Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

the smile off my face but couldn’t. Belín turned to look at him and greeted him more affectionately than usual. He was caught off guard. His eyes flashed to me.

“Relax, Ben,” I said, still smiling. “Belín just confessed her passionate love for you so I know everything…well, almost everything.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

He flushed crimson, cleared his throat and fidgeted with securing his gun. “Um, Isabel, this is all very untoward, I know, but if you could please keep it to yourself…”

“Oh, don’t worry, Ben. No one will hear it from me. And for the record, Belín didn’t spill the beans, I managed to fill in the blanks.”

“Thank you,” he sounded relieved. “I’ll leave you ladies to your girl talk then.” He and Belín gazed at each other warmly before he left us.

“You two are very good at keeping secrets,” I said. “He always looked so shocked and taken aback every time you went to kiss him on both cheeks.”

She shrugged her “not giving anything more away” shrug.

I reclined on my pillows, watching Belín work on the laptop, pondering on what she had said… “she would go to him if it were her.” I knew Ben wasn’t going to let me see Josh. And then there was David—I had to make it seem as if I was willing to try at our relationship again. As far as I understood, no one could know or suspect that he and I weren’t a couple. Huh…how to get around all this and still go to Josh.

“Belín,” I started, “you and I are going to have a mammo very early in the morning tomorrow.

She looked up from the laptop, smirking. “I knew you had a little deviance in you. Tell me what I need to do.”

I sat up. “First, tell me if Ben knows what you just showed me.”

“No, he thinks I’m still clueless on the Joshua and Isabel Grace situation.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Are men really that stupid?” she asked. “Does he not think that we talk? That I don’t talk to your mother?” She continued, “I only have sisters, Isa, but…are your brothers that stupid?”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, they are.”

She giggled, “So, tell me the plan.”

“Since everyone seems to think we resemble each other, then tomorrow they are going to have the worst time telling us apart.” I walked over to the mirror to look at my hair. “My hair is a little too wavy compared to yours, so I’m going to flat iron it tonight. We’ll both wear it in a pony tail tomorrow and we’ll make sure to only put on press powder and blush – nothing else. I don’t think anyone will come in to the exam with us but we’re going look like twins just in case you need to be me.” I turned to look at her. “Get your jeans and if you have it, a white t-shirt.”

She walked over to her bag and pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a plain, long sleeve, white T. I fished out two pairs of blue socks from my dresser and handed her a pair. I laid everything out on the bed and matched my clothes to hers.

“Isa,” Belín, chimed, “what about our shoes?”

“Just wear what you have. I doubt they’ll look at our shoes off hand. It will probably take them a while to figure things out.”

“Oh, my goodness, you have thought this through,” she declared. “But what if we run into David at the hospital?”

“Then I’ll just say you have an appointment to see a doctor there and it’s none of his concern.”

“This is perfect!” Belín sounded excited.

“Great!” I said. “Let me put everything in my closet so no one sees and get started on my hair. I’ll let my mother know what we’re doing so if we need her help for any reason she’s not caught off guard.”

I quickly put the clothes away and started flat ironing my hair. My arm was starting to throb from all the moving around and fixing my hair. I kept wincing and grunting every time I lifted it to hold my hair and run the flat iron through it—a small price to pay for the end result. I finally finished, taking a quick look in the mirror. It looked just like Belín’s smooth locks. I was impressed with myself—bad arm and all. Once we both put our hair in a ponytail, I believed no one would be able to tell us apart. My pulse quickened with anticipation. I could hardly wait.

I headed to my mother’s room and noticed Ben and Charlie were still watching the game. I smirked inwardly knowing Ben was feeling a little too awkward to be around me right now, which made all my getting ready that much easier. I walked in my mother’s room and began to tell her our plans.

She looked at me, blinking. “Honey, why not just tell the truth or just go see him without saying anything? What is Ben going to do…block your entrance?”

“I thought of that, Mom, but what if I get him in trouble? Or worse yet, what if they send him some place where he or I can’t communicate with one another?” I continued, “I’m not willing to take that chance. Besides, pretty soon, we’ll be on our way to Dallas and I won’t get to see Josh for who knows how long… if at all, so this will be my only opportunity to thank him for taking such good care of me and to say goodbye.”

She looked at me, expressionless, probably processing what I said, then answered, “Of course I’ll help you, honey, but I doubt Ben or anyone else will come to me wanting to fish.”

“Yeah, I agree. I just don’t want you to be caught off guard that’s all. Anyhow, Charles Andrew said