“So I gave him a note and broke up with him,” Carol continued. “I couldn’t talk to him. I couldn’t….”
JP spotted Mike walking out of the building and waved him over.
“Hey, Carol, I heard about you and Luke,” the boy said, leaning in the open passenger window. “I can’t believe he’d do that to you. I mean, I saw the signs… but I guess I didn’t want to believe he could do something like that. He seemed like such a good guy.”
You are such a natural liar, JP mused. Mike was fully aware that Luke and Becky were only friends, but that hadn’t stopped him from dropping hints to Carol to the contrary. It was partly because of Mike’s ability to manipulate Carol’s perceptions—a talent he’d discovered since she’d broken up with him—that JP’s plan had succeeded so spectacularly. Over the past three d
