Kate meets them after she gets out of the bank, the toy plane safe in her purse. Her heels clack steadily on the sidewalk; she keeps her head down, she tries to straighten her hair a bit. She needs to get back to the hotel, change and flee as fast as possible, before someone notices her.

No one notices her because suddenly she hears a police car, but as she freezes on the spot, it passes her at full speed; fine, it’s the same direction she needs to take, but that’s alright. It looks like something worse than such a lame robbery as the one she just pulled out has happened. She keeps on walking; a couple of minutes after, she’s a block or two from where a couple of police cars are parked. In front of a bank.

She turns a corner and sees a man and a woman carrying two heavy bags getting into a car; he’s blond, tall, wears jeans and sunglasses while she’s slightly shorter, brown chestnut hair, dressed obviously with his clothes since her shirt is cut for a man and is at least two sizes too large for her. The woman notices her and gasps, but Kate shakes her head and turns the other way; she finds herself face to face with a cop.

“Hello, miss. Could I ask you some information?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

As long as he doesn’t know who she is, she can fake alright.

“We’re searching for a couple, man and woman, he’s tall and blond, she’s normal height, chestnut brown, dressed in flannel shirts, huge bags, red car. You seen them around?”

“No,” she answers calmly after clearing her throat, “sorry but I didn’t.”

“That’s fine. Thanks for your help and sorry. Would you mind turning from that corner? We’re closing the area. They robbed the bank up there.”

“I see. Sure, no problem.”

The policeman turns back and leaves; she takes the long road back to the hotel and changes in the bathroom. She puts on an old pair of jeans, her Janis Joplin t-shirt, her baseball cap. She knows she should do something for her hair, but for now she’ll just think about getting out of town. She’ll take care of the hair after.

She walks for a while, her backpack on her shoulders and a bag in her hand; it’s not a big city and soon she’s hitchhiking, just out of the edge of town.

She doesn’t feel too surprised when a red car pulls over. She comes closer, on the passenger side; the window lovers and the brunette from this afternoon looks straight at Kate. Her eyes are the same shade of the hair, her face has quite a lovely shape, her lips are red and she looks pretty amused.

“Look who’s searching for a ride.”

The man puts a hand over her shoulder and Kate’s eyes suddenly meet a pair of piercing green ones and pale lips curled up in a smug smile, a dimple showing in the corner of his cheek; and then he speaks, his voice warm and his accent thick and just the tone she’d have expected for him to have.

“Oh, this afternoon’s girl. Well, well, looks like we owe you somethin’.”

“You don’t owe me nothing. You just need to decide whether to give me a ride or not.”

“That’s some spirit. Well, well, depends. You decide. This here’s miss Cassidy Phillips. I’m Sawyer Ford. We rob banks.”

”What a coincidence. I’m… Bonnie Parker and this afternoon I robbed a bank, too. Pleased to meet you.”

They both laugh at the same time and he shakes his head as his hands grip the wheel.

“Figures you wouldn’t wanna give your real name. Well, with such a fine choice, I’d say you got the ride. Where you goin’?”

“Wherever you are. I just wanted to get out of there.”

“Come on,” Cassidy says, “get in before someone catches all three of us.”

Kate nods and gets in the back seat. She puts the backpack and the bag in the other side as Sawyer starts the car again.

“Hey, miss Parker?”

“Yeah?”

“How much did you steal?”

“I didn’t steal money. It was something else. It has a personal value.”

He chuckles and suddenly Cassidy lightly slaps his arm.

“Don’t laugh. You can’t say a thing after that time where you held up a failed bank and got one hundred dollars.”

“Oh, cut me slack.”

Cassidy’s hand stays on his wrist for a second or two and Kate doesn’t ask them where they’re going.

--

“How did you two end up together?” Kate asks three hours later when they stopped at a gas station and he’s gone to have a coffee and presumably a trip to the bathroom.

“He was a con man. I was rich. He tried to con me once and instead of telling him to fuck off I asked him to teach me. Then I found out he did it on purpose in order to actually con me out of my money. Only, looks like he couldn’t do it in the end. And the guy he owed money was searching for him. And so I paid the guy with my money and didn’t have much left.”

“And you stuck with him and you rob banks.”

“Well, you rob banks, too.”

“Just once.”

“Doesn’t matter. I guess it wasn’t the only reason for which you didn’t speak with the cop, right?”

“Maybe it wasn’t.”

“Then you did something else?”

“I might have.”

Cassidy nods and turns back on her seat, looking ahead.

“You don’t want to know what?”

“I don’t think you would tell me anyway.”

