state, and zip code on a paperback order form.
He exhaled slowly and leaned back in his seat, though he was far from relaxed. “I’ll give it to you if you want it, but it was disconnected last month.”
“I want it,” I told him pointedly. He seemed like he was telling the truth, but admittedly, I wasn’t always the best judge of character, and I was going to have to remember that if I was going to keep him from pulling the wool over my eyes. After he pulled the clothes from my body.
He wrote the phone number on the back of a business card from his wallet and handed it to me. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” I chirped and snatched it from his fingers. Then, I promptly dialed the number and pressed send.
Bronze doubled over laughing. “I knew you were going to do that.”
I ended the call and rolled my eyes. “Of course I was. Who wouldn’t check?”
“Most people would’ve waited until after I was gone.”
“I don’t have time for that shit,” I blurted.
“Am I keeping you from something? Besides your interview, that is?”
I shook my head. “I meant in general. I don’t have time for people’s pity petty bullshit.”
“Pity petty?” he chuckled.
“Shut it. I needed a P.”
“I can give you a P. And a D. And a C.”
I clapped my hands together. “Focus. What else can you tell me about them? Do you know why Paige moved? What do you think happened to Heidi?”
“You obviously have some serious interviewing skills,” he teased and took a long, slow sip of his drink before his next words threw me for a loop. “Let’s start with the easiest one. Paige moved away because she broke up with Heidi.”
Of all the things he could have said, that was not even a remote possibility in my mind. “What?” I shouted, far louder than I intended, but seriously. What? “That can’t be!” They were sisters, weren’t they? I started to ask but realized that was something I would have known from the application—if it was real.
But I had to know, even if I blew my cover story because of it. “I’m sorry, would you repeat that?”
“Paige broke up with Heidi and moved away,” he repeated and chuckled. “You thought they were sisters, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I nodded rapidly. “That’s exactly what I thought. They’re not?”
“I thought the same thing when I first met them,” he laughed and shook his head. “No, they’re definitely not sisters,” he said in a way that told me he knew from experience.
I wanted to wrinkle my nose in disgust. Hearing about my current partner’s previous conquests was not on the list of things I liked to do.
“Listen, I normally don’t discuss things like this with other people, particularly women, but I think it’s pertinent in this case.”
“Oh this sounds like it’s gonna be great,” I drawled and didn’t bother to hide my lack of enthusiasm. Because I already knew what he was going to say. Or at least I thought I did.
“Heidi and Paige were already a couple when I met them. I don’t know for how long, but they said they started dating when they were teenagers.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Heidi worked at Precious Metals, but both Paige and Heidi helped out at the clubhouse bar. One night, it came up that Paige enjoyed watching Heidi have sex with a man, and Heidi enjoyed doing it. There was some discussion about how they went about finding a man to participate, and long story short, I ended up being, um, there for them like that.”
“Why do I need to know this?”
“You asked about their relationship, so I’m telling you about it.”
“Their relationship to each other,” I clarified.
He held his hands up with his palms out. “I was just trying to help. I thought telling you about them might help with your story since they’re not here for you to interview.”
And that’s why I tried to avoid outright lying if I could help it. Because it always came back to bite you in the ass in ways you never imagined—like listening to the man who rocked your world the night before tell you about