“It’s your couple nickname. Better than Hack, which was Jamie’s suggestion. Honestly, I will never understand how he managed to bag Tiff after everything.”
“Wait, you’ve been talking about me and Zach with Jamie?”
“Yeah—we kind of have a group chat to make it easier to talk to each other.”
“You've gotta be kidding me?” I mutter under my breath.
I close my eyes, shaking my head. Again. Yet again, other people are choosing my life for me.
Dr. Reeves would tell me to set a boundary with Olivia, but what the hell am I supposed to do? The damage is done. I’m on this cruise ship. He’s on it, too. Getting angry at her would only burn down the only functioning relationship I have at this point.
“Was the pregnancy thing even real? Or did you just make that up, so I’d come here alone?”
Silence.
“Liv.”
I hear her take a deep breath. “I mean, technically there is a rule about how far along you can be, but Mike's a lawyer, and we were planning our baby for a while. He checked everything before we booked. I’m technically safe to go, but after thinking about it, I’m not sure it would’ve been right anyway. With all the morning sickness in the first trimester, I don’t want to risk feeling sick the entire time, you know?”
My stomach churns.
“Unbelievable.” I press my palm against my forehead. “So you all conspired to trap me on a cruise ship with my ex-boyfriend, and didn’t bother to give me a heads-up?”
“Well, you wouldn’t have gone if we had.”
“That’s exactly the point.”
“This is so bad.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Itisbad, Liv!”
“Or,” she says hopefully, “it's fate? It's that universe using its mallet again.”
“Did you rehearse this with Zach? He said almost exactly the same thing.”
“We didn’t rehearse, but maybe the fact that we're all saying it means something?”
I let out a long breath, staring at the ceiling. The room sways gently with the ship's movement. My stomach churns again, but there’s no rush to the bathroom, so I must be feeling a little better.
“I can't believe you did this,” I say quietly.
“Really?” Her voice goes soft. “You can’t? You dated Zach—surely you knew it could be a possibility.”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me.
“Madison mentioned the cruise to him, and then when he got the idea in his head, we couldn’t talk him out of it. Believe me, Mike tried, multiple times, but the guy was hell-bent on spending the next two weeks with you.”
It should sound romantic. It doesn’t.
“Did you know he offered us a million dollars for my ticket? A million, Honey.”
“Did you take it?”
“Of course not. We gave it to him for free. Told him it was our wedding gift to you.”
“We’re not—”
