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I rolled my head along the grass to face Theo, who was also lying flat on the ground. Oliver rested next to her as she used his chest as a pillow. “Goldie.”

Oliver groaned. “Are we really back on this?”

“Back on what?” Theo asked, glancing between the two of us.

“Lex is having a hard time fathoming that Goldie doesn’t like him,” Oliver complained.

“Hey,” I protested. “People don’t have to like me, but there’s got to be a reason. I thought we were getting along, but she still has this wall up around her, and no matter how hard I try, she won’t let me past it. It’s rude.”

“So it sounds like working with her has been… entertaining,” Theo mused.

I sighed. “She’s been great. This case, well… it’s a lot.”

Oliver hummed. “The hard cases stick with you, but they’re just as important, if not more so, than the easy ones. With these hard ones, we get the chance to tell the victims' stories. It’s important.”

“I know,” I muttered and trained my gaze back up to the sky. The chill had officially settled in for the fall, the ground cold underneath me, but it was a refreshing kind of cold. The kind that reminded you that you were alive. “It’s just… I have this hard story on one hand, and then my boss who doesn’t like me pushes me away at every turn making it even harder. I feel like if I knew why she wanted to keep her distance, I could try and fix it.”

“So why do you think she’s hiding something?” Oliver asked.

I shrugged. “Call it a gut feeling.”

“Has she always disliked you?” Theo asked.

Oliver nodded. “Always. It’s like she met Lex and had an allergic reaction to him or something. It’s kind of funny.”

“Hey,” I protested, but he continued.

“You know Goldie,” Oliver began. “She’s a sweetheart to everyone she meets, not a single mean bone in her body. Then she meets this guy, and she transforms. It’s funny.”

“It’s not very funny for me,” I grumbled. “I would also like to note, it wasn’t always. Just… most of the time I’ve known her. When we first met, she was actually really nice to me. But one day, it just flipped.”

“Wait… really?” Oliver asked.

I nodded, thinking back to when it changed. “It was right around the time River was born. Or… more when River showed up. Before that, she was cool.”

Theo sat up and crossed her legs underneath her. She eyed Oliver and I could see her mind working a million miles an hour as she tried to put pieces I didn’t know together. “Do you think… do you think it’s him?”

“Him?” Oliver asked.

“Jackie’s talked about him, and you. You know, the guy she liked and is the reason she all but swore off dating?”

I looked between the two of them, genuinely confused. “What are you two talking about?”

Theo waved me off and kept her focus on her husband. “It was right before River came into the picture. Goldie was talking about a guy she liked and he had asked her out?”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah, but she wouldn’t tell us…” His eyes went wide and he sat up, too. “Holy shit, you think?”

Theo nodded enthusiastically. “It would line up. It was right before River.”

“Are you saying some douche broke Goldie’s heart and now she hates me for it?” I grumbled and rolled to my side, propping my head up with my hand.

Theo eyed me, glanced at Oliver, who shrugged, and turned her full focus back to me. “When you first started working with Oliver, you were partying a lot, right?” I nodded. “You still went to that campus bar then?”

I nodded again. “Why?”

“It would have been right before River was dropped off. There would have been a huge party at the bar. It even got shut down by the police for how rowdy it got,” Theo continued. “Were you there?”

I stared at her, confused. I racked my memories, and it was embarrassing how many stupid parties I had gone to. This one in particular, however, was hard to forget. “I remember there being a party, I kissed someone, slept with another…”—and I was ashamed I couldn’t remember either—“I was drunk as shit, and River was dropped off the next day.”