Henley

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Yes…?”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this—”

“Henry this is our best option.”

“How is this our best option, Henley?”

I adjusted the wig on his head, biting my cheek hard to keep from smiling. This was a serious matter. With serious repercussions if we didn’t handle it properly. I couldn’t find this funny. I couldn’t—

Henry blinked at me with his dark, puppy-like eyes. “Does it look okay?”

The laughter I’d attempted to hold back burst from my lips and I clapped a hand over my mouth to silence it. “I’m sorry. You’re just—”

“I’m taking it off.”

I held it firmly on his head, trying to cool myself off. “No, no. You look cute. You do,” I said firmly as his mouth formed a straight line.

“Why do I have to wear the wig? Why don’t you?”

“Because you’re way more recognizable than I am. You work there. Didn’t you say Mrs. Calloway was only away for the weekend? We have one chance to do this.”

Pouting, Henry tucked the long black hair behind his ears. “Why do I have to wear a dress?”

“Because. It’s more convincing.”

“I feel like you’re making fun of me.”

“I’m not,” I said, having to close my eyes for a second so I didn’t look at his pale, chicken legs peeking out at the bottom of the dress. Okay, maybe it was for a little bit of amusement, too. There was nothing wrong with that, right?

Henry’s eyebrows began to furrow and I cleared my throat. “Don’t worry. I’m going to bundle you in my toggle coat. It will hide the fact you don’t have a figure.”

His mouth opened immediately and then he closed it. “I guess I can’t be offended by that.”

“Nope,” I agreed. “Turn around for a second. Geez this shirt is tacky. You said this isn’t illegal, right?”

The silence that met my answer made me pause in buttoning up the brown shirt I’d thrown on. I swear I heard Henry swallow. Turning my head slowly, my eyes met his fully blown ones.

“I-it’s actually a federal crime.”

“What…?”

He gave a small shrug, the tresses of his wig swaying with the movement. “Well specifically it says it’s a federal crime to dress up as a postal worker. But perhaps a UPS worker is safer?”

The mirror posted in the corner of the room exhibited my apparently illegal appearance. Brown pants. Black belt. Tacky polo with the UPS symbol stitched on the top right pocket. Even tackier brown cap that overshadowed my eyes. The whole ensemble was a size too big— we’d had to overnight it from some random on Ebay.

Henry stood right beside me in the reflection, his lips a few shades brighter than usual, the masculinity of his face doing nothing to aid the fact he was supposed to be posing as a woman. The dress added injury to insult.

“We’re doomed,” I stated.

Henry shook his head. “We haven’t even tried.”

“Did you see what jail did to my brother? I can’t go there!”

“What’s different about him?”

“Nothing, he’s still a giant tool. But that could happen to me! We can’t do this. We need to think of a different plan.”

“I’m taking this dress off, then.”

An image of Bennett’s forlorn expression flashed through my head. Then Lee, on the couch, lying through his teeth to try and soothe Henry’s worries.

My hands curled into fists. Screw the repercussions. “No, Henry. You’re right. We have to do this.”

“The dress has to go.”

“No, you need it—”

He tried to shimmy his arms through the arm slots but I wedged my hands into the crook of his elbows, trying to pull them back out. Grunting, he tried to push me off him, but only succeeded on stepping on the bottom hem of my oversized pants, causing me to lose my balance. I latched onto him, folding my arms around his shoulders to try and support myself. In three seconds flat we’d fallen to the floor, one of Henry’s arms breaking free from the dress to catch himself from crushing me completely.

Our faces were a mere inch apart when the door swung open. Simultaneously we turned our heads, his nose brushing against my cheek.

Lee appeared sideways by the doorframe. “Henley…” His voice faltered as he took in our positions.

The confusion on his face would have been comical, if you ignored the fact that he wasn’t supposed to know what was going on. We’d taken the utmost care in not letting Lee know Henry had come over. I’d snuck him into my room so we could get dressed in secrecy. Now it was all for nothing.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt but…” Lee spoke again, trailing off as his gaze caught on Henry’s luscious locks. “Henry?”

As if jolted back into reality, Henry recoiled back, crushing my abdomen as he put his full weight on me so he could adjust his legs and push himself to his feet. Right above my face.

My eyes got a full sight up his skirt and I choked back a laugh at his abominable snowman boxers.

“When did you get here?” Lee asked Henry.

