Doublecrossed by Susan X Meagher

taking her coat off, Marina dashed across the living room and gathered Callie up in her arms. “ I missed you,” she said, kissing all over her face.
    Callie giggled while pulling away. “That tickles!”
    Marina released her and patted her on the butt as she walked away. “Let’s go out to dinner and celebrate.”
    “But I’m making your favorite enchiladas.”
    “They’re just as good the next day. Come on. We’ll go someplace really nice. I feel like this is a new beginning.”
    Callie looked at her and saw the longing in her eyes. She had a very difficult time saying no to Marina under the best of circumstances, but when she could tell that something was truly meaningful to her, it was impossible. She considered her finances and decided that she could delay the scheduled maintenance on her car for another couple of weeks. “You call and get us reservations and I’ll get ready.” As she passed her, Marina snuck an arm around her waist, held her still and kissed her deeply. Callie tried to respond as she normally would, but it felt forced and she went into their room trying to ignore the dread she felt in the pit of her gut. When one of those forceful kisses didn’t make her tingle—something was very wrong.

    *

    The next day was rainy and cool, but Marina’s parents were in town and she wanted to go meet them and play golf. Callie knew how to play and was, in fact, better at the game than Marina was, but she didn’t enjoy playing with the Boltons. The family acted like each shot was vital. Because it seemed more like work than play for her, she opted out. But Marina was so disappointed that she made an offer she knew would please her.
    “I think I’ll stay home and get your new computer set up. I know you hate doing things like that.”
    Marina grinned happily. “It’s not so much that I hate it as that I’m terrible at it. You’re the only techie in this family.”
    Callie gave her a quick hug. “I hope your clients don’t know how little you know about technology.”
    “I’m a sales person, not a programmer. I have people who can talk tech…thank God.” She went into her office and came back with two laptops. “Just take everything from the old one and throw it onto the new one. You can do that, right?”
    Callie smiled. “Yeah, I can do that. It’ll take some time, but it’s not hard. I can work on my own stuff while yours is crunching away.”
    “Hey, could you put the contacts from my old phone onto the new computer?”
    “Sure. Your old phone had a chip, right?”
    “Uhm, a chip is…?”
    “Let me see it, honey.”
    Marina went to get it, returning a few moments later. “Sorry I don’t pay attention to things like this.”
    “It’s fine. This is my field.”
    “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
    “I don’t mind a bit. Make sure you dress warmly. They’re predicting this might turn to ice.”
    “Excellent. If the weather’s bad enough we’ll have the course to ourselves.”
    “That’s one way to look at it,” Callie said wryly.

    *

    She wasn’t a snoop. Callie had quite a few qualities she was less than proud of, but she wasn’t a snoop. Hacking into Marina’s old phone was something she never would have done before. But she couldn’t let go of her suspicions, and having them made staying untenable. She didn’t want to know what Angela and Marina talked about. If she’d had the transcripts in front of her she wouldn’t have read them. But she was almost certain that Marina was lying about the length of her relationship with Angela and she wanted…needed to know the truth. She actually felt that snooping might help their relationship because if she found out Marina was telling the truth, she could finally let this all go.
    She pulled the chip out of the phone and used a device she’d bought years earlier when she was working in IT that let her pull off all the instant messages stored on the phone. Even the ones that had been erased.
    It didn’t take long to