“The way these things work, I have to be available to anyone who wants to talk or dance with me, including my workers. My parties are their time—when they can let their hair down with the boss. So, while I want you there—I need you to be there—I’ll also need my space.”

I took a few moments to answer. “Like the scene in the cafeteria?”

“Times a hundred.”

“So, what do I do? Sit in a corner by myself and smile?”

“More or less.”

I threw my arms out. “It’s fine, Chris. Do what you need to do. I’m the interloper here.”

“You’re not an interloper—”

“Your whore, then.”

“You are not my whore.” His expression darkened. “You trade places with any of my workers for one day, and you’ll find out exactly what it really means to be a whore. Any one of them would jump at the opportunity to be in your shoes. You were my wife, you will be my wife again, and, in my mind, you have always been my wife, regardless of who you’ve been with. You’re just doing what wives have done for their husbands over the centuries. So stop saying you’re my whore. It’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And stop shining me on!”

“Don’t you dare get mad at me.” I tried to control my anger. “You have a business to run. I won’t get in your way. Besides, I’m used to standing on the sidelines while you party.”

He walked over to me and picked up my chin. “Terry, this is not high school—”

“It is, actually.” I freed my face from his hand. “Except we’re all adults now and I know what to expect from you, which is a lot of sitting in the corner by myself.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“No?” I walked away and began to pace. “God, even in high school, I had a boyfriend, who, by the way, adored me. Maybe I should do that now, Chris. Get my own boyfriend. Maybe Mike Badger. He sure seemed to like me. And since you’re borrowing money from him, I betcha he’s doing fine in the bucks department.”

His voice got low and menacing. “Stop it.”

“Yeah, he is pretty ugly. I could do better—”

“Did you ever screw him?”

Confused, I turned to face him. “Are you kidding me?”

“Not Mike,” he said. “Daniel Reiss. Did you fuck him?”

He was still on my high school boyfriend. “How could you ask that?” I snapped. “You know I was a virgin when I came to you.”

“It could have been your period.”

“It could have been, but it wasn’t. Although maybe it would have been better if I had done it with Daniel. It certainly would have been better circumstances.”

“Cut it out, Terry.”