75

The TV told them everything they needed to know. They had been sitting there all evening, watching multiple reports from all the different channels as they reeled off their own versions of the recent events surrounding the Doctor. Not a word was spoken between them as they listened with their full attention.

Somewhere throughout the day, another body had been found in an alley beside a bar. As was the killer’s MO, the body was naked with her hands surgically removed. The victim had already been ID’d as Sally Lincoln, a law student who had never left Chicago. While Maggie breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Jenny in that alley, Logan was sulking over his own two thoughts: Did this girl have a family hoping she would return home safe, and how soon would her hands have been sewn onto that… that thing?

By nine o’clock that night, they were just repeating details. Maggie got up and pressed the power button on the unit, then lay down on the couch with her arms crossed over her shoulders like a mummy. She shivered, then rolled over to look at Logan.

“You cold?” he asked.

“Slightly.”

Logan got up and pulled a clean blanket out of the closet. Trying not to think about how his wife had knitted it herself, he shook it out and lowered it over Maggie gently. She grabbed at it and pulled it tight to her body.

“Can I ask you something?” she said.

“Sure.”

“Come here.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Logan got on his knees beside her. She reached out and cupped his hands in hers. She looked at him then, her big, inviting, hazel eyes gazing into his with warmth and fondness… but also pain.

“Can you kiss me?” she asked.

“No,” he said quickly, jerking his hands away.

“It’s not what you think,” she pleaded.

“I think it’s weird, and that’s what it is.”

Maggie sat up a little, protesting. “It’s not about the romance, and it won’t lead to anything. It’s just that the last person I kissed was Billy, and he turned out to be a sadistic little creep. I feel guilty – I feel like I’m to blame that Jenny is gone. If I never trusted him, the killer wouldn’t have her. This is a selfish need, I realize that, but I want to kiss someone good. Someone with a good, strong heart who likes to do the right thing.”

“I’m not that person.”

“But you are.”

Logan shook his head. The kiss wasn’t the problem so much as betraying his wife was. She was gone, he knew that, but it still wouldn’t feel right. He had said his vows, and he had meant them with every true part of himself.

But still, a kiss was comforting.

“One kiss,” he said. “One peck.”

Maggie smiled and sat up. Cautiously, she placed her hands on either side of his face. Her touch was cool and gentle, and she reeled him in. Logan closed his eyes and pretended he was kissing his wife. Their lips touched, an explosion of pleasure exchanged between them. Slowly, they pulled away. Logan opened his eyes and felt for a second that he could see his wife – his beautiful Rebecca, who had gone so long ago.

But it wasn’t. Instead, it was beautiful Maggie, gazing at him with satisfaction and expectation. It was something he felt himself, too, but the dark, depressing nature of his existence held him back, if only for a few more seconds.

They clashed together, this time more fiercely than before. Maggie pulled him toward her, their deep, excited breaths merging together as they kissed hard, both wanting more. Committing to each other if only for the one night. Promising things that could never happen. Logan’s pulse raced as he kissed her. Kissed Rebecca, but not Rebecca. It was Maggie.

Only Maggie.

“I’m sorry,” he said, pulling away and staring down at the hardwood floor.

“Don’t be sorry. I want this.”

“No.”

A thick silence settled between them. It was comfortable, yet somehow not. Logan felt awful, as if he had lied in his vows, and now Rebecca was watching him, upset at him for moving on. He shook his head, looking up at Maggie again.

“You deserve better than me,” he said, getting to his feet and grabbing his jacket.

There was no waiting around for an argument.