My eyelids fluttered, I was about to fall asleep. Have you ever had that feeling where you try to fight sleep and it slowly overtakes you? I strained to keep my eyes open.

Tom tossed me one of his ice-packs. “Remember, everything that happened tonight was for the ruse. This should help stop the swelling. But I will torment you until you answer one very important question.”

“What’s … that?” I asked, slowly fading.

“When did you and Mendez become the Hilton twins of pickpocketing? Have you been moonlighting for a while? Are you going on tour?”

Jolted awake: “Ihavetotellyousomething!”

“Go for it, Micro-Machines guy!” Tom chided.

“Mendez has a life-sized, quite crudely painted portrait of Jodi that he takes everywhere he goes!”

The genesis of a belly laugh is fascinating. It started in his eyes. Spread through the lines of his face. Before we knew it, we were laughing so hard I completely forgot that I would wake up with a headache and a black eye that would make me look like Spuds Mackenzie.