I returned my attention to Lee. That was the question he wanted to ask? Not what in the world are you doing? Not why is Henry in a dress? Not why is Henley dressed up as a UPS worker?

Henry’s face— no his whole body— turned crimson. “Get out!”

Startled, Lee faltered back a step. “I’m sorry—”

“Close the door,” Henry demanded, his voice rough.

After a second of hesitation, Lee did as he was told, exiting the room and gently shutting the door behind him.

I propped myself up on my elbow, swallowing hard as an eerie silence encased the room. “Um.”

“Henley.”

“Yes…”

He held my gaze sternly, daring me to look away. “Take off your clothes.”

“Umm, what? That’s a little forward, isn’t it?” I chuckled nervously.

His expression didn’t crack. A breath later, he was standing above me menacingly. “Take. It. Off.”

“Henry, this will still work. Lee probably didn’t even realize you were in a dress,” I reasoned with him, crawling backward until my back hit the wall. “Henry, it’s fine, wait, don’t! No! Lee, help me!”

The ensuing struggle only lasted one minute. No matter how slender and delicate Henry looked, I couldn’t fight against him. I faced the mirror once more, taking in the raggedy image it displayed. The wig was now on my head, strands of hair going every which way and what. Red lipstick was smeared across my cheeks in a horrifyingly wide smile. And the black dress hung on me like a toga.

Henry fastened up the last button on his polo, smoothing the rest of the shirt out. “Much better.”

“I don’t know whether I’m scared or impressed.”

“Both. Now let’s go,” he urged, pulling on my wrist and dragging me through the door. “Before Lee notices—”

“Before I notice what?”

Henry and I both froze. Lee watched us lazily from where rested against the wall down the hall, arms folded over his chest. Wrinkles appeared on his forehead as he took us in once again.

“Run?” I muttered to Henry, barely moving my lips.

“The door is past him,” he returned.

“And I can hear you guys,” Lee interjected, his lips pulling down into a frown. “Don’t make me chase after you two. You know I hurt my ankle.”

Henry and I shrunk in on ourselves. Running wasn’t an option.

Two minutes later, Henry and I were seated on the couch, feeling awfully a lot like suspects taken in for questioning. Lee sat across from us in the armchair, his expression wavering between concern, amusement, and something indiscernible.

“I want you two to be perfectly honest with me,” Lee said slowly.

I tensed. Henry’s jaw locked.

“Are you two… fooling around with each other behind Bennett’s back?”

The tension in the air dissipated. Henry and I gaped at each other.

“You can tell me the truth. I won’t be mad,” Lee continued evenly, fingers steepled in his lap. “While I don’t agree with it if that’s what’s going on, I know that we as humans sometimes have to experiment to figure out what we like or who we are.”

Lee needed to stop talking. But the nonsense he was spouting was so preposterous I was speechless. “Lee,” I choked out.

“I’d just appreciate it if it wasn’t between my secretary and my brother’s girlfriend.”

“No, we were just, uh.” My mind raced. We couldn’t tell Lee about our plan. It was to protect him. If he knew, he’d just try to stop us. I searched Henry’s eyes for an answer but he was just as bewildered as me.

Lee’s frown grew more pronounced. “You guys aren’t saying anything. I’m getting worried. Is it really how it looks?”

Henry blinked rapidly. I subtly shook my head, knowing he was about to burst. I kicked him in the shin as he sucked in a deep breath.

“We’regoingtoplantcamerasinyourmothersofficesowecancatchherintheactofdoingsomethingbadsowecansendhertojail,” he said in a rush. Once it was out of his system he let out a long breath of air, falling back into the couch, and smiling.

Lee tilted his head to the side. “Come again, Henry?”

I slapped a hand over Henry’s mouth. “We’re not doing anything suspicious.”

“Henley.”

“Lee.”

“Are you or are you not cheating on Bennett?”

“What? No of course not!”

“That’s all I needed to know,” is what he said, but his mind didn’t agree with his words, judging by how strained his neck was. His complexion gave him away. The color from his cheeks disappeared and he gnawed on his bottom lip.

Henry peeled my hand off his lips. “We were going to sneak into Mrs. Calloway’s office.”

Sighing, I dropped my hand back into my lap.

Lee seemed to process this information for a moment. Whatever result he came to helped improve his mood. A light smile appeared. “May I ask the reason why?”

