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Three of us wereoffer of a ring and vows to be exchanged in Grace Cathedral Until very recently you couldn’t have found four more happily hooked-up woe to Joe Molinari, the father ofmy secrets

We had had it so good, we kissed and hts were over It was the typical: “You are right” “No, you are!”

Then Joe wentpossibly the worst weeks of my life

I’ s do not add up

Joein action had not added up Because of that I had worried almost to panic Where was he? Why hadn’t he checked in? Why wereoff his full mailbox? Was he still alive?

As the crisscrossed threads of espionage, destruction, and led, Joe finally made his curtain call with stories of his past and present lives that I’d never heard before I found plenty of reason not to trust him anymore

Even he would agree I think anyone would

It’s not news that once trust is broken, it’s daht take more time and belief in Joe’s confession than I actually had

I still loved him We’d shared a meal when he caetting divorced that night, but we didn’t make love, either Our relationship was now like the Cold War in the eighties between Russia and the USA, a strained but practical peace called détente

Now, as I sat with my friends, I tried to put Joe out ofafter Julie and that the home front was safe I ordered a favorite holiday drink, a hot buttered rum, and a rare steak sandith Uncle Maxie’s hot chili sauce

My girlfriends were deep in criminal cross talk about Claire’s holiday overload of corpses, Cindy’s new cold case she’d exhumed from the San Francisco Chronicle’s dead letter files, and Yuki’s hoped-for favorable verdict for her client, an underage drug dealer I was alotta ask Any Christmas plans with Joe?”

And that’s when I was saved by the bell My phone rang