“I didn’t think so.” He heaves a sigh. “It was a whiskey sour.”
“The drink? I figured.” But what am I missing?
“It was a whiskey sour that fucked up my whole life,” he says heavily.
Oh wow.
“Right after my last birthday, actually. There was this guy…” He looks away, and his body language is… broken. I’ve never seen him look defeated before. “We both swiped right on an app. I invited him over to my place for sex. He pretended to be really interested in all of my bartending supplies. What he was really interested in doing was drugging my drink.”
“Holy shit. Forest.”
He gives me an angry glance, the kind that says: don’t you dare feel sorry for me. “I woke up the next morning, no memory of any of it. Except—before you ask—I was still wearing all my clothes.”
I sag with relief.
“Yeah, in this case, it wasn’t that kind of violence. Instead, he emptied my bank account. I lost more than thirty grand. Money I’d been saving for a down payment on a new truck, plus what I was supposed to be living on for the next few months.”
Jesus. “Can’t they… Did you call the police?”
He gives me a look like it’s a stupid question. “Of course I did. Two cops showed up, and I spent the most embarrassing couple hours of my life explaining how I let a stranger into my house to poison me. Like the biggest dumbass that ever lived.” His voice is pure bitterness. “And even after all that, it didn’t help. I can’t recover anything. It turns out if you authorize a wire transfer with your fingerprint—even if you’re minimally conscious—the bank isn’t always liable.”
“Oh my fucking God. And they couldn’t find the guy?”
He shakes his head slowly. “He was slick. His account on the dating app wasn’t connected to anything traceable. They couldn’t find his license plate on any neighborhood cameras. And he’d wired my savings into a foreign bank account before I woke up, so it’s gone forever. I even paid some forensic accountants money that I don’t have to dig a little deeper. But it didn’t matter. The bank isn’t liable for the transaction.”
I lean back against the wall and look up into the starry sky. I’m not very good at saying exactly the right thing. Everybody knows that. But I give it a shot anyway. “I’m so sorry. That’s so…violating.”
He hangs his head. “Yeah, it fucked me up. It’s not really even about the money. It’s knowing I let him do that to me. I had to explain to Charlie that his gaming console was stolen, as well as his Bluetooth speaker. Then I had to explain to his mother why I couldn’t take him at the usual time, because I had to be drug-tested at the ER. She was actually really helpful, but now, of course, she is afraid for me all the time.”
“Fuck. I mean—you only did what millions of guys do every day.”
“Yeah, I’m just lucky like that.” He gives a bitter laugh, and it ends up as a sigh.
The night is quiet around us, except for Denny’s laugh from inside the house.
“Look, can I drive you home?” I ask. “I’ll make some excuse inside.”
I expect him to protest. “Thank you,” he says softly instead. “Let’s go.”
Twenty-Nine
It Explains a Lot
Forest
It’s a quiet ride home. I can’t believe I ruined my birthday. I’d been having fun, damn it. I don’t regret talking it through with Beck, though. I trust him.
We’re nearing my street when he breaks our silence. “Thank you for telling me, Forest. I’m sure you didn’t want to.”
Ain’t that the truth. “This is in the vault, okay? Even Scully doesn’t know the whole story. Nobody does, except for Ruby.”
He gives me a sideways glance. “I guess I understand now. Why she’s wary of me.”
“Yeah. Honestly, it explains a whole lot, right? Like when I had such a shitty reaction to you hitting on me.”
He reaches over and places a hand briefly on my knee. “Glad to know I’m not just ugly.”
I snort. “You are the opposite of ugly. Which is probably why you’re the only guy I’ve been with in almost a year.”
