Lyndee
Fuck.
I lit a cigarette looking at the little red Mercedes. Finding a deserted street in Manhattan was impossible at just after 11 in the morning, but driving an hour out of town to Bayonne and parking in an abandoned warehouse parking lot off Constable Hook...
I exhaled a plume of smoke.
Keys in the ignition. Driver's side door open. The door ajar alarm sounded rhythmically.
My phone buzzed. I took it out and accepted the call.
"Is it handled?"
He'd been shaken when I'd left him. It was a side of him even I had never seen.
"You're panicking," I said.
"And you're smoking, aren't you?"
I ashed my cigarette. "If she's found, she'll be a body in the trunk of a stolen car," I said. "No links back to you. I've scrubbed the hotel footage."
"Who vetted her? How the hell did she clear security?"
I sucked at my cigarette, savoring the flavor. "Booth," I exhaled. "Told you to fire him when I hired on, didn't I?"
"Fine, can his ass."
I dropped the cigarette and ground it out with the heel of my boot. "I love you, too, Dad."
"Stow the tude, Daughter dearest. You have her tablet. Tie up all the loose ends."
He rang off.
I bent down and picked up my smoldering butt. I turned and walked casually away from the car. In three blocks, I'd catch an Uber outside a local coffee house. A jet was waiting at Newark Airport. Destination: Boston, MA.
I took out the tablet and opened the cache of photos. I took in the smiling face of my baby half-sister: green eyes, a long braid of carrot-orange hair, perfect teeth.
I swiped through the images, coming to one of a tall, muscular, dark-haired man in a policeman's uniform shirt and blue jeans. The bit of stubble, the mirrored sunglasses, posing on a motorcycle with his smiling wife and pre-teenaged step-daughter hugging in close. Bit of a lens flare...
Happy families...
I ditched my cigarette butt a block away in a storm drain.
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd," I thought, stopping at the walk-up window of the Cafe and ordering a tall double-shot nonfat latte.
I paid with cash as my Uber pulled to the curb. I slid into the cramped backseat of the little Chevy Cruze, killing the tablet and tucking it into the little travel bag.
"Christine?" The driver asked. "Newark Airport, right?"
I nodded. "Yes," I said, taking out a five-dollar bill. "Do you have any chocolate?"
The driver reached down and brought up a basket with bottled water and assorted Godiva.
I passed him the bill and took two of the special dark and a bottle of water.
"Headed home for the fourth?" He asked, putting the car in gear.
"Visiting family," I said.
"Always fun setting off fireworks, isn't it?"
I unwrapped one of the chocolates and took a small bite, chewing as I watched out the window. "Isn't it...?"
Chloe
We had sat together on the kitchen floor for about five minutes, my head against his shoulder as we both contemplated what we had just done to one another.
"That was..." I began.
"Yeah," he managed.
"Definitely felt different with this thing inside me."
He nodded. "That's sort of the point. Just keep it inserted for a while to get your muscles used to the sensation."
I stood up and made a show of wiggling. "How long a while?" I asked.
He accepted my hand up from the floor and managed to pull up his jeans. He grabbed the package of cover-alls off the counter and tossed them at me. "Long enough to be useful to me in the garage."
He moved to the laundry room, and I followed, untying my dress.
"You know, you leave a lot to be desired in the afterglow department," I said.
He shot me a stern glance I knew well. Don't push it, kid.
I ignored the look and shrugged out of my now rumpled dress, i was still handcuffed, so it just hung off my shoulders. He took out the key and unlocked one wrist. I took off tge dress and threw it at his head. "I woke up alone this morning. You ran away last night. Now you're cornered."
He pulled my dress off his head and then, after examining it, hung it up.
"We got cum on that," I said.
"It's dry-clean only," he countered.
"Well fuck, so am I at this point! It's not like it would kill you to...to...."
"To what?" he asked. "Be intimate? What do couples usually talk about after sex? They exchange little tidbits about themselves, their likes and dislikes, interesting stories about their backgrounds, their families. Getting to know each other. Right?"
I crossed my arms, suddenly realizing what he was getting at. "Well, I just mean..."
His badge and gun were still on his belt. He unclipped both and set them aside. He took off his shirt. "So, where'd you grow up? What are your parents like? You don't have an allergy to penicillin by any chance?"
I saw red. I charged at him and slugged him hard in his bare chest.
"Ow!"
"You know that's not what I meant."
He shook his head. "Well, I can't just pretend this whole situation is normal, can I?
"I'm not asking you to. But we've done it, Cy," I said. "Three times, now. It might have been a fluke or a bad mistake or wild hormones the first time, but...." I turned and waved my wrist with the one still locked wrist at the kitchen. "After two people do THAT, they're supposed to...."
His fist pounded the lid of the washer so hard I was surprised it didn't dent. I stepped back and stood silent.
"Sorry," he said.
"No. I'm sorry I hit you," I said.
"I'm not angry at you," he said. He unclenched his fist, shaking his head. I watched as he seemed to look everywhere but directly at me.
"But you run away."
"I'm not running from you. It's knowing that whatever this is, it will have to end."
"You can't know that for certain," I said.
He shook his head. "End in tears," he sighed. "Much as neither of us might want it to."
"But it's so--"