fire for you?”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go to bed soon.”
Chris didn’t know what to do, what to say. He sat on the end of the couch, not too far but not too close.
“Do you...feel weird about—?” It was as far as Chris made it in his question before Joey’s head dropped to her knees and he heard the unmistakable sound of tears.
“Fuck, Joey, what’s wrong?” He moved in closer, terrified to touch her when she was so clearly upset and yet desperate to be near her.
“I’m sorry.” She choked out the words between soft sobbing breaths. “It’s not you, I swear.”
“What is it?”
She raised her head and rubbed tears off her cheeks on the corner of the blanket.
“It’s really over.”
“What is?”
“Me and Ben.”
“Yeah, I assumed it was.”
“No, you don’t get it. I’ve never cheated on any guy in my life. I wouldn’t. And you and I had sex. And since we did, that means I know it’s over, because I wouldn’t have sex with someone else if it wasn’t. I guess... I guess it just hit me that it’s over over.”
“You want it to be over, right? I mean, he’s married.”
“Yes, I definitely don’t want to date a married man. I don’t. But for two years I didn’t know he was married. For two years he was just my boyfriend. Mine. All mine. I thought.”
“You lost a lot here. You lost your boyfriend and you lost your whole vision of who you thought he was.”
“I’m just so stupid. How could I not know? Of course he was married. He never wanted me to come to LA? Never? Not once? Like what did I think that was about? He thought I’d break up with him because the traffic’s so bad? Seriously—what was I thinking?”
“I dated a girl for two years without meeting her parents. It just never worked out time-wise with our schedules. It wasn’t like she secretly kept her parents chained up in the basement. You just took him at his word. You wanted to believe you were dating an honest man. You wanted to believe the best in someone. That’s not stupid.”
“It feels stupid. It feels like I’m stupid.”
“You aren’t. You’re a good person who got lied to. We all get lied to. My ex cheated on me two months with her new boyfriend before I figured it out.”
“Two months is not two years.”
“But she lied to me, and I believed it. You just dated a really good liar.”
“His poor wife—she must hate me.”
“If she’s a good person, she hates him, not you.”
“Unless he lied to her.”
“That’s not your problem. Their marriage is not your problem.”
“No,” she said softly. “I’ve got my own problems.”
“Work?”
She nodded.
“He’s the VP of Operations at the airline. He’s not my boss but he is a boss. I can’t...but I have to go back. I can’t let him win. He should quit, not me. I shouldn’t be the one who has to give up her job because he lied.”
“Yeah, he should quit. It would be the only honorable thing he could do.” Not for one second did Chris think this asshole Ben would quit his job just so Joey could keep working there with some comfort and dignity. A man like that didn’t know the meaning of the word honor.
“I’m so tempted to call HR on him. You know there’s a rule against bosses dating underlings. We ignored it because he wasn’t my boss, but if I told them, it would get him fired.”
“Do that. Definitely.”
“It would probably also get me fired.”
“Okay, maybe don’t do that. But you should think about, I don’t know...”
“What?”
She looked at him with hope in her eyes. Hope and sorrow and enough of both to break his heart and shut him up. Now was not the time to offer her a new job. Now might be the worst time in the history of all time to offer her a new job.
“You should think about yourself,” he said. “Just take care of yourself while you’re home.”
“I will. Thanks, Chris. You’re the best.”
“Thank you. I know.”
That got a little smile out of her.
“I’m going to go to bed,” she said, sipping her tea before setting the half-drunk mug down on the coffee table.
“Good idea. I’ll just, um, get my boots. Left them upstairs.”
He stood up and she smiled at him. He wanted to touch her, caress her face, her hair, something. But she seemed so distant there on the couch wrapped up in her blanket, her body hidden from him, her face wet with tears.
In the bedroom he pulled on his socks and work boots, found his white T-shirt and underwear. He tossed the condom wrapper and straightened the sheets a little so Joey wouldn’t have to when she came up to bed. With a pang of regret he looked at the bed where not twenty minutes ago he was buried deep inside Joey and they were having the best sex of their lives. At least, it was some of the best sex of his. What he wouldn’t give for a time machine. He’d go back twenty minutes—no, two years—and somehow stop Joey from dating this asshole who’d broken her heart so badly. But that was a childish dream for a grown man. Then again, one dream of his youth had come true tonight. No one could fault him for hoping for another dream come true.
He went back downstairs and Joey was still on the couch. Waiting for him to leave? Probably.
“Hey, I left my number on the nightstand,” he said. “Call me or text me or something. I won’t take it personally if this was, like, just a one-night thing. But I do want to hear from you. Tell me you’re okay or something. Okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Thank you? That’s what he got after such a sexy, beautiful night? Thank you?
“You can tell your friend now that you did what she suggested. Then maybe she’ll get off your back.”
“She will. I’ll tell her I did exactly what she told me to. Too bad it didn’t work.”
“Yeah,” Chris said, forcing himself to smile. “Too bad.”
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