replied, “So then I guess you guys didn’t have a lot of raging keggers where you slipped roofies to the freshmen girls, huh? Your idea of a swingin’ Saturday night was probably a couple of twenty-sided dice, downloading pictures of Teri Hatcher from the Internet and putting on Spock ears.”
“As opposed to those of you at UNLV who spent the weekends doing…what?” he quickly retorted, not sounding particularly jovial—alas. “As far as I can tell from your file, the only thing you did in college besides attend class was work your ass off at three jobs. Hell, at least I had friends and fun when I was in school.”
Okay, that crossed the line, Lila thought. Maybe her college years hadn’t been filled with enriching extracurricular activities, but she hadn’t viewed college as an opportunity to make friends and create memories. College had been her escape from ending up like her mother—poorly educated, lacking in self-esteem, the constant victim of one scummy son of a bitch after another. For Joel to call Lila friendless and joyless during that time wasn’t teasing and making fun. It was hitting way too close to home.
It was also falling out of his Ned persona, she thought further, which, all right, they’d both kind of been forgetting to maintain ever since they started talking. But it was for that reason and no other that she immediately put them back on course.
“I didn’t attend UNLV, I attended Ball State,” she said quietly, since that was how Jenny Sturgis’s phony transcripts read. “I’ve never been to Las Vegas in my life. I grew up in Indiana and my parents, Phil and Doreen Sturgis, still live there. You obviously have me mistaken for someone else, Ned Collins. Strange, since you and I have been living together for two years now.”
As she’d spoken, Joel’s features had gone slack and his cheeks had grown ruddier. He was obviously as chagrined as she to have forgotten the role they were both supposed to be playing. At least he had an excuse, Lila thought. He wasn’t accustomed to being someone else. She’d been playing parts all her life—even before she started working for OPUS. Normally, once she was in character for an assignment, she stayed there without even having to think about it. Why, suddenly, was she forgetting to do the most basic part of her job?
“Besides,” she added, still striving to be Jenny but unable to keep herself from saying what she had to say, “some people have to work three jobs to pay tuition and living expenses, since scholarships only go so far. Of course, other people, people like, say, the son of a senator and a newspaper heiress, probably wouldn’t know much about scrimping and saving and working his ass off to survive.”
Joel said nothing in reply, only studied her in silence for a long, taut moment. Then he started to lean toward her. For one insane moment Lila thought he was going to hit her, and she reacted instinctively, jerking her head backward and throwing her arm up to shield herself. At the same time Joel reached behind the passenger seat where she was crouching to retrieve a clipboard he’d placed there when they first entered the car.
He halted just shy of reaching it when he must have realized why she’d reacted the way she had. He didn’t retreat, but he removed his sunglasses, his mouth falling open in disbelief. She immediately dropped her hand and relaxed, but there was no way to explain her reaction as anything other than what it was. So she only turned her head to look through the windshield and said nothing.
“You honestly thought I was going to hit you?” he asked, his voice as incredulous as his expression had been.
In an effort to make light of the situation, she smiled and said, “Well, you could try. ” But the smile felt forced and the comment was in no way funny.
He said nothing for a moment, but when Lila braved a glance back at him, she saw a sad sort of resolution mixed with his
“As opposed to those of you at UNLV who spent the weekends doing…what?” he quickly retorted, not sounding particularly jovial—alas. “As far as I can tell from your file, the only thing you did in college besides attend class was work your ass off at three jobs. Hell, at least I had friends and fun when I was in school.”
Okay, that crossed the line, Lila thought. Maybe her college years hadn’t been filled with enriching extracurricular activities, but she hadn’t viewed college as an opportunity to make friends and create memories. College had been her escape from ending up like her mother—poorly educated, lacking in self-esteem, the constant victim of one scummy son of a bitch after another. For Joel to call Lila friendless and joyless during that time wasn’t teasing and making fun. It was hitting way too close to home.
It was also falling out of his Ned persona, she thought further, which, all right, they’d both kind of been forgetting to maintain ever since they started talking. But it was for that reason and no other that she immediately put them back on course.
“I didn’t attend UNLV, I attended Ball State,” she said quietly, since that was how Jenny Sturgis’s phony transcripts read. “I’ve never been to Las Vegas in my life. I grew up in Indiana and my parents, Phil and Doreen Sturgis, still live there. You obviously have me mistaken for someone else, Ned Collins. Strange, since you and I have been living together for two years now.”
As she’d spoken, Joel’s features had gone slack and his cheeks had grown ruddier. He was obviously as chagrined as she to have forgotten the role they were both supposed to be playing. At least he had an excuse, Lila thought. He wasn’t accustomed to being someone else. She’d been playing parts all her life—even before she started working for OPUS. Normally, once she was in character for an assignment, she stayed there without even having to think about it. Why, suddenly, was she forgetting to do the most basic part of her job?
“Besides,” she added, still striving to be Jenny but unable to keep herself from saying what she had to say, “some people have to work three jobs to pay tuition and living expenses, since scholarships only go so far. Of course, other people, people like, say, the son of a senator and a newspaper heiress, probably wouldn’t know much about scrimping and saving and working his ass off to survive.”
Joel said nothing in reply, only studied her in silence for a long, taut moment. Then he started to lean toward her. For one insane moment Lila thought he was going to hit her, and she reacted instinctively, jerking her head backward and throwing her arm up to shield herself. At the same time Joel reached behind the passenger seat where she was crouching to retrieve a clipboard he’d placed there when they first entered the car.
He halted just shy of reaching it when he must have realized why she’d reacted the way she had. He didn’t retreat, but he removed his sunglasses, his mouth falling open in disbelief. She immediately dropped her hand and relaxed, but there was no way to explain her reaction as anything other than what it was. So she only turned her head to look through the windshield and said nothing.
“You honestly thought I was going to hit you?” he asked, his voice as incredulous as his expression had been.
In an effort to make light of the situation, she smiled and said, “Well, you could try. ” But the smile felt forced and the comment was in no way funny.
He said nothing for a moment, but when Lila braved a glance back at him, she saw a sad sort of resolution mixed with his
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