Luckily for Tim, traffic was light; he arrived at his sister’s apartment building in just a few minutes. He was so impatient to see Josephine that he didn’t even wait for the elevator. Regardless of what she had to say to him though, jumping to conclusions would definitely harm his relationship with her. He had worked really hard to convince her to date him and they were great together. Should he accuse her of anything, there was a good chance that he might lose her forever. Tim had to be subtle; otherwise, he and Josephine could well have a huge fight, one that they could never recover from.

In the hope that his new girlfriend was still up, he unlocked his sister’s front door. He found Josephine looking out the window of the living room, watching the rain, with her arms crossed over her chest. Tim sucked in a deep breath, understanding that he was about to have one of the most difficult conversations of his life.

“Heyyy!” She sang, turning around to face him.

“Hi…” He croaked, sauntering towards her. “Where’s Caitlin?”

“She went to bed an hour ago.” Josephine replied in her usual sweet and feminine voice, as she gave him a short kiss on the lips. “How did it go?”

“I met Jon; I also met the guy who took out Jitter. He said his client was a woman. The woman he described sounded a lot like …” Tim faltered. “A lot like you.”

“What?” All of a sudden, her voice became very high-pitched. “No, Tim! I had nothing to do with it!”

“I have a few questions.” He spoke, his voice commanding. “Do you mind?”

“What, you don’t believe me?” She answered his question with a question, her voice filled with surprise, as she opened her eyes wide.

“Joey, please.” Tim said in his low and deep voice. “Humor me, will you?”

“Please, wait here.” She requested. “I need to go get my laptop.”

“Ok.” He sighed. The few seconds that it took for her to return felt like an eternity. Tim kept racking his brain about the things he had been meaning to ask her, curious as to what she wanted to show him on her laptop. She sat on the couch and turned it on, just before a crack of thunder tore through the night.

“Come sit next to me,” Josephine said, looking up at him. He obliged, feeling his curiosity growing by the second. “I really don’t know why anyone would say that nonsense about me.”

“They didn’t,” Tim said slowly. “The guy just described a brunette, about 5’7”. He didn’t see her face. He said he met her in Manhattan.”

“My last visit to New York was back in 2013.” She stated, typing something on her laptop. “How much do you know about computers?”

“Just the basics,” Tim stated.

“I take it you’ve heard of encrypted files, then.” Josephine concluded.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “You need passwords for those.”

“Exactly,” She pointed out in an emphatic tone. “What you may not know is that there are files with dozens of encryption layers. Paul had a PhD in Computer Science. It would take a genius to hack into his computer. Anyway, he kept his private moments in password-protected files. If he hadn’t given me the password, I wouldn’t have been able to open them. Here, take a look.”

Josephine pressed the “Enter” button one last time, upon finishing her sentence. A directory containing a few dozens of pictures of Paul and his lover appeared on the screen. In most of them, they were hugging or even kissing. There was also a video in the bottom left corner, titled “To my Josephine”.

“Play that video, will you?” He requested.

“I’m warning you.” She heaved a long, deep sigh. “I get emotional, every time I watch that.”

“What am I here for?” Tim whispered, circling his arm around her neck. The inner part of a hand popped up on the screen. Apparently, someone was adjusting the camera angle. Not long afterwards, Paul’s face entered the frame, from left to right, before he took a seat in a brown, leather armchair. If anything, he looked relaxed, as he smiled to the camera across from him.

“Hello, my dear Josephine.” He started, his calm voice bringing tears to her eyes. “It’s very early in the morning. You’re still asleep; I didn’t want to wake you. Our engagement party exhausted you; our last guests left just a few minutes ago.

As always, I’m going to be honest with you. You deserve it. I’d like to thank you for what you did for me. Agreeing to this charade was very noble of you. I don’t know what I would do without you. I didn’t mean to put anyone through this, but I had to do something about those rumors. You know how harsh people can be. If they ever find out the truth about me, I will be utterly humiliated and my work would be discredited. Not everybody can be as open-minded as you, I’m afraid.

Now, I’d like to give you my opinion on something that has been bothering me for a long time. We’ve already discussed it a few times; I know your views on the matter and frankly? You couldn’t be more wrong.

You are an incredible scientist, my dear Josephine. You’re the brightest student I’ve ever had. But, you’re human. And humans have needs. You shouldn’t be working so hard. You need to get out of the lab from time to time. Meet people. You know how much I love my job, but I cannot even imagine my life without my Jason.

I need to go now. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Please, follow my advice. You will see that having a social life can be very rewarding…”

“Poor Paul…” Josephine whispered, as two tears streamed down her cheeks. Tim pulled her closer for a side hug, caressing her shoulder. Riddled with guilt, he tried to comfort her, as she put her head on his shoulder.

“I feel like a total jerk.” Tim confessed in a voice now a soft, breathless whisper. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok.” She assured him, wiping the tears off her face. “You had to know. I still can’t think of anyone who would want him dead.”

“Me neither.” Tim said, reaching out to grab her laptop. He picked it up and eased it down on the table in front of them.

“Can I ask you a favor?” Josephine whispered, as he leaned his back against the couch.

“Sure.”

“Hold me.” She added, sliding her hand up his stomach. “I feel so safe in your arms.”

“Come here.” He muttered, squeezing her shoulder. She swung her right leg over him, sitting on his lap and snuggling close, as he fastened his arms around her waist. Tim closed his eyes, savoring the sensation of her warm body in his embrace. Neither of them spoke. He smiled to himself, feeling her breath on his neck, enjoying the closeness. Only seconds into their romantic moment, he could hear her breath. A sense of protectiveness of her overflowed from his heart and burst through his ribcage. The sensations sent him into uncharted realms of bliss; Tim was falling in love with a real woman, someone worth fighting for.

I’m sorry I ever doubted you, baby. But where I come from, people are not as honest as you. I’m just glad I kept my cool. God, Joey… You took this so well. Thank you. Thank you so much. You’re true, darling. You’re the best thing that’s ever come into my crazy life…