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I'm already laughing.
“Then,” Roman continues, “I was supposed to keep going until I passed a restaurant.”
“It's a Hardee's now.”
Roman points at him. “It wasn’t a fucking Hardee's when you gave me the directions.”
“No. It was still Miller's. Before that it was Johnny’s.”
“Why did I need to know what it used to be?”
Beck looks genuinely confused. “Because that's how you know you're in the right place.”
I lose it.
Roman just stares at him. “There were road signs.”
“So? They can be easy to miss. Sometimes they’re unreadable. Or they get stolen.”
“The dead woman's house could've been fucking demolished.”
Beck shrugs. “It wasn't.”
I have tears in my eyes now. “So you started calling him Mapquest?”
“No. I started calling him Mapquest after the directions took longer than the fucking drive.”
I slap my hand over my mouth.
Beck mutters, “They were thorough.”
“You gave me the history of three generations of people I don't fucking know.”
“You found the place.”
Roman goes silent.
Beck smiles. “Didn't you?”
Roman's eyes narrow. “That's not the point.”
“Sounds like you found it.”
I nod solemnly. “I'm with Mapquest on this one.”
Roman turns on me. “Of course you fucking are.”
“Don’t get bent out of shape, Hot Lips.”
I wipe beneath my eyes. “Okay.” I take a breath. “Mapquest makes sense.”
Beck leans back, looking entirely too pleased with himself. Roman looks like he regrets having friends.
“But now we get to the important one.” I turn toward him. “Hot Lips.”
“No.”
“You got to tell the Mapquest story.”