Luna and the Lie

by Zapata, Mariana

  “I don’t,” he repeated himself, those long fingers flexing on the steering wheel.

  I sighed again. “It was just one little lie, Ripley.”

  “You lied to the fucking cops for me, Luna. That’s a felony if you didn’t know. There’s nothing little about that.”

  I guess there was no arguing that. I put my hand over my face and took a breath, sliding my gaze over to him, trying to be sneaky about it so he couldn’t see me doing it. Who was this man? Not that I was complaining that he was actually talking to me and asking me things and trying to be nice, but….

  “Why are you being such a pain in the ass about me going with you?” he asked all of a sudden, forcing my thoughts back.

  I stopped trying to be sneaky with my glances and just stared. “I’m not being a pain in the ass. You are.” I flexed my fingers, remembering this was my boss. “I say that with all the respect of you being an owner of Cooper’s and me being your employee, by the way. Please don’t fire me.”

  He shook his head, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t going to fire me or if I was just getting on his nerves.

  Knowing Rip, it could be either.

  “Look, I do appreciate you coming with me. I really do, Rip. I like your company. You know that.” I didn’t miss the way he turned to glance at me, just for a second, just for one single split second, but I didn’t miss it. The thing was I didn’t know what to think about the wary expression on his features when he did it. “But I told you, you don’t owe me. Honestly, I would have probably called my best friend to go with me if you hadn’t… volunteered.” I wasn’t sure I would call him telling me to get my shit as him volunteering, but close enough. “I really do appreciate you coming with me, but I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”

  Those long fingers flexed again, but his attention stayed forward then. “You’re not.”

  “You’re screwing up at least some part of your weekend off driving me to Dallas.”

  “I’m not screwing up shit, Luna.” He flicked his gaze toward me and shook his head again. “Who told you that you’re an inconvenience?”

  I didn’t mean for my body to get tight, but it did. “No one,” I tried to tell him as brightly as possible.

  The look he gave me said he thought I was full of it.

  He would have been right, because I was, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t like that he got that idea, especially so quickly.

  “I don’t like to bother people, that’s all. I don’t like asking anyone for a favor, and if I can….”

  Dear God.

  I realized what the hell I had just said.

  I didn’t like asking anyone for a favor. It was the truth. I would rather go without than ask anyone for anything.

  And for three years, I’d been holding this favor that Rip felt he owed me, over his head.

  No wonder he wanted to get it over with. It made total sense.

  Hell.

  “I’m sorry you feel like you owe me, and I get why you want to get this favor over with,” I muttered, feeling my face heat up as I accepted what I had done and why it was stupid of me to keep arguing with him over a favor that he was never, ever going to forget about. No matter how much I might try and talk him out of it, he’d gotten it into his thick head and nothing was changing.

  “You’re not asking. I offered,” he suggested like I would really look at it like that.

  I shifted my gaze out the window and nodded. “You’re right.”

  There was a sigh, then, “You’re not gonna give me a hard time anymore?”

  “Nope.”

  His “huh” had me side-eyeing him.

  “I appreciate your commitment and how… patient you’ve been with me over this,” I told him, a little more grudgingly than I needed to.

  Rip hummed.

  “I’m not sure how long this is going to take. If you want to drop me off and then—”

  “What is with you always trying to get me to drop you off?” he snapped all of a sudden.

  I made my eyes go wide at his freaking attitude. “Because, I told you, I don’t want to bother you. I don’t like to bother anyone. Don’t take it personal, okay?”

  I wasn’t 100 percent sure, but I was pretty freaking positive he frowned at me.

  Rubbing my hands against my pants, I decided to mess with him some more by muttering, “At the rate you’ve been going lately, I’m going to start to think that I don’t get on your nerves as much as you make me think I do, boss.”

  The laugh that burst out of him literally had me clutching the door I was leaning against. It was so sharp, so out of the blue, like a freaking firework going off right inside the cab.

  I jumped. Then I grinned.

  And I kept it going, because why not? I’d made him laugh. Rip. Laugh. “Next thing I know, we’re going to be friends,” I kept muttering, barely able to keep from laughing.

  His reply was a shake of that handsome head and a chuckle that continued on.

  “But really, thank you for coming with me. And taking me home. And for having enough pride and honor to keep your word when you insist on doing me a favor that I really don’t think you owe me,” I told him, smiling even though he couldn’t see it.

  The deep inhale of breath he took was loud and clear. That time for sure, I knew without a doubt he did look at me. “I don’t have that much honor, Luna. Don’t give me that much credit.”

  I watched him, seeing he meant it. “Well, I think you do. Most people would have just given up and pretended like they forgot if someone told them a thousand times that they didn’t need anything.”

  His “hmm” didn’t sound that convinced, but I knew I was right. There was no point in me forcing it down though.

  Bringing out my phone, I pulled up my messages with Lenny and sent her one.

  Me: Hey, going to Dallas. Thea’s place got broken into. Can you ask Out of My League if we can reschedule? Not sure if I’ll make it back in time tomorrow.

