“What...” Her voice was strangled and foreign to her own ears. “...what have you done, Derek?”

He heaved a tired sigh and hung his head. “Okay, so what do you want to do?”

Antonia frowned as she wiped tears from her face. “What?”

Derek raised his gaze to hers, his brow arched. “I’m saying, what do you want to do, Toni?” He tightened the towel at his waist and leaned against the doorframe, staring her down with an expression that Antonia didn’t recognize. Complete apathy? “Do you want to talk about how you feel and then have dinner or do you want to have dinner and talk about it when we’re home?”

Her mouth fell open. “You still expect us to go to dinner?”

“Mom made the reservations last week.”

His indifference was bewildering. “You’re cheating on me, Derek. We’re getting married in four days and you’re talking about dinner? What is wrong with you?” Her voice grew shrill. “Who is Naomi? How long has this been going on?”

Derek straightened up and sauntered to where she stood. In an eerily calm manner, he took her by the shoulders and peered down at her. Antonia was horrified by the ease he took in approaching her. With his thumbs, he lightly kneaded the muscles of her arms, pulling her close to his damp body. “Babe, you don’t have to worry about her. That’s over.”

Antonia’s blouse was getting wet against his chest. Her hands were clenched in fists at either side of her body, as she shook violently. She was terrified of what she might do in that moment. A quiet rage boiled in her chest, threatening to spill out and destroy something or someone. “Get. Your. Hands. Off of me,” she said through clenched teeth.

Derek stepped back slightly, holding his hands up. “Okay, so you want to talk now. Naomi was a temp who used to work at the office. She came on to me. The whole thing was just physical, just meaningless sex. I don’t love her at all. In fact,” he added, “I was trying to break it off with her. I told her that I was really serious about you. You’re going to be my wife, after all.”

As Antonia stood and listened to Derek list every excuse in the book, her mind returned to her phone call with her mother. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Her face finally crumpled into a sob, hot tears spilled down her cheeks as she stared at the man she loved. In the blink of an eye, her world had taken a hard left turn.

“Toni, if you start crying, your face is going to get all puffy,” he said reaching out to wipe her face.

She slapped his hand away and threw his phone on the bed. “Don’t,” she snapped. “Don’t do any of that slimy shit you do with your clients. You’re not going to talk your way out of this and I’m not going to have dinner with your horrible parents. The wedding is off, Derek.”