"I can't say you sounded like my dad, but you sure sounded like somebody's dad," Ashley said after Christopher finished the phone call.

He stood, and the girls did the same.

"Right. Let's go upstairs and I'll take you to the guest rooms."

Back upstairs, a grand staircase led to a third floor. Like the main floor, the third floor could've been another house entirely. Three different hallways led away from the loft landing at the top of the stairs, with four doors in each hallway. Twelve rooms. It was a ridiculous extravagance for a bachelor, or even a family of six.

"Some of these are closets, and bathrooms," Christopher said, reading Ashley's mind.

He walked down the middle hallway and opened up the second door. "You can sleep in here, Ashley. The door on the left is the bathroom."

Across the hall, he opened a third door and gestured inside. "This other door is where you'll find towels, blankets."

Juniper cleared her throat. "Uh, that's a bathroom."

Christopher looked in the open door and then shut it. "I knew that." He opened another door. "This is the closet---damnit." Inside was a bedroom. "Nevermind. You'll find the towels you need, somewhere."

Ashley bit her cheek to keep from laughing. Her host seemed nervous, and not a person to laugh along with his mistakes.

"I'll be fine, thank you."

"Okay." He tripped over his feet as he walked away, and made a bad attempt at playing it off. "June?"

"I uh, I'm gonna sleep up here." Juniper sounded as if there were cotton in her throat.

"Oh, I knew that. I only, um, I only meant, I thought, that you wanted to talk." Christopher's sentence came to a thankful halt.

"No, I'm tired. I'm gonna go to sleep, if that's all right with you."

"Of course. That's fine. We can talk tomorrow." There was something more they both wanted to say, but neither of them said it.

Ashley wanted to know "Why don't you sleep in a room up here?'

"The master suite is actually on the main floor." He said it as if it was a real answer, and not an evasion.

"Okay, why don't you sleep there, then?"

One foot hovered on the stairs. Slowly, he said, "Down in the basement, it reminds me of my college apartment. I can work uninterrupted and I forget I'm in this big house. I forget---," He stopped, and quickly added, "I like it downstairs."

Christopher went down the stairs. After the basement door opened and closed, the girls walked to their separate rooms. Ashley glanced at her watch. Five a.m. She should have been exhausted, but she wasn't. She was bursting with more questions.

"Why are you helping me?"

Juniper didn't face her.

"Because Christopher helped me, and now it's my turn to pay it back."

It wasn't a good enough answer, but after all, it was five a.m. Ashley dropped her other questions. Did it matter why Juniper had helped her, and was continuing to help her? She was lucky anyone was helping her at all.

They went into their separate guest suites, closing the doors behind them.

~*~

Ashley put her new wallet with her new life in it on the nightstand. She stared at the birth date on the ID card over and over, but the date wouldn't stick. If someone asked her for the date off-hand, she would fudge it up. I'll be fine, she lied to herself.

In a large oak dresser, she found sweat pants and sleep shirts. Ashley wondered what other clothes might be in the suite.

The closet was a playground of colors and designs. One side held frilly, silky, flowy clothing while on other hung suits, jackets, and ties. The closet was outfitted for either a man or a woman. Christopher was thorough in his wealth, at least when it came to guest rooms.

A closet full of new clothes didn't hold the allure it would have the day before. The world was different, and clothes were of minimal consequence for Ashley. She stared at the clothes, seeing little more than rags on hangers. She shut the door without another thought.

Suddenly, she had an overwhelming urge to leave. Ashley's stomach heaved, and she clutched at it with both arms. She was empty, and she was in a strange house with very strange people. It's only for a night. And you have no other choice.

Her inner adult was full of wisdom, but her lack of knowledge about her saviors made her uneasy; Juniper was a prostitute, and Christopher was a rich computer tech with no worries about printing false identification papers for strangers. Other details made Ashley less apprehensive about the two, like Juniper's intelligence, bravery, and willingness to help a person in need. There was also the matter of Christopher's demeanor. He was shy and kind, and more than handsome when he smiled. In truth, Ashley had a small crush on the man.

The anxiety that had crippled her diminished.  She yawned, and remembered what time it was. The nightstand read 5:30. Time for sleep.

She got into the queen-sized bed, luxuriously lost in a down comforter. This was a bedroom that she could trust to use the sheets under the comforter. Ashley pulled the blankets on and fell asleep as soon as her eyes were closed.