  I couldn’t even say I was really that heartbroken about missing my first date in… six months? Maybe even a little longer? I doubted I’d be that disappointed if he couldn’t change the date either.

  Lenny texted me back not two minutes later as Rip fiddled with the radio.

  Lenny: She okay? I’ll send him a message. Sunday work for you?

  I knew there was no way I would stay until Sunday with her. I was definitely going home at some point tomorrow. Unless she insisted, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. She was busy. At least that’s what she always said. It would take all of my fingers and Ripley’s to count the number of times I had asked her over the years if she wanted me to visit with the answer always being the same: it wasn’t a good time for her.

  Lenny: Don’t answer that. Sunday is good. Let me see what I can do.

  Dang it. That’s what happened when someone knew you too well.

  Me: She’s fine. And yeah, sure, Sunday is good. The earlier the better.

  Lenny: :-)

  At least that was done with.

  Music played softly in the background the entire drive to my sister’s, now that Rip and I were done arguing at least. I dozed off a couple of times, but he didn’t complain or give me a hard time. I’d left my phone between us with the navigation going. When I checked the arrival time and saw that we were only five minutes away, I sat up straight and started paying attention.

  I hadn’t realized that my sister had moved.

  When I had first trailed her up to Dallas three years ago, I had just followed her.

  The place I had been to was a decent apartment complex that hadn’t looked too sketchy. It hadn’t been anything fancy by any means, but it had been all right. It had basically been the same kind of place that we had lived in after moving out of Mr. Cooper’s.

  But this place, this place was nice.

  Too nice.

  Way too nice if the Mercedes and Audis and BMWs that were on the other side of the gate meant anything.r />
  I gave Rip the code for the gate—Thea had texted it to me along with her address— and I couldn’t help but feel really weird about everything that I saw. Every single car was a late-model luxury car, with a handful of Hondas and Kias thrown in. Now that I thought about it, Thea hadn’t driven herself to Houston in forever. She usually met up with Kyra in Austin and rode with her.

  Why wouldn’t she have told me that she moved?

  “I thought you said your sister was in college,” Rip said as he slowly drove past one building and toward the other, following the complex’s signs.

  I spotted a Range Rover just as I told him, my own voice sounding off and weird, “She is.”

  “This is the nicest complex I’ve ever been in.”

  “Me too,” I muttered, feeling really uneasy and maybe even a little hurt that she wouldn’t have told me. Did she think I’d be jealous or something?

  But really, how the hell did she afford something like this? She had a job at the university. She took summer classes. She had an internship and loans.

  I paid for her meal plan at school.

  There had to be a reason she hadn’t told me she was living somewhere else.

  Maybe she had gotten a new roommate who was rolling in it?

  That would make sense. I was still living in my house that I was fixing up, and she didn’t want me to know that she probably had a walk-in shower and granite countertops while I was still saving for mine. Thea had never been the kind of person to be that humble but….

  “What number is it again?”

  I told him the apartment number she’d given me.

  Right by it, Rip turned the truck into one of the spots that said they were reserved for guests. Based on the apartment number, the place was on the third floor. We got out, and he let me lead the way as I looked for the stairs or an elevator. I found the stairway first and headed up, with him following behind. On the third floor, it didn’t take long to find the number I was looking for.

  I rang the doorbell and took a step back, bumping into Rip’s side. Peering up, I found him looking down at me, and I smiled at him. “Thank you again for coming with me.”

  He watched me with those blue-green eyes. His voice was low, “Sure.”

  “Let me see what she wants to do, and I’ll see if I can get a hotel room or something for you to stay at.” My eyes slid toward the door that still hadn’t opened and something that was pretty close to unease slid over me. “I had planned on just staying here, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

  Why hadn’t she told me?

  I punched my finger to ring the doorbell again, then knocked on it too. It wasn’t even one in the morning yet. I knew she wouldn’t be asleep.

  The door still didn’t open.

  “Call her,” Rip said.

  I pressed the buzzer again.

  Still nothing.

  Pulling out my phone, I dialed her number from memory and heard it ring inside. Abruptly, the chiming stopped like she had hit ignore or silenced it.

  Was this really happening?

  I glanced up at Rip and found him still looking down at me, this strange expression on his face.

  Frustration and hurt built up in my chest instantly, and the next thing I knew, I raised my fist and banged the outer part of it against her door as hard as I could. Then I did it again, yelling “Thea!” into the door.

  That did the trick.

  Two seconds later, what sounded like a deadbolt turned and the next thing I knew, the door was swinging open to show my sister standing there. In a robe, with her blonde hair down and her eyes big and puffy and rimmed in red, she looked like a mess. Not that I was one to talk, but she genuinely looked like a mess, and she never did.

  “Luna,” she muttered, genuinely sounding surprised.

  “Hi,” I told her, trying not to sound awkward.

  My twenty-one-year-old sister wiped at her face with the back of her hands, and I watched as she glanced at Rip behind me and let her eyes linger for a moment, this weird, weird expression coming over her before she took me in again. “I wasn’t sure you were coming,” she tried to claim in her equally weird voice.

  I blinked. “You asked me to. I texted you twice while we were on the way.” I tried to give her another smile, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. Had she really been about to ignore my call?

