Chapter Three

1.             “Do you know that seventy-seven percent of the people out there believe in the presence of a secret society called the Illuminati but only 65 percent believe in God?”

His thumb kept moving and his eyes stayed focused on the screen of his iPhone even as he tossed the random thought over to Brooke. Danny Chord usually had about fifty to choose from any given moment but this one seemed fascinating and worth sharing to the young woman sitting next to him.

“So you're going to visit the Illuminati?” Brooke asked.

This made him stop and look at her. He wasn’t sure if she was joking—she didn’t sound like she was—and her face didn’t seem to be in the teasing mood either. One reason he really liked Brooke was because she couldn’t be sarcastic. He had enough of that for both of them.

She’s just angry that I’m leaving right after I came back in town.

“No, I’m not visiting any Illuminati even though that would be terribly amusing,” he told the restless beauty in front of him. “I'm just trying to prove my point.”

Her lips tightened for a moment. “I thought your point was to make people look stupid?”

She was trying to get his attention. Trying to get into a fight. He knew it and realized she was simply trying hard to lasso him back around.

“Well, no, I'm not trying to make people look stupid,” Danny said. “I'm trying to make stupid people look even more stupid.”

“So you’re going to find some random strangers in some little town to mock? Aren’t there enough politicians and famous people to go after?”

Danny wanted to scratch at his ears. Sometimes he hated the sound of her voice. It had a pinching-the-nose shut sort of tone, an only-child-syndrome sort of attitude. Sometimes Danny wanted to tell her just how awful she could sound, but a woman who looked like Brooke had surely never heard that sort of truth. Danny didn’t want to be the one who told her. At least not now.

“My goal as always is to shine a little light on the stupidity—and hypocrisy—of our world,” Danny told her as he still typed away at the text he was sending.

She shuffled on the couch trying to get his attention. He had work to do and didn’t want to be pulled away by neediness. He could see her playing with her long blonde locks from the corner of his eye.

“Isn’t the world a dark enough place without mocking those who actually believe in something?”

The text finally left his phone and he set it down to fully engage with her.

“I’ve said this before. The thing I hate are these people everywhere who see something bad and then suddenly act like there’s this visible breathing thing called evil that’s like some kind of cold front. Whether they think God’s judging us or that evil is inciting this. That kind of moronic discourse only serves to make the general public look more asinine and ignorant.”

“And that’s why you’re leaving?” she asked.

Now Brooke was giving him the wounded puppy look. It was probably her last ditch effort to make him stay. It wasn’t like she was suddenly so interested in having him around so she could pick his brain and hear his thoughts and laugh at his jokes. Most things, like this, went over her head. When they had started dating and then even when he moved in with her, Danny could tolerate this. But it was get tiring.

“I have a job to do,” he said, picking back up his phone because it had been about ten seconds since he checked it.

“You blog,” Brooke said with that contemptuous attitude he had fallen in love with but could sometimes really hate. “You type free thoughts and free form and free crap all day.”

“Advertisers like that free crap, thank you very much.”

She stretched out those never-ending long legs and it felt like she was trying to make a point.

Yeah, fine, you’re taller than me and better-looking but you’re still with me so there.

“I’m going to be so bored back here,” Brooke said.

“Read my last five blogs.