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She didn’t say it, but she needed a strong drink. She felt like she was going to jump out of her skin any minute. Guilt and fear of losing her marriage had her mind racing to find anything to talk about that would avoid her husband asking why he couldn’t reach her earlier today.
I suck at lying.
“This sure beats last Friday night’s Denny’s dinner,” she teased, trying to keep things light between them.
“If you didn’t like Denny’s, you shouldn’t have picked it,” he pointed out, grabbing a slice of the heavenly Italian bread they served at Hugo’s.
“Yeah, well…” Brianna could hear Tiffany’s voice in her ear, egging her on. “Maybe I just wanted you to pick the restaurant for us.”
Markus finished his bite before defensively adding, “I just wanted you to pick a place that would make you happy.”
Of course, he did. He always wanted her to be happy. Just like she got to pick the TV shows they watched. She decided on their menu at home. And what clothes she wore. And what to buy for the house. Where they vacationed. Brianna chided herself silently. She was the luckiest woman on the planet. Most women loved having control over everything in their life. She should just be happy and stop needing more.
“What?” Markus prompted when she didn’t answer.
“Nothing,” she said, reaching for her own bread just as David arrived with her drink.
Markus waited for their server to leave them alone before he pressed her. “You’re quiet tonight. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
Oh, he most definitely didn’t want to know the answer to that question. “It’s nothing.”
“It sounds like something to me. You’re never this quiet. On a normal night you’d be on your second or third story of what happened at The Beauty Box today. Everything okay with Tiffany?”
“Sure. We were just really busy today is all,” she swallowed her bread and reached to take a long swig of her Cosmo.
“That’s why I was surprised you had the time to go to the gym. You haven’t been in weeks.”
Stay calm.
“I know, but I need to get back into better habits,” she offered truthfully.
“Well, I happen to like the way you look in my favorite little black dress.”
Scrambling to change the subject from working out, she said, “I’m really glad we’re going clubbing tonight after dinner. We haven’t been dancing in forever.”
Markus took a sip of his own cocktail before answering. “Yeah, well I figured it was about time I rectify that situation.”
Their server arrived with the plate of fried calamari and the couple ate in silence for a few minutes. Brianna knew why she was struggling to come up with safe topics to talk about, but the silence wasn’t like her normally jovial husband, either.
“You don’t have to work this weekend, do you?” When he shook his head, she went on. “I was thinking after I get home from the salon tomorrow afternoon, maybe we could go to the nursery and pick out the flowers for the back yard. The landscapers are coming next week to plant the beds in the back.”
“Let’s wait and see how our day goes, okay?” he answered, taking another bite.
She tried not to be annoyed. “Sure… I guess.”Think. Another safe topic.“I told you Sydney’s wedding is coming up soon, right? I put it on the calendar on the fridge. I’m not sure when, but Kennedy is planning a bachelorette party for one of the upcoming weekends.”
She looked up when she felt her husband’s gaze on her. “A bachelorette party? I don’t know… you think I can trust you to go out with the girls and not get into trouble?”
His words hit her hard. If he knew everything Jake was holding over her head, he would never trust her again. When she realized he was waiting for a response to his barb, she offered, “Tiffany will be with me. I’m sure she’ll keep me out of trouble.”
Markus’s bark of laughter was out of place in the subdued upscale restaurant. “Somehow I doubt that. I’m pretty sure you two ladies have been getting in and out of trouble together since the day you met freshman year.”
Brianna couldn’t deny it since she’d shared all of their fun college stories with her husband. “Hey, we’ve matured. We’re grown women now, not kids.”
“All that means is you can get into grown-up trouble now.”
It wasn’t just her imagination. Their entire conversation since her arrival felt weird… awkward. It was just another thing to blame Jake Davenport for. Even hours after she was free of him, he’d taken up residence in her brain and was holding on for dear life.
Get the fuck out of my head, Jake.
