“Yeah, hooray for them, it’s smart,” I say. “But for me, it means that as of now, until Monday morning, wherever Simon stowed it away, it’s going to stay stowed away. My guess is he left it at his office at the law school.”
“I wonder where Lauren keeps her pink phone.”
“Probably stowed away for the weekend, too,” I say.
He shakes his head. “I guess at this point, it doesn’t matter. We have the information we need. We have the plan. We don’t need their phones.”
Maybe you don’t, Christian. But I do.
“You’re right,” I say.
—
Christian walks me down to the garage. I turn to him before he pops the door open.
“Now get rid of your burner phone,” he says to me. “It’s a connection to me.”
“I’ll keep it ’til Monday.”
“Vicky—”
“Just in case,” I say. “If there’s an emergency. If I need to reach you. Or you, me.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” he agrees.
“If there’s an emergency, just text something innocuous. I’ll have my phone off, but I’ll check it periodically. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Otherwise, see you Monday?”
He sighs, thinks about that. “You think we should see each other on the big day?”
“Just in case,” I say. “Just a check-in. Just to make sure nothing’s come up. Just to run through everything again, one more time.”
He relents. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to make sure.”
“I’ll be here at noon,” I say. “Right here by the garage at noon.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me you’ll practice with the Glock this weekend,” I say.
“I will.”
We go silent. This is supposed to be a tender moment, I guess. He thinks I’m worried—about him, about our future together. This is supposed to be a tearful goodbye-for-a-while.
Okay, here goes.
“Promise me we’ll be together when this is over,” I say without gagging or vomiting.
He takes my hands, kisses me softly. “Of course we will,” he whispers. “That’s why we’re doing this, right?”
I nod, look into his eyes. “I don’t know what I’ll do if...”
... if I have to pretend to be in love with this self-worshipping jagoff for another second. But I let the words drift off.
“It’ll be fine,” he assures me. “Everything’s going to turn out fine.”