Page 67 of The Awful Truth

She froze on the spot before turning to him.

“We need to talk, now,” he hissed. Gesturing to the library, he opened the door and waited for her to come in. They stood in the dark room, lit only by the light of a nearly-full moon. When Ted tried to speak, he let out a strangled sound from his throat. Fuck. Get it together, man. “Did you read the email all the way through?”

“Umm…yup.”

He took a breath and reminded himself he needed to take control of the situation or they’d both end up getting burned. “I don’t know what happened, but clearly she knows everything, right?”

She nodded. “Listen, I don’t think we should be caught together.”

“Why? She’s already got everything in place to ruin me. What more can she do?”

Charlotte fidgeted a little, looking suddenly much younger than her twenty-eight years. “I have no idea, but I’m sure she’d think of something. She’s got everything we sent each other.”

“What do you mean, everything? What did you keep?”

“All of it.”

His body went numb and his knees went weak, but he forced himself to stay put. “What do you mean, all of it? All the pictures? The…dick pics? Tell me you deleted the dick pics.”

An image of a particularly nasty photo he sent her popped into his mind. He was standing in his studio office, with his awards and books behind him, letting it all hang out. He had been really pissed off at Antonia that day, and at the time, it felt like an act of defiance to stand there in front of symbols of the empire they were building together, pants down, shirt pulled up, hard as a rock. But now, that picture would become evidence in a divorce hearing and he would look like the world’s biggest jackass.

She shrugged. “I like looking at them. Especially when we can’t be together.”

“Oh fuck,” he whispered, letting his shoulders drop.

This was so much worse than he thought it was. Why didn’t she seem more upset? She should be crying right now. Panicking like him. But she was far too calm. He stood, squinting at her in the dark, trying to understand what was going on. Then it hit him. Charlotte didn’t seem surprised because she wasn’t. “She already told you.”

When she didn’t respond, Ted put his hands on her upper arms and rubbed them gently. “Sweetheart, what happened? You can tell me anything. We’re in this together.”

He felt her stiffen against his touch and he knew the sand had shifted under his feet. His voice cracked. “Aren’t we? Aren’t we in this together, babe?”

Charlotte let out a tiny groan. “I…I don’t know right now. It’s all so complicated. I think she wants to ruin you, and if that happens, I’m going to go down with you, and everyone will hate us. I’ll be a joke. And I just can’t do that. I’m not strong that way. I can’t be a joke for the rest of my life.”

He pulled her into his chest and pressed his lips to her forehead. “You’re not a joke. I screwed up, but I promise if we stick together, we’ll get through this, and the future will be bright for us.” He took a long inhale, the scent of her soothing his raw nerves. “It’ll be hard, sure, but it’s not like she can go public with any of this. She wouldn’t do that to our kids or to herself. She’ll look like a total fool.”

Charlotte pulled back and stared up at him in the dark. “Honestly, Ted, I don’t think she cares.”

11:28 P.M.

TED

Ted took a deep breath, then unlocked the door to their suite, knowing his wife would be in there waiting. He found her sitting at the desk, her laptop open in front of her. She looked up at him with no expression. “I’ve been catching up on some work. I was just mulling over how to best help the guests on our next episode—"My Husband the Pastor is Sleeping With my Hairdresser.” Honestly, we’re getting seedier by the season. Anyway, in reading over their questionnaires, it seems as though he’s ready to change, but I’m not sure it’s really in her best interest to take him back. I don’t know what it would do to her sense of self-worth, especially given that the other woman was someone she counted as a friend and confidant.”

She was taking control of the conversation. He stared at her, not having the first clue of how to respond. “Toni, I⁠—”

Cutting him off, she continued. “It’s getting so boring, isn’t it? Every episode the same. And these men are all so cliché. So basic, as the kids like to say these days. Middle-aged man sticking his dick in a younger woman. And he’s supposed to be this paragon of society—a pastor. He should really be above such tawdry behavior, shouldn’t he? I mean, he’s supposedly intelligent. He’s got his PhD in Religious Studies, for God’s sake. You’d think these cheaters could at least try to be a little more creative, and maybe, I don’t know, screw an older woman for once.” She clicked her teeth. “So disappointingly common. Embarrassing, really. The way men—even supposedly smart ones—are led around by their dicks. Appalling.”

He shut his eyes, knowing his best bet was to let her finish her speech.

Her tone changed from chatty to charged. “Pathetic.”

When he stayed quiet, she went on. “Asinine. Cretinous. Risking his marriage, his family, his reputation and—well, let’s face it—his livelihood on a piece of ass. You’d think men would have evolved past their primal sexual urges by now,” she said. “But apparently not. Although, it’s better for people in our profession that they haven’t. And they won’t. Cha-ching.”

“Toni, I’m sorry, okay? I’ve never felt worse about anything in my life,” he told her, taking a couple of steps toward her. “I never meant to hurt you. I swear. It just⁠—”

“Oh, don’t say happened. That’s what every man says, and we both know it’s a bald-faced lie. There’s always a shitty, selfish reason. And we’re not talking about one drunken night. We’re talking about months and months and months of lying and pretending to be out at baseball games when really you were with her, making her promises you can’t keep about a future you can’t have.”

“That’s not true. I never promised⁠—”