I wake a second time to a door opening. It’s morning now, light streaming in through the blinds. Ben is on his stomach beside me, still asleep.
“Ben!” It’s a familiar voice from the living room. Paige. “Are you in there? You know I worry that someone murdered you when you don’t answer my texts.”
He stirs, groaning as he rubs a hand across his face. The clock says it’s after ten. We were up late.
He rolls out of bed and pulls his boxers on. As he walks to the door, he holds his hand out. I think that means he wants me to stay put. He opens the door a crack.
“Hey.”
“Hey— Dude, no. I do not want to see you in your underwear.” “Then don’t barge into my hotel room at the crack of dawn.”
“First of all, it’s practically lunch. Second of all, you gave me a key, so I’m not sure what else you expected me to do with it.”
“I need to shower. I’ll meet you in your room in like an hour.” “It’s going to take you an hour to shower?”
“I have stuff to do. Websites to browse. Political news to obsess over.
Just give me a little while.”
There’s a long pause. “Please tell me you did not.” “Just give me—”
“I know that purse, you stupid motherfucker.”
Ben stumbles backward as Paige barges into the room. I sit up, holding the sheet against my chest. Paige doesn’t look surprised so much as defeated.
“Hey, Paige.”
She presses a hand to her forehead. “Ben, I swear to god.”
“Does it help if I tell you that this isn’t the first time?” I ask. Ben gives me a deeply exasperated look.
Paige points at him. “You stupid motherfucker,” she says again, to really drive the point home.
Ben takes Paige by the shoulders and gently shoves her out of the room.
He shuts the door behind them.
“Ben, what on earth are you doing?” Paige whispers. I quickly slide off the bed, grab my underwear, and move closer to the door to hear them better.
“Can we—”
“I’m torn between being impressed or horrified that you’ve managed to compromise your own podcast.”
“That’s—”
“I agreed to work on this case with you only if you kept things professional, and this is anything but. This is the complete opposite of keeping it together.”
“Since when do you care who I sleep with?”
“Since it’s the woman we’re currently covering in our report! Do you realize what people would think if this got out? She could derail your entire season just by revealing you’re involved. No one would trust you.”
“I get that, but first, she wouldn’t do that. And second, why would she want to? This podcast is portraying her in the best light she’s had in years.”
I feel like I should be insulted by that, but he’s not wrong.
“And when you say something she doesn’t like? Why in the world would you trust this woman? She—”
“Can we talk about this later?” Ben interrupts.
They’re both quiet for several seconds. I creep away from the door and pull on my clothes.
“We’re still not giving you a heads-up about things coming up on the podcast!” Paige calls suddenly.
“Understood!” I yell, and decide not to tell her about Ben asking my permission to post that clip from Maya.
Listen for the Lie Podcast with Ben Owens
EPISODE SIX—“NINA”
After what we just heard Lucy say about Nina and Matt, I went through some of my old interviews where people mentioned her. I found something really interesting. Here again is Colin Dunn, in our very first interview.
Colin: Of all of Savvy’s friends?
Ben: Yeah. Which ones did you know well?
Colin: Not really any of them. They’re all older than me, so we weren’t in school together … Oh! Nina. What’s her last name? Branson?
Ben: Garcia. She changed it back to her maiden name after she got divorced.
Colin: Oh shit, she was married?
Ben: She was at one time. She’s divorced now.
Colin: Oh, okay. Cool.
Ben: But you knew her?
Colin: A little, yeah.
Ben: But not well enough to know she was married with kids?
Colin: Oh shit, she has kids too?
Ben: Two.
Colin: Damn. Okay. Good for her. Oh no, wait. I think she did mention a kid once. Huh.
Ben: How did you know Nina?
Colin: We hung out a couple times. Just, you know. As friends.
I was unable to get in touch with Colin again to confirm a suspicion I had—which is pure speculation on my part, by the way—so I went to Joanna Clarkson for the scoop.
Joanna: Nina and Colin? Like in a romantic way?
Ben: Yeah. You ever hear anything about that?
Joanna: Hmmm … that boy sure does get around, doesn’t he?
Ben: He does seem to be popular.
Joanna: Listen, hon, I don’t think I should be confirming any rumors.
Ben: But there were rumors? About Nina and Colin?
Joanna: There were a lot of rumors about Colin. Who can say which ones are true?
Ben: Colin did tell me that he knew Nina.
Joanna: Hmmm. Well. Do with that what you will.
