Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
She must see the murderous gleam in my eyes, because she quickly adds, “He was sitting alone. I sat down. You know me.” Then, more playfully, like we’re old friends, “He’s crazy about you, by the way.”
My hackles lower a little, but my guard stays up.
“Anyway, we were talking, and he was giving me a hard time about what a bitch I’ve been to you. This is going to sound so strange, but as often as I used to hang out over there, it’s not like Tor and I ever talked alone, you know? So, I guess we never really talked about it.”
“About what?” I ask, guardedly.
She licks her lips and looks down like she’s working up courage, then she meets my gaze, and I see the sincerity glinting in her eyes again. “I want you to know I’m really sorry for how I’ve treated you since last summer. I really thought you made it all up to get back at Tim. I truly believed he was innocent, and you were lying.”
Believed as in past tense?
I keep listening.
She looks a little anxious as she delivers this next bit. “But it wasn’t Tim I hooked up with that night.”
Her words take a second to land, and when they do, they plant hooks in my heart and drag it down into my stomach.
Because if it wasn’t Tim but she thought it was, it could have only been Tor.
The implications don’t even have a chance to unfold in my head before she continues.
“I know you must think I’m such a slut, I don’t even know who I’m fucking, but it was… it was honestly a twin mix-up on my part, and Tor didn’t realize I thought he was Tim. We weren’t exactly talking, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Ew.” I grimace.
“I know, I know. Sorry. But I was drunk and goofing off. I tripped and caught myself on his shoulder. I ended up on his lap, and I thought it was Tim, so I… kissed him. He kissed me back, and once his hand touched my throat, it was game on—I didn’t need to hear anything else.”
Her description makes my stomach hurt, even if I know Tor was free to fuck whoever he wanted at the time.
“It meant nothing, obviously,” Nina says when I don’t respond. “Until this past weekend, I literally didn’t even realize it was him. Maybe I should have. There were differences. Tor’s much more… dominant than Tim was.”
“Yes, I know what Tor’s like in bed. We don’t need to compare notes.”
“Right. Sorry. Anyway, uh, since it was Tor, that means I was wrong about Tim. And I was wrong about you. And I know I’ve given you a lot of shit, so I just needed to come to you, woman to woman, and tell you I’m truly sorry.”
My eyes narrow slightly. “Did Tor put you up to this?”
“No,” she says, shaking her head.
“Tor and Tim were dressed differently that night. Tim was wearing a white T-shirt, and Tor was wearing a blue hoodie.”
Nina shrugs. “Maybe he had a white tee on underneath. He must have taken the hoodie off. He probably got hot. Maybe he only wore the hoodie on the boat. The lake can get a little breezy, you know? Or maybe I just didn’t notice. I told you, I was drunk.”
My eyes stay narrowed. Her answers are suspicious to me, or maybe it’s her delivery of them.
Seeing I’m not entirely convinced, she keeps trying. “This actually makes a lot of sense because I could never understand… when all that legal stuff was happening, I told Tim I would happily testify that he couldn’t have… raped you because he was with me, but he wouldn’t let me get involved. He wouldn’t let me tell anyone. At the time, I didn’t get it. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just let me say the thing that could obviously get him off, but he wouldn’t. And now I realize he had no fucking clue what I was talking about. He must have thought I was offering to lie for him.”
That part sounds true, and her question makes sense, but it sends my thoughts in a different direction than I think she intended.
I didn’t know Nina offered to be Tim’s alibi.
Why wouldn’t Tim let her testify to his innocence?
Unless he was protecting Tor.
There was enough evidence—real and manufactured—that I liked Tim Walters to make it believable that I might have had sex with him that night. There was also evidence that one of them had sex with me, so if it wasn’t Tim, then it had to be Tor.
If the charges had been against Tor Walters instead of Tim Walters, they may have had a harder time getting him off. I didn’t like Tor back then. I wouldn’t have slept with him, and people may not have been as quick to convince themselves I would have.