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THIRTY-SEVEN

"Listen, Nick-"

"Jeez Betsy My name is Richard, Dick for short, Dickie to Jessica and people I really, really like, so knock yourself out Do I have to paint it on my forehead?"

"I would actually find that very helpful," I adest attention span"

"Yes, I&039;ve noticed," he s that grind together (I should probably be getting more sleep, too)

"Also I&039;d like a map for all the rooms in theWhere did they go? Are they lost in time? Are they in hell? Did they never exist because this is the timeline we&039;re supposed to be in? Did they once exist but no longer since whoever built the mansion in this tiot no idea And I can&039;t believe, with all the stuff you&039;ve got on your plate, I can&039;t believe you&039;re worried about bathrooms"

"And were they redone before they vanished into a parallel diross? Because that tile, it was just getting sad Booger Green, ere they thinking? Nick? Are you listening? You should be paying attention to me"

"Can&039;t think why And it&039;s Dick, okay?"

"Like it s to worry about than you changing your nae the timeline"

He almost stood on the brakes "What? You-I&039;, you&039;re the one-wait, did you say every time? Oh my God, what have you done that you haven&039;t told me about?"

Told hiossip buddies in the new-if-not-necessarily-improved timeline "Do we have a lot of intioings-on from Jess Pillow talk, you know?"

"Don&039;t do that!"

"What?" He looked around wildly "You see Antonia? I wouldn&039;t run over her On purpose, anywayprob&039;ly"

"No, not that, don&039;t talk like that I don&039;t want to have to picture you and hs are like velvet," he said dreas a of my cuffs-at least he&039;d cuffed me with my hands in front "Please don&039;t put that in my head Please don&039;t put that innot to think about Jessica&039;s velvety inner thighs I&039;ll come quietly, I swear"

"Ha! Never in your life Listen, I&039;m sorry about what just happened, but-"

"Too late, fascist! Assuht be the velvety way to velvety thighs Right? Oh my God!" I threw my head back and screamed at the car roof "You put it in my head! No one&039;s hurtyou know I have h bastard! Oh, God damn it!" What could I do? Kill uarantee Kill Sinclair? Illogical, but it would be pretty satisfying And it did have weird logic If I killed hi and skinning hiht?

Meanwhile, Nick-Dick was laughing so hard he nearly drove into a streetlight Oh, sure, Sinclair, I&039; bony arms of the law "I&039;m sorry, I&039;m sorry!"

"Shut up, Nicki-Ticki-Tavvi"

"Don&039;t call me that How about you just call me Berry?"

"How about I just call you asshat?"

"Richard?" he asked hopefully

"You&039;re hauling s I never wanted inabout your na ally dead and all? Oh, this is gonna be a disaster A new disaster, I ot plenty of other disasters If ere a corporation and we had s, they&039;d be called old business But it&039;s still business"

He waited until my lips had closed for half a secondh with ally dead Everyone thought the funeral was a really bad joke pulled by your steplanced at me in the rearview mirror "Uh, Betsyshe didn&039;t actually do that, remember? That was your cover story Can you, uh, try to keep the truth and the lie separate? I guess it&039;s a little tricky, ith two timelines in your head"

"You think? Besides, I wouldn&039;t put anything past that pineapple-colored, hair-spray-shellacked bitch"

"It was the story we put out rather than telling the world you got run over like a gopher and came back as the queen of the undead"

"Great, thanks for the trip down memory lane, and you must really be sleep-deprived because you just missed the exit for the Cop Shop"

"Yeah? That was careless Oryou was a little on the stupid side"

"It was stupid"