Where to even begin? “You know how in a romance novel when secrets are spilled, the book gets better?” I sniffed indelicately. “Turns out in real life, you pretty much get the opposite effect.”
“Ohhh, we’re gonna need more cupcakes.” Frannie picked up her phone and punched some buttons. “I’ll have my sweetie Ernie deliver.”
I wasn’t sure there were enough cupcakes in the city to make my problems any better. “I made the mistake of talking to Celeste about Lachlan’s childhood. She did some research, discovered who his biological father is, and she went right to the media.” I accepted a glass of tea from Rosie and unfurled the story that I’d kept wound around my heart all week. I told the ladies everything from Celeste’s betrayal to the moment Lachlan told me goodbye and left his house and me in his rearview mirror. “But it’s okay.” Ever prepared, Hattie handed me a box of tissues, which I used with a loud series of blows. “Because now I can get back on track with my timeline. I still have two years before I’m supposed to fall in love and etch out a little time from my bustling career to dedicate to a relationship.” My nose continued to run as the tears returned. “Not that I have a job to sacrifice or anything.”
Oh, gosh, my life was a toilet bowl, and I now swam circles in its murky depths.
“Everything is terrible, girls.” I held up my glass for a refill. “Lachlan answers my texts, but they’re all ridiculously polite and impersonal.”
“Have you tried sexting?” Frannie chewed a large bite of cupcake. “Worked for me and Ernie. Would you like some pointers?”
Ew. “No, but thank you.”
“Offer doesn’t expire, dear.”
I grabbed a pillow and hugged it to my chest. “I have no job prospects, and my husband just left me.”
“But you’ll see Lachlan at the movie premiere, right?” Hattie asked.
I swung my legs over the side of the couch, my unused muscles numb and tingling—much like my heart. How did I explain the premiere—that it was just the final job in an agreement made by two desperate people who’d been victimized in Vegas? “Lachlan doesn’t want me there.”
“You’re still his wife,” Hattie said. “Olivia, this doesn’t have to be the end of you two. So you had one big fight, that doesn’t—”
“We didn’t really fight,” I told her. “I wish he would’ve gotten mad, but he didn’t. Lachlan was very calm and kind about the fact that my boss let the world know who his father is, even when he thought I was responsible.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Hattie asked.
The problem was that Lachlan thought I didn’t love him, but how did I explain that to my family? “So many people have let Lachlan down in his life. Now he thinks I’m one of them.”
“But if your marriage can’t survive one hiccup,” Rosie said, “then something’s incredibly wrong. Marriage is something you fight for. Love is too important to walk away that easily. Maybe he’s running scared.”
I was going to have to tell them, wasn’t I? I’d kept it to myself long enough and the lie of my fake marriage had weighed me down ever since we’d left Vegas. “I have something else you should probably hear.”
“Wait.” Frannie pulled a piping bag of icing from her coat pocket and squirted it directly into her mouth. “Okay. I’m ready.”
I’d disappointed so many people lately, what was four more? I couldn’t sink any lower. These people were my family andhadto love me no matter what. “Lachlan and I didn’t mean to get married. I’d never dated him and our relationship wasn’t real.”
A dog barked somewhere outside.
The heater kicked on and hummed a monotone tune.
The TV screen stared back at me in a paused tableau.
Finally Sylvie spoke first, her voice dry as the magnolia leaves in the backyard. “What? No way.”
“I’m so incredibly shocked,” Hattie drolled.
Rosie considered her manicure and matched Hattie’s flatlined tone. “But you two were so convincing.”
“Nobody’s ever fooled me like you two.” Frannie squeezed out more icing. “Such acting skills. You should be an actress. Or join the CIA.”
I sat up straighter, my back cramping with the effort. “You guys knew?”
“Do you think we’re completely crazy?” Sylvie held up her hands. “Don’t answer that. But yes, we knew.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because we got a front row seat to a romance novel in real time,” Rosie said. “Two opposites. Enemies to lovers. A tumultuous past. Forced proximity. You two have it all.”
