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I heard his car drive away as I headed up the side path and down the stairs to Luna’s door. I knocked, and waited.
There was no answer, but Luna’s car was in the driveway. The curtains in the tiny window next to the door moved. Probably not the wind.
I knocked again. Still nothing.
I sent Luna a text.Please talk to me.
I’m not home, she replied.
The exchange would have made me smile if I weren’t so stressed.I didn’t say I was at your apartment. Please let me in. I’ll explain.
You don’t have to explain to me who you love.
As I read Luna’s reply, I heard the deadboltthunk. The door opened, but there was no Luna. I stepped inside.
“Congratulations.” Luna’s flat tone startled me. She swung the door shut behind me. “I would have gotten you a wedding present if you’d ever even bothered to mention you were dating him, let alone in love enough to get married. But I’m sure your boyfriend—husband—will shower you with all sorts of gifts.”
“It’s not real.” Goddess it felt good to say that. I turned to find Luna standing with her back to the door and her arms crossed.
Her frown deepened. “What’s not?”
“You have to promise not to tell anyone, and please don’t be mad at me. Please.” The day’s stress weighed me down and made my voice crack.
Luna’s expression softened. “I promise I won’t tell anyone, and I won’t be mad.” Her tone was kind. “What’s not real?”
I collapsed on the couch. “This all stays between us.”
“Always.”
I didn’t know how far back to go. Too much had happened since that first charity dinner, leaving a smear in my memory. “So... Ramsey and Hunter are a couple, and they don’t want anyone to know, because Hunter’s dad doesn’t know he’s gay—bi? Pan?—and Ramsey and I were going to try dating too, not exclusive, cuz of the whole Hunter thing, and all three of us were good with it. And then last night we had way too many free drinks and decided it would be a lot easier to keep all of our secrets if Hunter and I got married and the news got leaked and now we have to figure out how to do damage control and end this thing without too many people getting hurt and Goddess, I amneverdrinking again.”
Luna studied me with sympathy. “It’s my fault, isn’t it?”
“What?No.How would this be your fault?”
“Ramsey told you what he did for me, and he forced you to do this in return?”
Apparently my day could get more fucked-up. “What did Ramsey do for you?”
“Oh.”
Not the answer I wanted. “Luna?”
She perched on the arm of the couch, feet on the cushion next to me, and stared at her fingers. “I don’t know for certain it was him, but I don’t know who else it could have been, so I always assumed he did it to win you back.”
“Luna?” Had I missed the Alice-in-Wonderland-styleDrink Melabel on those drinks last night?
“Remember when I was arrested, and my plea bargain and sentence were so much more lenient than we expected?”
Pieces were clicking for me. “Yeah...”
“My public defender and the ADA implied they’d heard from a friend that I wasn’t a risk. They recommended the judge go light on me. That happened two days after you broke up with Ramsey and was exactly the opposite of what I’d been threatened with up to that point.”
“You never told me.”
Luna finally met my gaze. “I figured you knew. Why would Ramsey do that unless he was using it to win you back?”
I didn’t know. Unless he really did it just to help Luna.
