I roll over and stretch my arm out over Audrey, running my hand down over her. Wait. What’s with all the hair? This doesn’t feel right at all.

My heavy eyelids open and I see she’s not between Travis and me. Instead, there’s a blank space where she normally lies and I’m caressing his arm.

I roll out of bed. It’s not like Audrey to be up before dawn. Hell, most mornings we’re practically dragging her out of bed kicking and screaming. They say there are two types of people, night owls and early birds. And that girl ain’t catching no worms.

Stumbling out into the hall, a sharp, bitter scent assaults my senses and snaps me awake. I try to get into the bathroom, but Audrey has the door locked and the shower running.

Great.

Sighing, I head back in my room and get dressed. Travis is now stretched out like a starfish in the middle of my bed.

“Hey!”

He pops up like a gopher from a hole in the ground. “Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just time to get up. Put some damned clothes on.”

“Wow, who pissed in your Cornflakes this morning?” he mumbles but gets out of my bed.

“If you need to use the bathroom, you gotta wait. Audrey is in there taking a shower.” I roll my eyes.

“Ahhh, so that’s what’s got you all wound up? It’s not that someone pissed in your cornflakes, it’s that you’re hungry for cornflakes and need to piss?” he jokes.

“Something like that.”

We head downstairs and that whiff of bitterness I smelled earlier is much stronger.

“Ugh, what’s that?” Travis twists up his face.

“Beats me.”

In the kitchen there’s a pot on the stove. I look inside at the dark liquid mixture and drag a spoon through it. ’There are a bunch of jagged looking pieces inside.

“Please tell me this isn’t breakfast,” I moan.

Audrey’s cooking has gotten so much better the past little while. But this foul smelling concoction would definitely be a step back.

“Whit-wheeew!” Travis lets out a low whistle and I turn toward the doorway where Audrey is standing.

I can’t believe it’s her. She looks so… different. I mean, she looks amazing. She always does, but with her hair all short and choppy and colored dark brown, well, she’s damned near unrecognizable.

“You like it?” Audrey tugs at her sleeves nervously and her eyes flicker from Travis’s face to mine.

“Like it? No. I think it’s just about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Travis walks up to her and pulls her in his arms. “I love it.”

Audrey beams up at him and they share a quick kiss. When she looks at me, I can see she’s worried. “What about you? Do you like my new hair?”

“What’s not to love? It suits you. Now I can see more of your pretty face.” I sidle up to her and run my fingers through the short locks. “And I’ll never complain about seeing more of that,” I murmur and give her a kiss.

Relief dances in her dark eyes. They look even deeper brown now that she’s changed her hair color.

“So, uh, what made you change it?” Travis asks.

Audrey breaks free from our embrace and starts pulling out the skillet and fixins to make up an omelet. She doesn’t look up at us as she busies herself. “Oh, I don't know. I just wanted to experiment with a new look, I guess.” She shrugs.

“Well, you made the right call. You’re even more beautiful now, if that’s possible.” Travis watches her with a dopey grin on his face.

He’s not wrong. Still, something about this isn’t sitting right with me. Don’t women usually take their hair really serious? I know plenty of ladies dye their own hair, but with boiled walnut shells? Even if I ignored that, I don’t think I've ever heard tell of a woman cutting off her own hair. Not when it was as long as Audrey’s. No. Something about this is off. And I intend to find out what’s going on here.

I head out of the kitchen and Travis calls after me. “Where’re you heading?”

“To the john,” I answer and take the stairs two at a time. I hurry into the office and turn on my computer screen with a frown etched into my brow.

Why is it that women change their hair? For a new look? Sure. I’ve heard that plenty of times. But why else? To hide something? The fact is, we already know Audrey hasn’t been straight with us from the git-go. She’s admitted she lied about her work experience. Is there anything else she’s been lying to us about?

I look at her W-9 form on the screen. I haven’t submitted it yet. I hit the button and it errors out on me. Peering at the screen, I read the red words scrawled across the bottom: Unknown SSN. Please correct this field and try again.

“Hmmm. Well, isn’t that interesting?”

I open a new window and pull up Google. Slowly, I type her name in with my two fingers and hit enter. I hold my breath and wait for some kind of explanation for all this to show up on my screen, and I get… nothing.

A big fat zero on my search results.

Weird. I thought for sure I was onto something. Maybe she just messed up one of the numbers on her SSN. Good thing I didn’t go around pointing fingers before I checked. Then I would’ve looked like a real asshole.

I might as well check the sports news while I’m here. I open the search bar and bring up the day’s headlines, scanning for the score on the game last night, and I freeze.

“What the fuck?”

It’s her. On my screen, Audrey’s smiling face is staring back at me. Her hair is still long and blond and that smile is about as fake as I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely her.

“Actress Audrey Lawrence Gone Missing.”

Lawrence? I thought she said her name was Audrey Lacey. I click on the link and skim the story. Well, this explains a lot. The lies. Her needing this job. The hair. All of it.

“Travis? Hey, man, get up here now! There’s something I need to show ya!”