The Sackler Trap

Upstate Girl

I heard the thrum of the car engine before I saw it. Then, moments later, careening around the corner as if he was afraid I'd change my mind, Adam Sackler wearing sunglasses, his beautiful hair whipping in the wind, in a black convertible came roaring up. Even before he came to a stop outside my apartment building, I could see the smile on his face as he no doubt anticipated the long weekend ahead of us.

It made me feel very, very, guilty about what we were doing.

Eve stood next to me, her overnight bag in hand and looked positively cool, calm, and collected as if manipulating her old friends was a common occurrence.

Adam shifted the car into park and leaped out. He was still smiling as he came to take my bag.

"Julie," he said, his dimples deepening with pleasure. "You didn't change your mind?"

Then he noticed Eve for the first time and his smile slipped a little.

"Eve," he acknowledged, then looked down at her bag. "Are you going somewhere for the weekend too?"

Eve grinned. "Upstate," she said breezily.

Adam's gaze shifted from me to Eve and back again. "Upstate?" he repeated slowly.

Eve explained, "Well when Julie told me about your kind invitation, I remembered all those times you had invited me up to see your cabin and I never did. So...here I am. Two for the price of one, how about that, Adam?" She had the audacity then to nudge him playfully in the ribs.

Adam reached up and slowly pulled his sunglasses off, glaring at Eve. "Are you serious, Eve?" he whispered, so low I almost missed.

Eve gave one of her theatrical little shrugs. "Of course, I am!" She flung her bag into the miniscule backseat of the convertible. "Now don't worry about me, Adam. You just see to Julie's bag. I can fend for myself."

With that, Eve nimbly hopped over the side of the car and folded her long, slim legs up into the tiny backseat. Adam stared at her bewildered. I noticed a telltale little twitch under his right eye. I shifted.

Suddenly he turned to me, replacing his sunglasses. His whole demeanor changed as if he was slipping into the comfortable mantle of his TV character. "Oh sure! Sure, sure...the more the merrier," he forced a smile. But even beneath the glasses I caught the reproach there.

I bit my lip guiltily as Adam took my bag and deposited it behind his seat, narrowly missing Eve's feet. She stuck her tongue out at his back when he turned to open the door for me.

I looked up at him apologetically, but the hint of amusement mingled with annoyance I saw in the set of his lips made me look down and away from him. I put on my seatbelt as he slid into the driver's seat beside me.

"All set back there, Eve?" he asked with an edge to his voice.

"Yup, all good Ada..."

Before she could get the rest of her sentence out, Adam had thrown the car into gear and pressed the accelerator, throwing Eve back against her seat as the sleek machine lunged forward and we roared out of the city. I could not swear to it, because the roar of the car's engine made it impossible, but I thought I heard Eve giggling behind me.

The scenery passed in a blur, but I think halfway there, Adam had resigned himself to our little trick because he reached for my hand after a couple hours on the Taconic State Parkway. I glanced up at him as he took it and saw him biting his lip and trying to control his laughter, though he never took his eyes from the road. I grinned as a wellspring of pleasure flooded my insides at the just the feel of that huge hand clasping mine.