She smelled his hands when he got home. “Where have you been?”

“Drinking. The usual.”

“Where?”

“Tom’s. You can call and ask if you don’t believe me.”

“That’s no use. They’re all your friends. They’re not going to rat you out even if you weren’t there.”

“My friends are your friends, too.”

She smelled his hands again. “A funny thing happened tonight.”

“Oh yeah? What was it?”

“I went to Tom’s.”

“Wait. You went to Tom’s?”

“Yeah. And you weren’t there.”

“Maybe I was in the bathroom or something.”

“No. I was there for a while. Your friends were pretty uncomfortable. Seemed to me like they knew you were somewhere else.”

“Uh..”

“That’s what I thought. At least she smells good.”