“I don’t know yet, sweetheart. But you did the right thing telling me.”
I kissed her forehead and stood, my legs unsteady. Down at the water, Bruce laughed at something Jim said, then clapped him on the shoulder. The picture of an easy afternoon.
I looked away before either of them could catch my eye.
That evening, I moved through dinner like a woman underwater. I laughed when Lily giggled about the ice cream on her nose. I nodded when Bruce asked if I wanted more wine. Inside, my mind was flipping through a stack of small moments I had ignored.
My smile felt like a mask.
The late-night phone calls Bruce took on the balcony. Jim’s constant glances at his screen. The morning Bruce slipped out alone for coffee and came back an hour later, saying the line had been long.
“You’re quiet tonight,” Bruce said, reaching for my hand across the table.
“Just tired.”
He squeezed my fingers.
“Tomorrow we’ll take it slow. Sleep in. Maybe brunch, just us.”
“Sure,” I said. My smile felt like a mask I had glued on.
Bruce’s phone buzzed against the table.
Neither man quite met my eyes.
He glanced at the screen, and the color drained from his face for just a second.
“Excuse me,” he said, forcing a smile. “I need to take this.”
Before I could answer, he was already walking toward the terrace outside the restaurant.
Through the glass doors, I watched him lower his voice the moment he answered. He kept turning slightly away, as if making sure no one could read his lips.
A minute later, Jim’s phone lit up too.
He read the message, locked the screen almost immediately, and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“She agreed to meet again tomorrow.”
“Everything okay?” I asked.
He looked up a little too quickly.
“Yeah. Work.”
I nodded, pretending to believe him.
But when Bruce came back a few minutes later, neither man quite met my eyes.
After Lily fell asleep, Bruce stepped into the bathroom, leaving his phone facedown on the nightstand. I told myself I would not look. I told myself I trusted him.
I picked it up anyway.
Very confident liar.
The screen lit under my thumb. A message from Jim sat at the top, timestamped an hour ago.
“She agreed to meet again tomorrow.”
I read it three times. My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone. She. Meet again.
The bathroom door creaked and I set the phone back exactly as I had found it. Bruce came out in a t-shirt, rubbing his eyes.
“Coming to bed?”
“In a minute.”
He kissed the top of my head and slid under the covers. Within moments his breathing evened out, the way only an innocent man or a very confident liar can sleep.
I would follow them.
I stared at the ceiling, tears sliding into my hair.
Tomorrow, I decided, I would not sit and wait to be told. Tomorrow, I would follow them. Whatever they were hiding, I was going to see it with my own eyes.
