“Oookaaay,” I drew the word out, wondering where this was going.

“I posted it on my Facebook and tagged the reporter. Then I posted it in the comments under his blog too. Every time he takes the link down, someone else posts it back up.” She laughed then. “He has to retract his story now, because everyone knows that the way he portrayed his talk with you wasn’t accurate.” She grinned even wider as she told me the next part. “My video went viral, and everyone loves what you had to say about marriage, and how you never stop having to relearn who your partner is, or else that’s when things could possibly go wrong.”

She held her phone out and showed me. I read through a few of the comments, and surprisingly they were all positive, except a couple who referenced the original post and the lying reporter. I use the term reporter loosely too, obviously he wasn’t after the truth which just made him tabloid trash.

I cringed at my last thought, because if I were being honest, the man had been on to something. He had stumbled on the truth sure enough. Tucker and I had a fake marriage to start. Maybe our relationship would bloom from that, then again, it could be that my husband was just trying to placate me until it was convenient to end things without drawing attention to the fact that we’d faked it.

I handed the girl her phone back. “Thank you for posting what I really said. I appreciate it.”

“Oh, it was no problem. I used to date a football player and people said horrible things about me all the time, especially after it came out that he had cheated.” The brilliant smile that had graced her face moments ago dimmed down to nothing more than a blank mask, one I was all too familiar with wearing. She glanced back at me. “We have to stick together where we can and make things right. It sucks that a man can cheat on you and yet people say horrible things about you instead of him,” she lamented. “Your situation was similar, and I didn’t think it was okay that some people believed what was written by that asshole.”

“Thank you again. Most people would have just ignored it and let me look like a laughingstock instead.”

“I know,” she mumbled.

I patted her shoulder. “Sorry to hear your ex-boyfriend was a jerk.”

“No, I mean I know about what happened to you. He bragged about it once, but I didn’t think it could possibly be true.” My heartbeat accelerated and I felt too hot, my skin too tight as she spoke. “I knew who you were because he had pointed you out before. Said you were the reason that he had to live in the dorm and couldn’t live in the football house.” She shook her head. “When I found out why, it was right before I found him cheating. I swear, I wouldn’t have stayed with him if I’d known. I’m sorry for what happened to you. Today, I was just happy that I could help you. I know it doesn’t make things right, but I’m glad I could…”