In spite of the situation, she burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, what?”
Behind her, he nodded. “We were… you know, and it wasn’t working for me for obvious reasons.”
“Which were?” A cord of jealousy threaded through her rib cage.
“She wasn’t you?” he said, a grin in his voice. “I felt guilty and awful and sad, and I just blurted it out. ‘Call me cowboy!’？”
Lily bent forward, cackling, surprising herself. “I never even called you cowboy.”
“I know!” He leaned back against her. “It had been so long since I left, and I was desperate to prove to myself that I could still—but God—I mean—that poor woman. She probably told that story to her friends hundreds of times.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” she said, “I barfed on the first guy I was with after you.”
“You were so sad you actually vomited?”
“I was so sad I got hammered, and then vomited.” She paused, realizing what he’d just done. “You distracted me. Cowboy.”
“Gave you a second to calm down.” She felt him lean to the side again. “The meatheads are gone. And we have to figure a way out of these before they come back.” He tugged on his restraints.
It was her turn at serious. “No one knows me the way you do.”
He grew quiet, the air warm and heavy all around them. “Remember that later when you’re trying to tell me why we won’t work out. But first…”
A swarm of anxieties flapped wildly in her chest. She tamped them down to focus. “Right. I have a couple ideas.”
“Such as?”
“If we can push on each other to stand, you can try to break them.”
“Break them? With the strength of my love for freedom?”
She laughed. “Have you never been arrested before?”
“Is that a serious question? I create investment algorithms. I’m usually in bed by nine. In what situation would I have been arrested and restrained with zip ties?”
“Okay, so that’s a no I’m hearing.”
“Have you?” he asked incredulously.
Lily ignored that can of worms and returned to the problem at hand. “It’s easier with your hands in front but still possible from the back. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to break this kind, but you probably are. You bring your arms down with enough force that you snap the restraint near the weakest point.”
There was a long pause with no response. “And the next option?”
“Those two numbnuts didn’t check for the knife in my boot.”
“You have a knife?”
“I forgot about it when I was pissed off and plotting Terry’s redeath,” she told him. “See? It’s good you calmed me down.”
It took more than a few minutes of work, but eventually Leo managed to get on his side facing the right direction and maneuvered his way down so that his hands were near her boots.
“Can you unlace them?” she asked.
“I think so? It feels like I have ten thumbs.” With his hands trapped behind him, he fumbled a lot before he managed to get one boot untied and loosened.
“Okay, I’m going to try and push it off,” she said. “But if you can help?”
“Yeah… okay…”
“But push on that—”
“Can you squish your foot in a little?”
“How the hell do I squish my foot?”
“I don’t know, just—like, try to feel small in your boot.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
With the sun passing its highest point in the sky, they were a sweaty mess by the time they managed to extract her foot enough that the knife fell to the ground. Leo worked to pick it up with his mouth and then grasp it with his hands, and maneuvered his way back up against her.
“Okay,” Lily said, blowing the hair from her damp forehead. She’d barely moved from her spot, but she was exhausted. “Take it out of the sheath, and carefully try to cut my tie.”
Shaking his head, he passed the knife to her. “You do it. Something tells me you’re way more proficient with a knife than I am.”
She took a deep breath before gingerly feeling along the restraints, deciding where to cut, and carefully working her fingers down to the spine of the blade.
“Hold still,” she told him.
He laughed nervously. “Trust me, I’m not going anywhere.”
A few minutes passed of her sawing lightly, checking the progress, trying not to cut him too badly while also trying to keep her fingers from going numb and dropping the knife.