"If you ever do decide to play for the other team, I can hook you up, but I'm afraid that our relationship will be forever platonic."

"Sorry if I got weird."

"Not a problem. Weirdness surrounds me."

"Have you always known you were a lesbian?"

"Nope."

"When did you realize it?"

"There was a penis in my mouth at the time."

"I see."

"I liked the guy it was attached to, and I recognized the aesthetic merits of this specific penis—it was very high quality—but it wasn't doing a damn thing for me. I realized I'd been lying to myself about my attraction to guys. Not long after that I decided to act on some strange squishy feelings that I couldn't quite understand, and realized that, yes, this was where I needed to be."

"Did the guy get to finish?"

"I gave him a handy. I'm not a monster."

"Was your family supportive?" Gertie asked.

"Not immediately. It's all good now."

"How long did it take?"

"One thing you should know about me. I will cheerfully tell you that I discovered I like girls while in the midst of a blowjob, but I don't really like to talk about myself all that much. So it's your turn. Give me an example of you being impulsive."

Gertie slurped up the last of her milkshake. "Have you heard about the missing women?"

"Umm, up in Hornbeam Ridge, right? Three or four of them?"

"At least eight in the past few months if you widen the search range. Women who went out by themselves and were never heard from again. Did you know that they all have long dark hair?"

"I did not know that." Charlene's short black hair was as punk rock as she could get away with while working in a family restaurant. Travis had never given her crap about the pink streaks or the way it was shaved on the left side, nor did he object to her nose ring. At the job interview he'd asked if she'd be willing to remove the safety pin from her eyebrow when serving customers because it sent shivers down his spine, and she'd agreed. Gertie had short blonde hair that seemed to be its natural color.

"It's not really making it into the news stories, but I'm sure the police have noticed," said Gertie. "If it's one guy doing this, he has a definite type."

Charlene felt like this conversation might not be headed in a fantastic direction. "Okay," she said. "When you said you were impulsive, I thought you meant in more of a 'drop everything and drive to Vegas' way."

"I haven't told you where I'm going with this."

"You sure haven't."

"One of the missing women is my cousin Kimberly."

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry."

"She disappeared about two months ago. Kimberly is madly in love with her husband and she has two young kids. She'd never just leave. Never."