The First

“I call bullshit,” Chad said.

“I swear to God,” Jeremiah said with his hand over his heart, “It really happened. Right there in the hotel gym. You saw the footprints leading out of the hot tub.”

“Yeah,” Chad conceded, “I saw footprints, but that doesn’t prove anything except that someone else was in the hot tub. Probably some fat old businessman.”

“The footprints were smaller than mine.”

“It still doesn’t prove anything,” Chad said, “Besides, it’s no big deal to be a virgin at eighteen. You’d be surprised who hasn’t had their cherry popped yet.” Jeremiah wrinkled his mouth as if in reaction to a bad taste.

“Why do people say that?” he asked. “It was more like sliding into something tight and warm. Nothing popped.”

“Look, you can’t keep this up forever,” Chad said. “Sooner or later you’re going to slip up when I ask you the details. Run it by me one more time.” He practiced his best prosecutorial stare. He was only in his first year of pre-law. Jeremiah was majoring in accounting. The reason they were in the hotel was that the dormitory where they were supposed to be living was infested with cockroaches and had to be fumigated. Jeremiah rolled his eyes and submitted to the interrogation.

“For the fourth time… You were snoring real loud, like you do when you’ve been drinking. I couldn’t wake you up, so I decided to go to the gym and work out. I figured if I got tired enough I might be able to sleep through that horrendous sound.”

“What time was this?”

“3:07am.”

“That’s incredibly precise.”

“Like I said, I saw the time when I put on my FitBit. Then I went straight down to the gym.”

“Okay, you said she was there working out when you got there?” Chad asked.

“No. I was the only one there while I worked out. Bench presses on the machine and then the exercise bike for like thirty or forty minutes before slipping in the hot tub. I didn’t see her until I was already in the tub. She was wearing a white bikini and she lifted her leg up high to climb in. I never saw her come in the gym.”

“I know how we can settle this once and for all,” Chad said. “Tell the security guards you want to view the security tape to see who took your cell phone from the gym.”

To Chad’s immense surprise, Jeremiah agreed readily. When the security guard heard Jeremiah’s request, he started shaking his head.

“This ain’t got nothing to do with no cell phone.” Jeremiah froze. “It’s that woman in the white bikini, ain’t it?”

“Yes! Do you know what room she’s in? Can I send her a message?”

“No. She’s dead.” In response to Jeremiah’s stricken expression, he added, “Took pills and accidentally drowned in the hot tub back in 1998. You ain’t the first that’s seen her. Some say they had an intimate encounter.”