And she’s right, Kate wouldn’t. Then Sawyer is back and the conversation is over.

--

The motel they stop at isn’t anything special; clean enough, cheap enough even if she figures they could afford better; still, it’s stolen money.

It’s late in the night when someone knocks on her door. She opens it and Sawyer is in front of her, dimples flashing, clearly just back from a shower; his hair is still damp.

“So, you like the place?”

“I’ve been in nicer ones. And worse ones.”

“Surely you have. So, Bonnie, you have an idea of what you’re doin’ tomorrow?”

“I don’t. I usually… never have a destination.”

“Ain’t that just interesting. Well, we’re leavin’. And we were both wonderin’ if you were up for robbing another bank.”

“And now why should I go and do that?”

“’Cause you’re already on the run and not for a bank robbery. Can see that from a mile away. You ain’t got much to lose and you don’t have a thing to do.”

“Really. And you’d bring me just like that?”

“Well, we’re more than happy to give you another ride, Freckles, if you’re up for it.”

He winks at her and then moves a bit forward, cups her face in his hand and kisses her slowly, without pushing or being insistent but making his intentions very clear. Then he closes the door. Kate’s hand stays put on the handle.

--

Later that night, Cassidy knocks. When Kate opens the door, Cassidy mirrors Sawyer’s actions from three hours before. Kate doesn’t really think about it and reciprocates the kiss; then she realizes that Cassidy didn’t come alone.

Even later that night, the bed is undone, the sheets rumpled, Kate tastes coffee and smoke on Sawyer’s tongue and at the same moment she shivers because of the way Cassidy’s fingers bend inside her; she lays on the bed, head turned, watching them as Sawyer makes love to her with a tenderness she wouldn’t have expected, touching her with something close to reverence as her hips meet his thrusts. Kate already came before, Cassidy did know how to bend those fingers indeed, and just stares at them, her mouth slightly open, her lips wet. They kiss when it’s over and then bend over and they both kiss her, too.

In the darkness and stillness, he asks her whether she wants to accept that ride. She says yes. Cassidy then says that at least she could say her true name; she figures it’d be ridiculous at this point and they wouldn’t turn her in anyway and so Kate tells her.

--

“Well, you’re good at this robbing banks business,” Kate tells Sawyer as the car speeds away and Cassidy sits in the back, checking the money.

“I ain’t good. I’m the best.”

“See, and he’s modest, too,” Cassidy remarks from behind. But then she puts her hand on the back of the driver’s seat and he squeezes it quickly before putting it back on the wheel.

--

“Maybe I should go,” Kate says one day, after two months of bank robberies. Cassidy shakes her head at her and Sawyer shrugs.

“You can go back wherever you like, Freckles, but you’re worth more than just running as you do. Hey, you’re pretty good at what we do. Wouldn’t make a damn to the police, I guess.”

“But it does mean a damn to us,” Cassidy whispers, and he nods.

“Why?” Kate asks, feeling suddenly uncomfortable and unable to come up with an answer.

“’Cause I’m sure you want different things and someone’s gonna catch you sooner or later. I’d say you listen to me. And to her.”

Kate listens to him. She doesn’t go yet, even if she’s suddenly terrified.

--

“I think we should change state,” Cassidy says sometime after. “We’re becoming too much of local celebrities for my tastes.”

“Why’s that?” Sawyer asks, and she shrugs and pulls a magazine out of her purse; on the cover, there are their mug shots and the headline says the Bonnie and Bonnie and Clyde of Yuma county, Arizona.

“Geez. That’s the worst headline ever. Though hey, Freckles, looks like you chose the right fake name, back then. Well, guess we should have changes state way before. So, Freckles, you’re stayin’ or you’re goin’?”

“Where?”

“Well, outta here, first. Then, who knows. We’ll see. Banks are everywhere.”

“So we’re just going?”

“Yeah, we’re just going,” Cassidy says then. And Kate weights her options and puts each hand on the back of each seat and figures that at this point she really should just let things be. If she’s caught alone or with them, she tells herself, won’t make much of a difference.

“Fine. Then just start this thing.”

“Hey, Freckles, this isn’t a thing! This is a four cylinder Ford Coupe!”

“You’re wrong,” Cassidy suddenly remarks.

“Sure it is, what the hell’s wrong with you?”

“It’s a stolen four cylinder Ford Coupe. Just get her started, won’t you?”

He smiles, his face looking strangely angelic bathed in the warm sunlight; Kate just smiles and looks at the road passing by on her side. She doesn’t think that Bonnie and Bonnie and Clyde sounded too bad, after all.

End.