We needed to get it out in the open. Although I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forgive him again if he still acted the same or defended the version I’d first met.

“Sure. Start talking.”

I waited.

And waited some more.

But Joseph only sat there, staring at me.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You could start with telling me you’re sorry. Did it ever cross your mind to apologize?”

Rearing back, he swallowed a laugh before launching into some diatribe. “Me? Apologize to you? You’re the one who wanted to burn off my manhood. You should be apologizing to me!”

“I wanted to burn off your manhood? I wanted to?” I stopped short, my anger grabbing hold of me. I hated that it felt like we’d just taken a million steps backward. “You were the one waving a lighter at your nuts that night. Not me. I took the lighter from you before you lit your damn pants on fire,” I said.

He looked at me like I was a complete lying psychopath instead of the honest-to-God truth-teller that I was being.

“Why the hell would I ever do that?”

“Because you were being a jerk. You said that I was too pretty to be a surgeon. You asked me if I was sure I didn’t want to be a trophy wife instead. You were insulting and degrading, and you wouldn’t stop.”

Joseph looked like I’d struck him. He was clearly processing what I had told him, but he couldn’t seem to wrap his head around it. “How did that turn into a lighter pointed at my balls?”

“You asked me what specialty I was declaring. When I told you that I wanted to work in the burn unit, you grabbed a lighter and threatened to set your dick on fire to see how good I would be at fixing it.”

“What?” He started laughing, which turned into choking, and before I knew it, Joseph was punching his chest with his fist.

“You were really drunk. But you were still an ass.”

“Are you lying right now?” he asked through his laughter, which in turn made me start laughing too.

“No. Why would I lie about this?”

“Because it’s ridiculous. And as far as I know, I’ve never behaved like that before.”

“Like I said, you were really drunk.”

“All this time, I thought you’d threatened to light my dick on fire for no reason.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that sounds sane.”

“That’s my whole point!” he shouted before slamming a fist on the table.

He flipped his palm over and wagged his fingers at me, wanting me to put my hand in his. I did as he’d asked.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I said those things to you. There’s no excuse for it. And I have no idea why I would ever act like that to you. I didn’t mean it.”

“I know that now,” I said because I did.

Joseph didn’t look at me like I was unworthy of being a surgeon or like I should spend my time being a doting wife for some dickhole. He looked at me with pride in his eyes. And I liked it. Way, way, way too much.