“You okay?” My eyes open to see Sean standing opposite me, his hands on the counter, his expression as open as it is nonjudgmental.
“What do people usually say when the answer is no but they don’t want tosayno?” I ask.
“Not that.”
I chuckle and then sigh. “You know the old cliché of a girl finding out that her fiancé is having an affair days before the wedding?”
Sean’s demeanor shifts in an instant. The muscles all over his body seem to go on high alert. Tendons pop out in his forearms when he balls his hands into fists. Veins pop out in his neck. Even his beard shifts when he flexes his jaw. It’s somenacing. “Is that what happened to you?”
“Only in my dreams.”
His head snaps back. “You’re saying youwishhe’d cheated?”
“Not in so many words.”
Sean laughs to himself. “Sounds like you’re looking for a reason to leave him.”
I shrug my thin shoulders.
He pours someone a drink but manages to keep talking to me. “The way I see it, wishing you had a reason to leave him is all the reason you need.”
I lean forward. The bass of the dance song playing over the speakers thumps hard in my heart. “We make so much sense on paper.”
“That’s a relief for future readers, I guess. Not sure it works too well for you, though.”
I laugh. “That’s a clever way of putting it.”
“What do you want to happen?” Sean asks.
“That wasn’t clear from my wish? You’d make a terrible genie.”
Sean’s mouth spreads in a wry smile. “Let me rephrase: what are you going tomakehappen?”
It’s at that moment I turn my head and spot Aldridge staring at me.
How long has he been watching me? I stifle a groan. “I guess we’ll find out,” I say, because Aldridge is making his way over.
Plenty of women stare at him as he saunters toward me. He’s a beautiful man, and he knows how to captivate a room. If only I’d realized before we got engaged that he doesn’t captivateme.
“Good luck,” Sean says quietly moments before Aldridge holds his hand out to me.
I put my hand in his but turn back to Sean. “Thanks for the chat.”
Sean holds Tripp’s club soda toward me in salute. And, if I’m not mistaken, in support.
Aldridge leads me to the dance floor, and soon, we’re dancing to a pretty slow song about a woman who doesn’t want to live with regret.
It’s a littleon the nosefor my taste.
“Did you two have a good talk?” Aldridge asks. His lips are near my ear, and I feel like it should make me shiver, not itch.
“The bartender?” I ask. Does he think something was going on there?
Because there absolutely was. Nothing flirty or untoward, but I told the guy I wished my fiancé would cheat on me so I could get out of marrying him! That’s some top shelf bartender therapy.
“No, Tripp,” Aldridge says.
“Yes, catching up with him was nice. He and Jane seem so happy together.”