“To get dirt on her,” I said.

“To protect you,” Henry spoke over me.

Lee brought a hand to his forehead, rubbing at it gently. “You guys.”

“Don’t try and stop us—”

“Were you planning on installing hidden cameras, or something?”

I shrugged.

“That wouldn’t help. It’s illegal to record someone unless you get their consent. Anything you find wouldn’t be held up in court because my mother would never give her consent,” Lee said, shaking his head. “New York is a one-party consent state, sure, but if it’s only her, there’s no one else to get permission from, so it’s pointless.”

I cringed inwardly. In our rush to get our plans going, we hadn’t researched the most important law. And yet somehow Henry knew posing as a postal worker was illegal. Recording Mrs. Calloway would be no good if we dug any dirt on her while she was alone. But if there was someone else in the room that could give their consent… Would the other party even give their consent? They’d have to be willing to give themselves up, too. Unless it was someone who didn’t like her. That could rile her up easily. That wasn’t a part of her twisted schemes.

Someone like…

I straightened up. “I have an idea.”

“Don’t,” Henry said.

“No, a better idea. What if I am being recorded, too? What if I confront her? Then obviously I’d give my permission about being recorded. If I could get any information from her, we could use it as evidence once Sebastian finds what he has to, too, right?”

Lee shifted in his seat. “Confronting her may not be safe.”

“I can do it,” I assured him. “I’ve done it before.”

“Henley, no. You can’t. I’m worried she’ll—” He turned his head away, cutting off his words.

My voice became softer. “What? She’ll hurt me? I won’t let that happen, Lee. I can handle myself. Besides, what if we get something really useful? Then this will all be over.”

“Let me do it then,” Lee suggested. “I rather you not have to deal with her.”

“You’d be in more danger than me,” I responded.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“You would,” Henry spoke harshly. “Look what’s already happened.”

“Henry, it wasn’t like that. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you. Henry? What are you doing?”

Henry stood from the couch, glaring down at me. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” I agreed quickly.

“Wait, you two,” Lee ordered, lifting himself up from the armchair. “There’s other ways.”

Henry brushed by him and I attempted to follow after him, coming to halt as Lee snagged my forearm. Whipping around on his heel, Henry took hold of Lee’s own arm, attempting to force his grip off me. Lee didn’t budge. Maybe Henry wasn’t actually that strong after all.

“You can’t go looking like that,” Lee told us. “You’d draw more attention to yourselves than if you walked in dressed normally.”

“So you’re letting us do it?” I asked.

“I’m not giving you my explicit consent. But I’m not going to stop you, either. If Sebastian and Bennett end up not being able to find anything we can use, perhaps you two will be able to find something else to work with. Just don’t put yourselves in harm’s way, okay?”

Nodding rigorously, I stood on my toes, wrapping my arm over Henry’s shoulders. “No problem, I can keep Henry safe. Your mother won’t touch a precious hair on his head.”

“You, too. Bennett would kill me if he found out I was allowing you two to do this.”

“What can she do to me?” I challenged, jutting up my chin. It wouldn’t be as simple as pushing me down the stairs. There was no reason for me to protect her. If she tried to injure me in any way, it’d be over for her, especially if we had it on video.

Unconvinced, Lee stared pointedly at the costume Henry was in. “Well, at least change first. That’s a bit obvious.”

In an attempt to hurry back into my room, Henry tripped over my foot with such force that it knocked me off balance and Lee reached out to stable both of us before we could fall. Henry and I grinned sheepishly and Lee closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling slowly.

Ten minutes later we were out the door, the three of us piling into Lee’s Maserati. Apparently, Lee had just remembered some urgent work he had to do, so he was coming with us to the office. Apparently.

The ride gave me enough time to revivify myself. We could do this. Maybe we’d been off to a rocky start, but Henry and I could handle this. We wouldn’t take it lightly. A part of me felt uncertain about placing cameras in Mrs. Calloway’s office. The invasion of privacy felt wrong. But then I remembered she staked cameras all around Bennett’s house and checked in on them whenever she so wanted to and I felt better about it.

Lee parted with us in the hotel lobby. Henry and I made our way to the elevator, heading to the top floor where the offices were. Several guests joined us on the platform and I kept my head down. We were lucky the headquarters weren’t in a separate building like most hotel chains. I could easily blend in with other guests here, at least.

