"Still, not seeing where all thisis going."
"Jack writes under the pen name of'J.P. Devaney.' He's the author of the book. But I didn’t know anyof this. I couldn't go anywhere, because of the snow and ice, so Istayed there for the night. He let me talk and vent, and eventuallyhe went down and fixed the tire and jumped the car. I was a mess. Imean, the whole wanting to die thing really shook me up. I couldnot believe that I had reached that point. I knew something neededto change. Jack was a great sounding board, or so Ithought."
Elizabeth paused, trying to gaugePeter. He sat there, expressionless. "You never calledme."
"I couldn't. My phone had died.Plus, you were in Michigan. You couldn't help me." She wanted toadd that he probably would have just yelled at her about how much atow truck would cost. She continued. "I never realized that when hetalked about his son, he was talking about Nancy's son John. Heencouraged me to hang in there and told me to get myselfstraightened out. It was nice, you know? He knew me way-back-when,and kind of reminded me of the person I used to be. I left there onSunday, still unsure about what to do. About how to change thingsso I wasn't miserable. Then Sydney got sick, and I vowed to makethings better. Anyway, I hadn't heard from him or talked to him.Not until Nancy's party last week."
In a soberingly quiet voice, Petersaid, "He's the one who brought you home?"
Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah, see,that's the thing. I guess everyone knew that he was the author ofthe book. I didn't know. I only knew him as Jack, and I stillhadn't read more than the first few pages. I was more embarrassedabout him seeing me right after I had contemplated suicide, andabout what an emotional wreck I had been. Then, everyone startedbeing nasty to me, and Julia wouldn't call me back. Then, I sawJack on a morning talk show. I finally put two and twotogether."
"So why do you think the book isabout you?"
"I don't think it is. I know itis—unfortunately."
"That's prettypresumptuous."
"No, not really. The book startsoff with the main character, a writer, being all drunk and lonely.It is in the middle of a storm, and the girl he loved in highschool shows up on his doorstep. What he wrote was pretty muchexactly what happened when I showed up at Jack's house. At leastinitially. Then, it veered from what really happened. Alot."
"Exactly how much?"
"Mostly all of it. But it getsworse."
"How does it get worse?"
"Umm, remember how I told you thatNancy's ex was asking for access to her Facebook and stuff likethat?"
Peter shrugged. "I don't know. Iguess, maybe."
"Well, I'm friends with Nancy onFacebook. He used it to view what I was posting. Especially myphotos. So these graphic sex scenes happen in the book, and they'reset all over town. But when he's describing the woman, she's me. Helooked in my pictures and described my outfits. Exactly. He wasstalking me."
"And you had no idea?" Peter wasgetting agitated. His eyes were getting a little wild. Elizabethknew he was about to fly off the handle.
"No, how could I? I didn't know whohe was, in relation to Nancy. And Nancy's been all pissy because hededicated the book to this mystery woman. But now everyone knowsthat it's me."
"How did they not knowbefore?"
"He called me Liza. No one knewthat I used to go by that."
"And how did they find thatout?"
"As we were leaving the party, Itold him I didn’t mind if he still called me Liza."
Peter sucked in a breath. "Ithought you didn't like being called that anymore."
"No, actually, it was you whoinsisted that I go by Elizabeth. But that's not the point. And now,everywhere I go, people are talking about me. Saying horriblethings about how I'm a whore and stuff like that."
"Just ignore them. Tell them it'snot true."
"But, I can't. There'smore."
"What?" Peter was gettingangry.
"He describes me. All ofme."
"That could be anyone."
Elizabeth shook her head. Shepulled her iPhone out of her back pocket, and quickly searched forthe book. As soon as she got a picture of the cover image, shehanded it to Peter. He stared at it for a minute.
"How does he know this?"
Elizabeth swallowed. She knew thiswould be the bigger issue for him. "I told you, he had to help getme undressed when I first got there."
"He saw you naked?" Peter saidthrough clenched teeth.
"Mostly, but you don't understand.It was literally life or death."
Peter was silent for what seemedlike an eternity. Finally, in too calm of a voice he said, "So, letme get this straight. Eighteen months ago, you were so unhappy, butyou never said anything to me. You wanted a divorce and tried tokill yourself. And the only reason you didn't was the kids."Elizabeth nodded. She wanted to correct him that she didn't want adivorce, but really felt that they had no marriage left. She couldtell he was getting ramped up. She let him continue, so he couldget it out of his system.
"You bungled something so simple aschanging a tire, and then just happened to stumble upon thedoorstep of your ex-boyfriend."
"He wasn't my ex-boyfriend. Wedidn't even really date."
"Whatever. You then proceeded totell him everything you didn't tell me, and then spent the weekendwith him."
"I spent the weekend at his cabin,trying to pull myself together." Elizabeth was getting pissed athaving to defend herself.
"And you stripped forhim."
Elizabeth's jaw fell open. Shecould not believe this was the angle Peter was taking onit.
"Then, even though you are all upin everybody's business, you have no clue that this guy has writtenabout you. And when you finally see him, you spend the evening withhim instead of with your friends, and then you leave the party withhim. Do I have it right?"
"No."
"What part is notcorrect?"
"I mean, that's right, but notreally." She was getting flustered at the cross examination. Shehadn't expected this from Peter.
"Did you or did you not spend theweekend with him?"
"I spent time at
