Nothing. I sat down on a stool at the kitchen counter. Ben had absolutely nothing incriminating in his house. How was that possible?

His underwear drawer wasn’t hiding any weird sex toys or a gun. His medicine cabinet didn’t have any odd prescriptions or foot fungus cream. There were no journals or dirty magazines under his mattress. But God did his sheets smell good.

I told myself that it was okay to snoop around his house. Because he had stolen my sneaker and I wanted it back. But I couldn’t even find that. Maybe it was in his truck. Or maybe it was in my house somewhere. I had been so sleepy recently, maybe I had just put it someplace random that I didn’t remember.

Ben had even left his laptop on. Signed in and everything. He was practically begging me to look at his internet history. And again…nothing. Not even any porn. There weren’t any files in the recycle bin or in the folder marked “Important.” What kind of weirdo labeled a folder “Important” and didn’t put anything in it?

He was so much on the good side of the spectrum that it was almost disappointing.

The lack of anything juicy had made me come back downstairs. That with the combination of my growling stomach. I had given up on finding Ben’s flaw. Or maybe I had already found it. He was too perfect.

The only thing slightly odd was that his basement door was locked. At least, I thought it was the basement door. His house was a similar model to mine. And the only room I hadn’t found yet was the basement. The door was in a different spot than my basement door, but what else could be behind it? I was pretty sure every house in the neighborhood had a basement.

But even the fact that his basement door was locked wasn’t very suspicious. I kept mine locked. It was just annoying because his was locked with a key and mine was locked with a bolt. It just meant I couldn’t go down there and explore. But it was probably empty. Or filled with gym equipment. He clearly worked out and I hadn’t found any of that anywhere. That’s most likely what it was.

Although, I kept my basement door locked because I was terrified of intruders. Ben didn’t really seem terrified of anything. He had left a relative stranger alone in his house for God’s sake. I could have been a Russian spy. I could have been putting cameras up all over his house. I smiled to myself. Now that would have been a good idea. Then I could finally see him naked.

I sighed. I was definitely the evil one. And he was a goody-two-shoes. I poured myself a bowl of some healthy cereal I had never heard of and wandered back to his family room. My feet stopped at the basement door in the hall. I pressed my ear against the wood and then laughed at myself. What am I doing? I kept walking and sat down on the couch.

Searching through all his stuff had been a complete waste of time. Not only had I not found anything interesting, but I hadn’t found my sneaker either. And now that I thought about it, I still couldn’t find my purse. Where the hell was my stuff?

I looked over my shoulder into the hallway. At the locked door. It was going to drive me crazy. I could have searched how to pick locks on my phone, but my phone was missing. And I didn’t want to add anything suspicious to his perfect internet browsing history. I knew how to delete recently browsed things, but I knew that meant nothing to a computer nerd. Those guys could search through years of deleted data. What were the odds of Ben being a computer nerd? I hardly knew anything about him. But he did have those fancy binoculars. And he’d look damn good in a pair of glasses. It was probably better not to risk it.

I left my cereal to get soggy and walked back over to the locked door. Maybe I could climb in or see something through the basement windows outside. But then the neighbors would probably see me. And how would that look? I was hoping they believed my story from last night. I was also hoping they hadn’t noticed Ben run after me. Or me stepping out of his truck and into his house last night.

If Sally saw, maybe she’d keep her big mouth shut. Especially if she wanted her daughter to date Ben one day. Smearing his name wasn’t the best start to a relationship. Just the thought of Sally’s stupid daughter upset me. And it was even more upsetting that she wasn’t actually stupid. She’d probably be able to figure out how to pick a lock.

Bobby pins. I snapped my fingers. I had seen that on TV once. I pulled one out of my hair and stuffed it into the lock. Nothing. I wiggled it back and forth. Nothing. Was it supposed to click or something? I put my ear to the lock and wiggled the bobby pin again. Nothing.

I sighed. Maybe Ben had a movie that involved lock-picking. All I knew was that I had to get into that basement or it would drive me crazy.

I felt vindicated. The coffee definitely hadn’t made me anxious. It made my hyper-focused, just like I remembered. Hyper-focused to the point of destruction.