Devin

He didn’t know who said what to his girl, but somebody was going to get their ass kicked tonight.

“I’m here for you, Claire.” He cranked the heat in the truck when he saw her shivering. “I would not still be at this lame job if you had not walked into my office on that first day. Are you kidding me? You made my life bearable.”

Claire nodded. “I’m glad I’ve made your life bearable, Devin. But what about me? Meanwhile, they’re all treating me like I’m the office slut. I just heard what they say about me when I’m not listening, and it is way worse than I thought. They straight up believe I’m a whore and that you’re…well …because of your past…not exactly safe to be with, sexually.”

It was time to drive. Devin didn’t speak for a while, just drove them back to Middleburg. The countryside between Mount Pleasant and home was black and shapeless, with no streetlights out here in the sticks. It wasn’t until they approached town that things were illuminated. The “Welcome to Middleburg” sign announced it was “The River Road’s Best-Kept Secret.”

Devin wasn’t feeling this sense of welcome right now. People here were, in fact, pretty fucking terrible at keeping secrets. Everybody knew his business and now, people and their wagging tongues were using his past to drag the reputation of his girl. And maybe endanger his relationship in the process.

He finally spoke. “First of all, I’ve been tested. Yes, I went through a lot in my younger days. I did drugs. I hung out with some pretty messed-up people. I may have had sex with a few of them, but I never did it for drugs or money. I never got anyone pregnant. I never gave anybody any diseases and nobody gave me anything. I don’t know if it’s luck or what. But I am fine. Do you believe me?”

He could see out of the corner of his eye that Claire was watching him intently as he drove into town, past the feed store, the grain elevators—the tallest structures in town—illuminated like concrete menaces.

“Yes, I believe you,” she said.

“And now, the other thing. That’s more complicated. I had no idea you were being treated this way. If our relationship is making people judge you, then it’s all the better that we came out as a couple here, tonight. It’s all out in the open now. Don’t you see? There’s no way I would give you special professional treatment because of your girlfriend status. Because that would be the first thing people would point to. The more it’s out in the open, the fewer the secrets, the better, don't you think? “

She turned away and looked out the window. “I suppose that sounds good in your head, but in practice that’s not how it works,” she said.

“If some of them think poorly of you, fuck them. And if you get punished, then I quit. Simple as that.”

“I can’t let you do that,” she said.

“Well, I can’t let anyone put you out on your ass with three other mouths to feed.”

She sighed. “We shouldn’t have come here. To Middleburg. I’ve made a mess.”

“What do you mean? You left school to come here and take care of your sisters and brother so they wouldn’t have to be farmed out to relatives.”

She didn’t answer. “Just a slip of the tongue. I’m tired. Maybe we should go get the kids and you should just take us home now.”

The truck idled at the one stoplight in the middle of downtown, at the crosswalk on the square between the county courthouse and the gazebo. Why this stoplight continued to function on the daytime schedule instead of switching to a flashing red or yellow, like every other stoplight in every other town the size of Middleburg in the entire country, was anybody’s guess.

Was this it? Was this how their date was going to end? An unbearable party with watered-down liquor that he didn’t want anyway, and mediocre chicken? Some first date.

Then he looked down the street. Everything was closed except the local biker bar.

Devin parked in one of the diagonal spaces along Main Street, under a lamp post decorated with a glittering twinkling star.

“What are we doing here? Everything is closed.”

“Not everything. We’re dressed up, it’s date night, and now we are gonna hit the town for real.”

She hesitated.

Devin held out his hand. “Come on, girl, let me get you a real drink.”