“Goodnight boys, try not to have too much fun without me,” Karen gave us a smirk then climbed the stairs towards our master bedroom, leaving Dave ...nd I in an awkward silence.“What the fuck man?!” I asked incredulously. “I’m happy to host you for a few days, but can you please try to keep our past debaucheries to yourself?”“I’m sorry, she asked about our apartment together, and I figured you would have told her about us by now. Most people don’t have that kind of experience.”“Exactly why I. Other than 'waste line' being crossed out and waistline inserted, the note was neatly written in a backhand style that Randal must have thought suited him.I retired to my room and looked at the reading list. Hawthorne was the first author on the list. I wondered if Mr. Oldham's spy had told him about Becky and me reading Hawthorne. I opened the Shakespeare book and thumbed through it to see if I could pick up any good quotes that Becky would recognize if I included them in my next letter to. I don’t trust you. You tried to double-cross me, and I did too much work for you to try to cut me out.’ Well, that certainly set the battlelines. Tonya set her sandwich down, and even Laura suddenly seemed to be paying attention. Chrissie’s jaw tightened and she spoke through clenched teeth. ‘We did not try to double-cross you! You double-crossed us! You hid the journal!’ Laura’s leg was bouncing in a nervous twitch, and Tonya looked uncomfortable. I guessed that the double-cross was Chrissie’s. I'm Ellen by the way. Your reward for being such a nice guy is I will buy you lunch." Deal. I'm Michael"We walked around the neighborhood returning dogs to their homes and filling out "report cards" for pooping, peeing, being well behaved etc., etc. We talked about ourselves and our respective divorces, my job, her son and all in all had a great time.After ninety minutes, we had returned the last dog and Ellen and I walked towards our houses."I know I promised to buy you lunch, Michael but how.