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My mouth is moving, but no words are coming out. Emile is the furthest thing from a snitch. I can have a friendly conversation with him without letting my mask go. It’s not like he’s connected with the Holy Rollers and here trying to detect me in a lie. I share my thoughts with Marshall Todd.
“When I say exposing your cover, I mean slipping up and thinking you can tell the truth, let it all out and the person you’re getting to know will understand. In my experience, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
“What—”
“He’ll just want to know more and more about you, that’s all I’m saying. And eventually, you’ll run out of lies and tell him the truth.”
Agent Todd doesn’t stay long after that. And watching his black car pull away from the cottage, I can’t help but think he’s right about staying away from temptation.
14
EMILE
The maidenhair fern bobs happily in its pot as I make my way down my drive, turning right at the sidewalk. I’ve already spritzed the leaves and repotted them in a decorative ceramic pot picked up from the local artisanal market. It’s a tasteful turquoise, a color that I know will match the tiles in Clarissa’s bathroom.
I just hope she doesn’t have anything against receiving a plant as a gift, especially after one so unceremoniously barged in through her roof.
“I got this for you,” I practice under my breath, hoping the gift isn’t too much.
I’m sure I’d give a new plant to any neighbor who just had their bathroom roof fall in. And also spent a week fixing that neighbor’s roof. For free. It’s like a housewarming gift, that’s all. A bathroom-warming gift?
I try not to think too hard about it as I make my way toward Clarissa’s house, the fern dancing along the whole way.
When I reach the porch, I take a deep breath, trying to soothe the nerves that are inexplicably rising now that I’m about to see Clarissa again. I’m just about to ring the doorbell when I hear a voice coming through the open window.
“I’m just worried about you,” comes a male voice I don’t recognize.
“I know, I know,” I hear Clarissa say in return. “But I have to find a balance.”
“Clarissa,” the man says, and I hear a hint of warning in his voice. “We’ve talked about this. It’s just not a good idea.”
There’s silence for a moment, and I wonder what it is I’m listening to. It’s obviously a serious conversation, and Clarissa’s face comes to mind, her eyebrows knitted together, her almond eyes downturned and troubled. The man’s identity, however, I can’t imagine. Who could he be? I thought Clarissa didn’t know anyone else in North Carolina.
The thought suddenly occurs to me, and I remember the man I dismissed once already as Clarissa’s boyfriend. The one who dropped her off the first day she got here.Is it possible that Clarissa really does have a boyfriend she never brings up?
It certainly sounds like an intimate conversation, and the man’s worried and then warning tone implies they know each other well. In fact, it sounds like this man knows details of Clarissa’s life that I clearly have no access to, and an involuntary sense of dread appears in my stomach.
“I’ll be fine,” Clarissa says now, and I hear the scrape of a chair against the wooden floorboards.
There’s another pause before the man speaks again. “Alright,” he says reluctantly. “I’ll see you in a few days, okay?”
Another chair scrapes against the floor, and two pairs of footsteps make their way out of the room. A second later, I hear them in the hallway. Before I know what to do, the front door is opening.
Behind it, I see Clarissa and the same huge man I saw emerging from this house a couple times before. It’s definitely the guy I thought. And here I am, just standing on the porch like a door-to-door fern salesman clutching his bestseller.
“Oh!” says Clarissa, clearly surprised to see me. “Hi, Emile.”
She glances swiftly between me and the big man, obviously a little embarrassed to have been caught like this. The dread in my stomach only amplifies as I realize my intuition must have been right. This man is clearly involved with Clarissa and suddenly my bathroom fern seems entirely inappropriate and foolish.
I glance at the stranger, noticing just how huge he is. I'm not a small man, yet I can’t help feeling like a little kid clutching a dirty weed in his hand.
“Hi. Sorry,” I manage to mumble. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
I cast one last glance at the bear of a man, suddenly losing all desire to hand Clarissa my silly little gift. In fact, I’m about to turn around and bring the plant right back to my own house when Clarissa stops me.
“No, not at all,” she says, preventing me from turning away. “You’re not interrupting anything. My cousin was just leaving.”
My brain short circuits for a second, trying to process the information I’ve just heard. Her cousin. It’s her cousin.
