smile when he made a problem disappear. Liz, of course, knew if she complained to Garret about her money woes, he’d want to help. She also knew that if she appeared upset enough, Garret would insist upon helping, even as she protested.
As time passed, she became no more comfortable showing him affection in public, but she showed him she cared behind closed doors. Overall, he felt they got along pretty well. But he sensed a shift in their relationship, beginning with that Fourth of July 2012, when she texted for hours “with her mechanic.” Somehow, she was able to convince Garret that the texting during the fireworks was innocent. He had no proof to the contrary, so he shrugged it off, trying to ignore his stomach-churning doubts. “I wanted to believe it. But what mechanic has your personal phone number and talks to you at nine or ten o’clock at night?”
It was hard to fathom that Liz and her mechanic were texting about car repairs for hours at a time. Electronic messaging has become a modern-day mating ritual, and Garret and Liz had once indulged in marathon sessions. That was in the beginning, when their romance was new. “We texted constantly. Even late at night. It was nonstop.”
Suddenly she was texting with someone as fervently as she’d once texted with Garret. She didn’t tell him she’d met her so called mechanic on an online dating site, and that while he did fix cars for a living, the nature of her relationship with him was anything but business. She didn’t tell him that the guy’s name was Dave Kroupa and that they were dating, just as she didn’t tell Dave about Garret. Dave would have been relieved to know she had another boyfriend, but she kept Garret a secret. Liz had a very specific image she wanted to paint for Dave, and that picture left no room for other men. She presented herself to Dave as his loyal girlfriend, patiently waiting for him to realize that she was the only woman he needed.
Meanwhile, if Garret ever voiced his suspicions about other men, Liz instantly flipped the conversation, so he ended up feeling like a jealous fool. By the time the autumn’s cool breezes began to blow the dying leaves from the trees, Garret had all but forgotten his worries that Liz might be interested in another guy. She was, after all, still with him. Why would she stick around if she wanted to be with someone else?
Garret had been unable to keep off the weight he’d lost before he’d met Liz. He was gradually gaining more weight with each passing month, and though he did plan to go on another diet, he was procrastinating. With his degree in Exercise Science, he knew how to get in shape and was confident the pounds would fall off when he was ready to focus on his health. His girlfriend didn’t seem to mind his expanding middle, and he figured that was a good sign their feelings for each other went beyond the superficial.
October 26, 2012, was a cold Friday in Council Bluffs, with temperatures falling below freezing. Garret doesn’t remember what he was doing that night, but he was definitely not at the Freaker’s Ball. Liz had not invited him to the big Halloween Bash at Harrah’s Casino, and he was unaware she was there with another man. Most likely, Garret was watching one or both of her kids that night and was probably staring at the TV as his girlfriend of two years posed for a photo with David Kroupa. She didn’t show Garret the photos of them, snuggled together in matching togas, and he had no idea that she’d been dating the freewheeling mechanic for months. He still believed that he and Liz were in an exclusive relationship.
Three days later, on October 29, Garret had no inkling that his girlfriend, who did not cook, had become hysterical over pots and pans left in Dave’s cupboards, and that she had caused an embarrassing scene, interrupting Dave’s date with Cari Farver. Garret, of course, didn’t know Cari, and Liz had never mentioned her. As October turned to November, and the lives of Dave and Cari and Liz intersected in a horrific collision, Garret was oblivious. For him, it was just another November. The days were short and icy. He spent most of the daylight hours at work, and later he relaxed in the warmth of his home, curtains drawn against the long winter nights