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I scoffed. I didn’t mean to, it just slipped out. “What do you have to explain, Rebekah? I saw you and him, and I know how sex works. You spread your legs and his cock goes in.”
“You don’t need to be so crass, Britta.”
“Let’s not pretend to be holier-than-thou. I don’t need an explanation, and I shouldn’t have to give you one based on what Roman did to you at your wedding.”
Her mouth dropped opened in shock. “What?”
Shit.
She’d just caught Roman and the redhead, but that doesn’t mean she knew about the barrel shed rendezvous.
Crap on a biscuit.
“He told you to ask me so I can only assume he knows I saw them.” I sat back in the chair and exhaled. “I went looking for the toilet while everyone was dancing, and the line-up was twenty deep in the house, so the waitress told me about the barrel shed. As soon as I started walking down one of the aisles, I heard people going at it. When I got closer, I saw the redhead bent over one of the wine barrels and Roman behind her, fucking.”
Tears slipped down Rebekah’s cheeks, and I felt an ounce of guilt like I was the one who had deceived her.
“That asshole,” she finally mouthed after a long silence. “He couldn’t even be faithful on our wedding night?”
Again, I didn’t know what to say. I was the wrong person to be consoling with.
“So,” she started, suddenly perking up. It was such a transformation, and I was caught off guard. “How are you and Hawk?”
I looked at her in confusion. “What... that’s it? You’ve got nothing else to say about Roman?”
“I’ve got plenty to say about him, but I organized this dinner to spend with you and repairing what was broken. I want to know more about you and Hawk.”
She looked to me hopeful, like someone who’d deliver a love story so grand and so perfect, it would help her forget the mess of her own marriage.
“He’s great. You know my family loves him.” It was easy to talk about because it wasn’t a lie.
“Have you organized any of the wedding so far?”
Ahh... this was when the lying really started.
“Um... bits and pieces, nothing set in stone just yet.”
“That’s so great.” She smiled warmly, and I felt it was genuine. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thank you.”
We sat in silence for a while, both pretending to be interested in our food.
It was Rebekah who spoke first. “It didn’t just happen, you know?” I hazarded a guess that she was referring to her and Roman. “It wasn’t meant to happen. I didn’t want to love someone you did.”
“I’m having a tough time believing that, Rebekah.”
“You were always at work, and when you were home you went to bed early. Every time I came to visit, or we were out, you just left me with him, and then one night we just really hit it off. Perhaps we had too much to drink, I don’t remember, but there was a definite spark there between us. And as time went on, that spark ignited into a flame.”
“Sounds poetic,” I said, failing to hide my sarcasm.
“Don’t be like that,” she said as if reprimanding a child.
“So, let me get this straight... because I worked too much, that gave you permission to fuck my fiancé at the time?”
Rebekah shook her head in denial. “I didn’t plan it, Britta. We didn’t plan to fall in love, it just... happened.”
“I can’t help who you fall in love with, Rebekah, but don’t point the finger claiming it was because of me you two fell into each other’s arms. That’s not fair to me... I was the one who was hurt by your actions.”
“I’m sorry, that’s not how I wanted to say it. I guess it was just a tricky situation.”
“I guess so,” I agreed, my nails digging into the wooden armrest.
“So...” I said, wanting to change the direction of the conversation, “... what are you going to do about your new predicament?”
Rebekah swallowed hard, tears brimming her eyes. “I guess, I’ll have the marriage annulled.” She shook her head in frustration. “I’m such an idiot. I was a fool to think he’d changed. They never do. Even when he promised me the world, I should have laughed in his face.”
“Sounds like Roman.” I curled some more pasta around my fork. Now that we got the blame game out of the way, my appetite had returned. Rebekah, however, had pushed her plate of salad to the side.
“I want to try to rebuild what I’ve broken. That is, if you’ll let me?”
“It will be a work in progress, that’s all I can offer right now.”
Rebekah seemed pleased with my response. She probably half expected me to have tipped my wine over her head by now, so by those standards, this was going well. “I can handle that,” she agreed with a smile. “God...” She laughed. “I can’t believe you and Hawk are an item.”
