Page 1 of Night So Silent
CHAPTER ONE
Eight Days Until Christmas
Barrett
Maybe if I’d sent Harrison those tit pics last year, I wouldn’t be standing in the airport security line thanking my lucky stars that I haven’t been turned into a skin suit yet.
For the record, it’s not Harrison that I’m worried about, it’s the asshole I met a few months ago during my coworker’s birthday celebration at the bar down the street. I never meet guys at bars, and what happened afterward is the exact reason that I have a rule…
Never meet guys at bars.
“Caleb is fucking diabolical, Brett—” I say into my phone. “Shit—damnit!”
My New Year’s resolution is to stop cursing. I decided it would help me expand my vocabulary and force me to think of other ways to emphasize emotion during conversation.
It’s not going well.
Oh well, at least I started early and still have a couple of weeks until the new year. Maybe I can channel the Christmas spirit, especially in an airport full of Christmas trees, oversized ornaments, and people embarking on their own holiday trips. I need all the help I can get.
“What happened?” Brett asks. “You said you’d tell me, but then you went AWOL the rest of the week.”
Oh yeah, the day after my relationship meltdown, my colleague at the clinic decided to get herself arrested for insurance fraud. It was such a to-do; law enforcement descending on the office like locusts in a waiting room full ofpeople with traumatic histories. And, of course, her caseload got shifted to the rest of us in our understaffed office after she was hauled off to the clink.
“Four months in and everything was going well. Caleb and I took it slow, didn’t rush anything, and I even thought it was a good omen that he vacations to Colorado all the time to snowboard. I think his family has a house somewhere out there. So, of course he knows about my trip because I’ve been so excited. But last week we were about to leave dinner and I casually mentioned that I forgot to stop at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. He sounded concerned at first, so I said not to worry, it’s just for my face cream. But then he started asking questions in ways that suggested he didn’t want me toknowhe was asking questions.As if I can’t pick up on that stuff.”
“What did he want to know?”
“Out of nowhere, he started talking about how birth control pills are really terrible for women and he would hate for me to experience the slew of negative side effects associated with them.”
Brett lets out a guffaw. “What iswithguys? Since when are they experts on birth control? Colson told me my pills were fucking with my head and I should stop taking them the first time I went out with him.”
“Listen, Brett, IwishI could tell you that Caleb’s asinine pseudo-medical advice resulted in me finding my batshit soulmate like you, but that was just not meant to be. I assured him that I do not take birth control pills because I have an implant instead. Andthat’swhen I saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“Caleb shook his head and said,oh yeah, that definitely won’t work.I just stared at him, and in an instant, he knew he’d been caught.”
“What?”
“And then, immediately, all these other tiny details that didn’t really fit finally gelled. He’s afraud.He’s one of these misogynistic losers who has to trick progressive women into going out with him! There’s a reason he clammed up when I started talking about Willy Nelson’s history of social activism! I saw it in his eyes. He washidingsomething!”
“Ooh, like a snake!” she practically hisses through the speaker.
“By the time we got in the car, I was questioning the last four months of my life.Then,his phone automatically connected to his Bluetooth and do you know what popped up on his display?”
“Oh god, what?”
“One of those dipshit red pill alpha male podcasts!”
There’s an audible gasp from Brett. “Ew.”
“He blew it off and acted like he didn’t know,but he knew!That trash doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere. So, herein lies the difference, Brett—Colson turned out to be a feminist batshit psycho, but phonies like Caleb are far more dangerous.”
“OK, I see your point,” she concedes.
“Piece of trash. He probably isn’t even allergic to cats.”
“Did he say he was?”
