“What the hell?”

“Yup. So, good luck with that when our families, the board, and whoever this sham is supposed to impress see the pictures. You now look like the philandering husband that you are.”

“I am not. Damn it, Mina, what the hell makes you think that I’m cheating on you?”

“Firstly, because you told me from the beginning that you would. You even have a free pass to do so written into our prenup – and that free pass actually included any children you might create with someone else. Then there’s the fact that you haven’t even been home in four days, wait five days now. So, if you weren’t with anyone, then why the need to stay somewhere else every night? Better yet, why did I have to stay at your apartment if you weren’t even there? Wasn’t that the point of me being there so people would think we were living together as husband and wife?”

“Christ, that’s the last time I listen to Wes’s advice. I stayed with him because he thought you might appreciate the time to yourself in the apartment, considering you never wanted any of this. His apartment is the only other one on the floor with mine, so it didn’t appear as though I was staying anywhere else.”

“Funny, because I did guess correctly that you were staying with Wes. I just didn’t know that you were literally across the hall in the other apartment on the floor.”

“I didn’t know that you would care.”

“I don’t. Not really. A head’s up would have been nice. I even wondered if maybe you were just dead somewhere, and your family was waiting on me to tell them that you had gone missing. I never bothered to tell them, of course, because I had no clue where you were, whom you were with, or if you were even in danger.”

He hissed out a string of curse words and they were laced pretty heavily with his best friend’s name as well. “Can we please, agree to talk about all this after the disaster of a family dinner we’re about to have to sit through? I promise we will get on the same page about everything once we’re done so that there are no more miscommunications.”

“Sure. That’s fine, but there’s still the issue of you breaking a promise to me.”

“And what was that?” He asked the question as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

“You weren’t supposed to make me look like a fool who condones the cheating bullshit, and you already managed to screw that up. Now, I either have to get a quick annulment from you or look like a complete and total idiot who believes your lies when you cheat.”

“Just shoot me,” he mumbled. “I told you,” he started to offer up his excuse about his realtor again, but then fell short when I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter what really happened, Tucker. You put yourself in a position where your actions could be called into question. What were you doing sitting in the back seat with that woman while your friend drove you around anyway? Why didn’t you attempt to push her off you until you saw me standing there? Again, why would you even put yourself in a situation where that outcome was even a possibility? And don’t tell me that it was all Cynthia’s fault. She obviously knows something she shouldn’t if she was offering to trade places with me and become your wife instead.”