Page 15 of This is Why We Lied

The man called, “Are you guys going to the lodge? We’re lost.”

“We’re not lost,” the woman muttered. They were both wearing wedding rings, but Will got the feeling from the sharp look she gave her husband that that was up for debate. “There’s only one trail in and out, right?”

Sara looked at Will. He’d been leading the hike, and there actually was just one trail, but he wasn’t going to get in the middle of things.

“I’m Sara,” she told the couple. “This is my husband, Will.”

Will cleared his throat as he stood up. She’d never called him her husband before.

The man looked up at Will. “Wow, what’re you, six-three? Six-four?”

Will didn’t answer, but the man didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m Frank. This is Monica. Mind if we go together?”

“Sure.” Sara picked up her backpack. The look she gave Will was an unsubtle reminder that there was a difference between an awkward silence and being rude.

“So,” he said. “Nice day, right? Good weather.”

Frank said, “I heard there might be a storm.”

Monica muttered under her breath.

“This way, right?” Frank took the lead, walking in front of Sara. The trail was narrow, so Will had no choice but to bring up the rear behind Monica. Judging by the huffing noises, the woman was not enjoying the hike. Nor was she prepared. Her Skecher slip-ons kept slipping on the rocks.

“… got the idea to come here,” Frank was saying. “I mean, I love the outdoors, but work keeps me very busy.”

Monica huffed again. Will looked over her head at Frank. The man had used some kind of spray on his bald spot to cover the bright pink of his scalp. Sweat had washed the dye down his collar, leaving a dark ring.

“… and then Monica said, ‘If you promise to stop talking about it, I’ll go.’” Frank’s voice had taken on the cadence of a hammer drill. “And so, I had to schedule time off work, which isn’t easy. I’ve got a team of eight guys answering to me.”

Will guessed from the way Frank was talking that he made less money than his wife. And that it bothered him. He looked at his watch. The lodge’s website said that guests usually took two hours to hike in. Will and Sara had stopped for lunch, so maybe they had another ten or fifteen minutes to go. Or twenty, since Frank’s pace was slow.

Sara shot Will a look over her shoulder. She wasn’t going to take this bullet for the team. Will was going to have to make more small talk.

He asked Frank, “How’d you guys hear about this place?”

“Google,” Frank said.

Monica muttered, “Thanks, Google.”

Frank asked, “What do you guys do?”

Will watched Sara straighten her shoulders. A few weeks ago, they had agreed that no matter where they went, it would be easier to lie about their jobs. Will didn’t want to be valorized or denigrated for wearing a badge. Sara didn’t want to listen to weird medical complaints or wildly dangerous vaccine theories.

Before she could lose her nerve, he said, “I’m a mechanic. My wife teaches high school chemistry.”

He saw Sara smile. This was the first time Will had called her his wife.

“Oh, I sucked at science stuff,” Frank said. “Monica’s a dentist. Did you take chemistry, Monica?”

Monica grunted rather than answer. She was Will’s kind of people.

Frank said, “I do IT for the Afmeten Insurance Group. No one’s ever heard of them, don’t worry. We deal with mostly high net-worth individuals and institutional investors.”

Sara said, “Oh look, more hikers.”

Will felt his stomach tying itself into a knot at the thought of more people. The second man and woman must’ve slipped ahead on the trail while Sara and Will were having lunch. The couple was older, probably in their mid-fifties, but more determined and better equipped to make the hike.