Free Call Me! by Dani Ripper

sweet, kind, and classy. What I’m saying, looks can be bought. The rest is you. I’ve given up sex, warmth, and intimacy…and two nights every week just to be able to live with you!”
     
    “Thanks.”
     
    “ Thanks ?”
     
    “I know you meant that as a compliment, but the last part came across a little bitter. Not that I don’t deserve it.”
     
    He thinks about what he said. “I get that. I’m sorry.”
     
    “You have every right to feel that way. I just hate that I’ve done this to you.”
     
    “Done what?” a voice says from behind us.
     
    We turn, and it’s not Roy Burroughs’s jaw that drops.
     
    It’s mine.
     

ROY BURROUGHS IS in a wheelchair.
    And he’s not nearly as good-looking as Ben led me to believe.
     
    Of course, it’s been a long time since Ben’s seen Roy. What’s it been, sixteen years? Something like that. A lot can happen to a person’s looks in sixteen years. You hear it all the time from those who go to high school class reunions. Some look the same, but most don’t.
     
    But that’s not what makes my jaw drop when I meet Roy Burroughs.
     
    What makes my jaw drop is I know Roy’s a fake. He’s pretending to be confined to a wheelchair. I know this as certainly as I know my real name is Mindy Renee Whittaker.
     
    That’s right, my current name, Dani Ripper, is as fake as Roy’s wheelchair.
     
    People use phony names for different reasons. Some do it to deceive people. Others, like me, change their names to create a new life. Wait, maybe these are the same reasons, since they both involve deception.
     
    I won’t argue the point.
     
    But I didn’t change my name in order to hurt people, or take advantage of them. I did it to protect myself. I went to court to change my name because I got sick of being stalked by the media. Sick of seeing my filthy, bruised and bloody fifteen-year-old face on TV every time the next young, pretty girl got abducted. Sick of being Mindy Renee Whittaker, “the little girl who got away.” Sick of being the poster child for the precious few who manage to escape their captors. Sick of being contacted by grief-stricken parents clinging to their last ounce of hope.
     
    I couldn’t give them hope, because I didn’t think any other fifteen-year-old girls would do what I was willing to do in order to escape.
     
    I know Roy’s faking the wheelchair because I’ve actually met him once before. On that occasion he had full use of his legs. That was four days ago, and he was going by the name Joe Fagin. As he and I look at each other now, only one of us is shocked.
     
    Me.
     
    When he gives me a shit-eating grin it becomes crystal clear what really happened last week with Carter Teague. I don’t know if she and Roy are married or engaged, or if she’s some hooker or decoy Roy hired to play the part. What I do know is Roy Burroughs found a way to beat my husband yet again.
     
    Because Roy Burroughs has seen Ben’s wife completely naked. Not only that, he kissed me, groped me, and felt me up. And now he gets to play a game that ridicules my sweet, innocent husband. Roy’s going to allow Ben to believe he’s finally won.
     
    If I’m lucky.
     
    If I’m not lucky, Roy’s going to play Ben for a fool all through dinner, and humiliate him with the truth for dessert.
     

BEN’S FACE IS white. He can’t get over the fact Roy’s in a wheelchair. I see him struggling with what to say about it, how to approach the subject. Roy’s grinning at me, sharing the joke. I glare at him until Ben looks at me, at which point I become all smiles.
    “Ben, you’re right!” Roy says. “She’s absolutely stunning!”
     
    Ben looks at me and beams. “She is, isn’t she.”
     
    “I’d give a week’s pay to see her naked,” Roy adds, and winks at me.
     
    “Well, that’s not going to happen,” I say.
     
    Ben moves closer to me, as if to protect me.
     
    Roy says, “Trust me, I know Ben’s feelings about that! He’s been raving