Page 154 of Jonesing for a Spy

“There were green lights.” His voice drifts off as he stares up toward the garage apartment.

“You sound like you saw aliens or something. Let’s go.”

He follows me. Had I known for one moment that we could have done a two-parter, we would’ve planned for it, but what were the freaking chances?

When we reach the apartment, I call for Mirren knowing she’s not here. “Freckles? Baby, everything okay?”

Turning to Charlie, I seal the gaslighting. “She was here, right?”

“I saw her,” he says. His face turns ashen, and he slumps onto her sofa before looking toward the window behind him and springing up immediately. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

He rushes down the stairs and spins to face me. “You said aliens. Do you think—?” he shakes his head and starts walking toward the street.

Where the hell is he going?

Chasing him down the driveway, I realize Mirren can no longer hear or see anything, but this is too good to let go.

“Charlie, wait! What are you saying?” I’m losing my poker face but can’t stop this charade.

He paces, pausing to look between the apartment and the sky, and resumes his steps. “Um. Okay, so, you’re going to think I’m nuts, but… I saw her, and then these lights appeared, and there was a spinning disk outside the window, and she was gone.”

“Gone. Gone like…”

“Dude, she’s gone. She was there. I saw her and then poof.”

“Poof?”

“She was there and then she disappeared. I think they snatched her.” He resumes his pacing and wild searching around.

His lack of attention at least allows me to school my features. “Like the greys? Or the reptilians? Not the elder race, right? Oh, this is so bad.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Charlie, I’ve never told anyone this.” I look around like I don’t want to be overheard. “Shit you not, when I was a kid, I was abducted. Like, for real. Do you think they were coming back for me and got the wrong person?” I stare straight up into the sky, ducking and bobbing, for effect, knowing there are mere moments before I lose my shit and spew laughter.

“What the fuck?” Charlie starts. “Did you miss some kind of connection”—his hands wave wildly—“and get my sister sucked up in some mess?”

I level him, riding this out way too long. “I have no intergalactic pull, Charlie. I never once thought this would come back to bite me, or get Mirren probed…” I turn my back to him disguising my laughter as sobs. I fucking had to say intergalactic and probed with a straight face.

“It’s okay, Strider. We’ll get through this.” Charlie puts his arm on my shoulder as I force out, “How?”

From the front porch, Mirren yells, “Where have you two been? I’ve been in here waiting forever for help with these boxes and you two left an hour ago. Sheesh.”

“She’s— What the?” If Charlie’s face was priceless before, watching him glance at his watch, to me, to Mirren and back to the sky is enough to make me break.

“Charlie?”

“Yeah?” Panic laces his tone.

“Gotcha.”

Mirren

It took way longer than necessary to get Charlie out of our house. At first, it was his relief that I was okay. Then he had to work through whether it was me who was snatched or him. Finally, he had to come to terms with the fact that he’d been pranked in epic fashion.

Then, simply to be ornery, he camped out in our living room to annoy us.

Now it’s after one in the morning, I’d fall into bed ready to collapse, but Strider is reading. Like many nights, his chest and abs are on display, the sheet barely covering his waist. His mussed hair tumbles over the frames of those sexy-as-fuck glasses.