"Girlfriend?" Adriana squeaks, looking toward Chris, who is still staring at me like I've grown a second head. His mouth twists into something halfway between disgust and disappointment.
Maude looks mock-surprised. "Wow, that's funny, because Paul had afiancéenot even three weeks ago."
Silence.
"But... what about Sophie and the... cancer?" Adriana asks, brows knitted together.
"We broke up."
Again, silence.
"We're just… incompatible," I shrug, trying for relaxed and reasonable. "This is for the best. I wouldn't have made a good partner, especially through all of this. This is better for both of us—"
"Did you even try?" Chris asks me, his voice sharper than Brian's. "Did you evenwantto try?"
“I—” Shame prickles at the back of my neck, but I shove it down, "I've never been through…thatbefore—"
"Neither has Sophie," Maude snaps. "Neither did my grandmom, but you figure it out. People often go through this experience without a guidebook. You don't just jump ship."
"I'm sorry, but how is his life any of your business?" Elise scoffs, before casually sipping from her glass.
Maude's eyes narrow into slits as they slowly trail over to Elise. Her face shifts then, subtly, but I recognize it. The one I'dseen once before, when she took apart a shady investor at a City Hall function. It's the look she gave when she was about to shred you to pieces and smile while doing it.
"Let me ask you something,Elise," she says, voice calm and lethal.
"Here we go," Brian murmurs into his beer.
I tense and wonder, briefly, if I could run us out of here with minimal judgment. From the looks around us, eyes quietly locked onto our group, eavesdropping in plain sight, probably not.
"When did you guys start fucking? Was it before he and Sophie broke up?"
Elise just purses her lips. That's answer enough, and I hunch deeper in my seat as my friends glare at me.
Maude scoffs and shakes her head, "Thought so."
"Maude—" I start, but she ignores me.
"What kind of woman sleeps with a man whose fiancée is battlingcancer?"
Elise's jaw tightens and she forces out through gritted teeth, "I'm sorry, but I don't think that's any of your—"
"Was it thethrill? Or was it anovelty?" Maude presses, her tone mocking. "Did it make you feel powerful—taking something that wasn't yours? To say you could? Are you that pathetic? Or are you just anevil little bitch?"
I slam my hand down on the table, "Maude, what the fu—"
“Paul, shut the fuck up," she keeps her eyes narrowed on Elise, but points a sharp red-painted fingernail at me. "I'll deal with you next."
"Baby—" Brian tries to calm her, a hand lightly on her wrist.
"No—I want to hear it from her mouth. Because you knew about Sophie, right?" she asks, leaning in like a cross-examinerwith her witness shrinking under the pressure. "You knew she was sick?"
"Yes," Elise huffs.
"You don't think that's a little fucked up? A little sick and twisted?"
Chris speaks, his voice a snarl. "Jesus, Paul! What the hell were you thinking? What are youdoing? You were with Sophie forsix years. She wasallyou talked about—how wonderful and perfect and beautiful and smart your fiancée was—"
Elise stiffens beside me.