Peering into the hallway on the top floor, I felt some tension leave my body. Not a soul lingered in the halls. Henry and I easily slipped into Mrs. Calloway’s office using Henry’s key.

“Are you sure there’s not cameras in here already?” I asked, scanning the walls and ceiling.

Mrs. Calloway’s office was more unassuming than I’d thought it would be. The far wall had floor to ceiling windows with an expansive view of the city. A mahogany desk sat in front of the windows, with plush armchairs on each side. The left side of the room was taken up by a long glass table and along the opposite wall was the biggest bookshelf I’d ever seen, all the cubicles filled to the brim with books and fake plants and pale decorative vases. There was a door next to the book and I wondered if it was an attached bathroom or something. Other than a filing cabinet nest to her desk, there wasn’t any other furniture or décor.

“Positive. Mrs. Calloway wouldn’t want evidence of whatever she’s doing,” Henry answered me, drawing my attention back to him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she had the room swept for bugs from time to time.”

“You really think she does that?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“You think she’d find ours…?”

Henry bit his lip. “Well, we will just have to go through with our plan as soon as possible.”

“When does she come back from her business trip, again?”

“Tomorrow, but her schedule is full. I’m not sure when you’ll have a chance to get into the office.”

“Maybe a surprise visit would work out better?” I asked, scoping out the perfect place to put the cameras. Would the bookshelf be too obvious? No, it wasn’t like she was expecting us to plant cameras.

Henry picked up a golden pen holder. “The chances of you being able to interrupt her during a meeting are slim. Can you hand me the voice recorder?”

I walked over to him and gave him the pen-shaped spy toy. Even though it was advertised for children, we’d given it a test run and the results were actually quite good. The audio was clear and the design was inconspicuous. “Are you sure we shouldn’t put it on that table? Isn’t that where most of the talking would be done?”

“No. Any useful information we could get wouldn’t be said in front of a crowd of people. The desk is the best place.”

“You know better than I do,” I said, nodding. “I’ll put the recorder by that picture frame on the bookshelf. It’s about the same color.”

“That should work.”

I picked up the picture frame. It held a photo of a very young Bennett and Lee, both dressed up in pristine suits and holding hands. Mrs. Calloway stood off to the side next to them, her eyes burning into the camera. None of them were smiling. I studied it more closely and I realized the photo had been cropped. I could see the slightest bit of a figure standing next to Mrs. Calloway. Was it Bennett and Lee’s father? Why had he been cropped out?

“Where should we put the last one?” Henry asked.

I put the picture frame back down. “Oh, uh. The curtain rod? We can get the widest angle that way. I read online that was a good place.”

“It’ll work.”

“How come no one in the family talks about Bennett and Lee’s dad?” I asked as Henry dragged a chair over to the windows.

He stepped onto the cushion, positioning the camera on the support pole so it wouldn’t be knocked off when opening or closing the curtains. “I actually don’t know too much about Mr. Calloway myself. I try not to bring up sore subjects. Can you open the app and see if this is good?”

I dug out my phone and turned the cameras on. The one on the curtain almost got the entire room. “Wow, not bad for thirty bucks!”

“It’s good?”

“We definitely have everything covered.”

“Good.” Hopping off the chair, he returned it to its position in front of Mrs. Calloway’s desk. “Now let’s get out of here. I’m getting anxious.”

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, I heard the doorknob rattle. Henry froze, the color draining from his face. My heart kicked into overdrive and I bolted toward the door on the other side of the room, snatching the back of Henry’s shirt and yanking him with me. I didn’t have time to feel relieved that the door was unlocked, unceremoniously throwing Henry inside and following after him. We barely managed to fit as apparently the door led to a tiny storage closet.

“I thought she was gone,” I whispered, trying not to move my lips too much. There was barely an inch between Henry and I.

Henry gave me a little shrug, his puppy-dog eyes wide with distress.

I heard the door open and held my breath. Henry gripped the hem of my shirt. My heart beat so hard and loud I swore we would be discovered solely from the sound of it. If it was Mrs. Calloway, we were doomed. Or were we? She wouldn’t know what we were up to. We just had to think of an excuse.

An excuse…

“Take of your shirt,” I hissed.

“What?”

“Just do it.”

He pressed himself further against the closet wall. “No!”

Footsteps came to the closet door. It was too late. Henry squeezed his eyes shut as the door opened.

“Well. What do we have here?”

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