  “Yeah, I know, I just—” She shook her head and took a step back, sniffling as she did. “Come in.”

  I took a few steps inside, Rip directly behind me. She barely closed the door when I looked over at her and gestured at Rip. “Thea, this is Ripley. Rip, this is my sister Thea.”

  It was my sister who put her hand out first, Rip shaking it firmly but quickly before stepping back beside me. Her eyes slid to mine, and I didn’t like the sigh she let out. “The cops came and left about an hour ago.”

  I nodded. “What’d they say?”

  “Come on, come into the living room,” she said, her gaze sliding back to Rip for a second before leading us down a short hallway that opened into an airy living room and kitchen. Three pieces of velvet navy blue couches decorated the room with a nice glass table in the middle. There were lamps and pretty knickknacks decorating side tables, a huge TV mounted to the wall with floating shelves holding what looked like a DVD player and some kind of sound system.

  It was nice, really nice.

  And nothing looked… out of place. Or missing. It was all immaculately clean, like I knew Thea liked her things.

  “Want something to drink?” she asked, clasping her hands in front of herself. Almost wringing them.

  My throat suddenly felt dry. “I’d like some water.”

  “I’m good,” Rip replied, his voice not like him, but I didn’t overthink it.

  Thea nodded and headed into the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of water from the fridge. I noticed it wasn’t a no-name brand either. When I had left Thea in Dallas three years ago, everything in her pantry had been generic brand. Hell, most things in my pantry were the generic brand unless Lily insisted. Even when I bought organic stuff, if there was the generic label, that’s what I would get.

  My sister handed me the bottle of water and just stood there.

  I took it from her, unscrewing the lid and sucking down half before putting it back on. Glancing at the man to my side, I held the bottle out to him, just in case he really was thirsty. He was. He took it from me without hesitation and chugged the rest.

  In any other circumstance, I would tell him that friends shared bottles of water, but… well, that wasn’t the time, and I wasn’t in the mood when my sister was being so strange.

  “The cops came by and asked what was taken, made a list, and then they left,” Thea said, biting her lip every few words. “They didn’t take fingerprints or anything. They said they would talk to the property manager to look at the cameras, but I don’t know if they did.”

  Exhaustion hit me right in the shoulders as I stood there, and I couldn’t help but glance around the rest of the apartment. There was a doorway right across that seemed to lead into some sort of hallway, and closer to where we were standing, there was a cracked door that showed like it had a half-bath, and another few doors that might have led to a pantry, maybe another bedroom, and I wasn’t sure what else.

  But nothing seemed out of place.

  The place was clean.

  Too clean?

  “What did they take?” I found myself asking my little sister.

  Her hand went up to her face to wipe at her eyes again. “My laptop. Some clothes. Some jewelry.”

  What jewelry did my sister have that was worth stealing?

  “They went through my room and all my drawers and opened up everything in the kitchen, but I already set everything back where it was supposed to be,” she explained, shakily.

  Oh. “Thea, I’m so sorry.” If she had been Lily, I would have hugged her, but it was my heart that wouldn’t let me raise my arms, and my brain that wouldn’t let me emba
rrass myself if she didn’t accept my comfort. Again. “What do you need help with?”

  My little sister bit her lip again, shaking out her hands, and swallowing so hard I was sure her throat had to hurt. “I’m sorry, Luna. I don’t really need anything. I don’t even… I shouldn’t have even called you.” She swallowed again, and I couldn’t help feeling my eyes narrow. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come. I was just freaked out, and you were the first person I thought of to call. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for asking me to come,” I told my sister. “I’d come if you just asked me to for the hell of it, Thea. You know that.” But….

  Her hands flexed at her sides and she nodded, giving me a watery look. “I know, Luna, but I shouldn’t have asked you to. I just freaked out.”

  None of this felt right. None of it. “It’s fine. You’re all right though, yeah?”

  My younger sister nodded.

  “Do you have rental insurance?”

  She lifted a shoulder.

  I pressed my lips together and ignored the growing ache in my chest. “What about your roommate? Did they take anything from her?”

  Her “no” was the sharpest one she’d ever given me.

  I held my breath. “Where is she?”

  She did it. She scratched at her cheek. If I hadn’t known her as well as I had once upon a time, I wouldn’t have known that was her tell when she was full of BS. But she sounded pretty freaking convincing as she said, “She’s out. She’ll be back in a little while. She had to work tonight.”

  Work? At midnight? With a place like this, she wasn’t exactly a waitress.

  Thea lifted her hands and scrubbed at her eyes, putting me more on edge. “I’m sorry for making you drive all the way over here for nothing.”

  It wasn’t that easy not to flinch.

  “I’m fine. I know… I know it’s just stuff they took. I’ll find out if we have insurance that’ll cover it. The only thing I’m worried about is my laptop.”

  Her laptop. For school. I tried to push down my disappointment in her lying—because I’d seen that scratch—and her regretting making me drive so far to come over… and told myself that I loved this person. I wanted the best for her even though she was making my chest hurt and it wasn’t the first time she had done so.