The Addicted Natural Ch. 06

I regarded her silently for a long minute. "And you won't tell anyone?" I asked, guardedly. "How about Fred?"

She looked agitated for a moment. "I can't keep anything from him if he asks me," she said earnestly. "When he hypnotizes me I have no secrets from him at all. But how could he possibly know? It's not the sort of thing one thinks to ask about. If he never asks, I'll never have to tell him. Your secret's safe, I'm sure!"

I regarded her silently. What a strange sort of pact!

"I promise," I said.

And then, due to some odd, unspoken agreement, we changed the subject entirely and didn't speak of it again. After awhile, we even laughed a little about mundane things. Fred was coming back from his camping trip this evening, and I asked her to bring him to dinner tomorrow night. She readily agreed. I gave her directions to the lake house. It's a little less pretentious there, and believe it or not, I've still never told her my last name, though I'm sure she knows who I am. She must.

Alphonse called us two cabs, since neither one of us was in much shape to drive after the champagne (but she only had one glass!), and I paid her cabby in advance before she could protest.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night. One last nice evening.