Okay. I’m going to move out while she’s out of town.
Oh, so shewasgoing out of town, but not with him.
Not a couple’s trip, then?
Bachelorette weekend.
Jesus Christ. I wondered how many dicks she’d be sucking on that trip.
The next text was from Selena.
Going to be super busy the next couple of weeks. Going to see the family in two weeks. We need to have some alone time before I go!
I groaned. Now I suddenly understood why she’d insisted she couldn’t invite me along no matter how much she wanted to. She’d said her “conservative parents” would never approveof a boyfriend coming along on a family trip. That was the same reason she’d balked at moving in together.
“They hated that I lived with Eric,”she’d told me the first time I brought it up.“I don’t think my dad will ever forgive me if I move in with another man I don’t end up marrying.”
Uh-huh. Whatever you say.
But then another piece clicked into place, and I switched to Eric’s window.
Your honeymoon is a 3-week trip, isn’t it?
…yeah? Why?
She told me she was going to see her family. Couldn’t bring me because her conservative family would never stand for it.
LOL OMFG. Conservative family, my ass.
I was curious about that—about what her family was really like—but before I could say anything, he added:
I’m confronting her on Sunday when she gets home. Want to join me?
I actually laughed at that, and I damn near broke my screen writing back:
YES PLEASE.
I hadn’t been lookin forward to sitting down with Eric today.
But oh hell, was I looking forward to the look on Selena’s face come Sunday.
CHAPTER 3
ERIC
Staring up at the bedroom ceiling, I listened to Selena breathing as I struggled to gather my thoughts. I’d been lying here for hours now, trying to make sense of things. I needed to sleep because I had to work tomorrow, but hell if I could shut off my stupid brain.
Selena was out cold beside me. Long day at work followed by an evening of wedding prep, she’d said. She was probably telling the truth this time, too, but I had to wonder how many times she’d lied about it. How often had“going out with the girls for margaritas”or“doing a bunch of wedding stuff with my bridesmaids”been code for“I’m getting plowed by another man”?
I closed my eyes and wiped a hand over my face. My stomach turned at the thought of how many times I’d been disappointed when one of those evenings had left her too wrung out and tired for sex. My skin crawled as I wondered how many times I was with her just hours or less after she’d slept with Jesse. Sharing had been hot and sexy the night we’d that threesome. Not when it was supposed to be just the two of us.
I turned toward her, and I was just able to make out her silhouette in the darkness. Her shape was familiar, but her presence was so alien now. I was days away from what was supposed to be our wedding, and it was like I didn’t know her at all. Like I’d never known her.
How, Selena?
How did you have a relationship with another person right under my nose, and I didn’t suspect a thing?
I tried to rationalize how things could’ve been different. Was the threesome a clue that she didn’t want monogamy? Maybe she really wanted an open relationship. She knew I had no issues with ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, or anything like that. It had never been my cup of tea, but if that was what she really wanted—I mean, I loved her. I was willing to negotiate and compromise if it meant making the person I loved happy.
