“I should’ve checked yesterday’s baseball scores.” Liv dropped the phone on the bed and focused on the ceiling fan.
Yep, if she’d looked to see if the Red Sox won last night’s game against the Yankees instead of reading the Star Report, she wouldn’t be second-guessing her and Matt’s relationship.
The sound of her phone vibrating against the bed pulled her thoughts back to the here and now. She found a text from Matt when she picked up the device.
Matt: Are you still up?
Still up? I never went to sleep.
Liv: Yep.
Matt: Okay if I call you?
No sooner had she replied with a thumbs-up than the device rang.
“What’s up?”
“Just got back to the hotel. After the rehearsal dinner, a few of us went back to Adam’s house.”
She knew Adam was the cousin getting married tomorrow, but she didn’t know if he’d appeared in any of the pictures she’d seen.
“I’m not sure why they needed me at the rehearsal. All I need to do is stand there and hand Adam the ring at the appropriate time and then lead the maid of honor down the aisle. It’s not exactly rocket science. A trained monkey could do it.”
An image of a monkey in a tuxedo materialized, making her smile. “I think it’s kind of one of those ‘everyone shall suffer’ scenarios.”
“You’re probably right. At least it was quick. We were sitting down for dinner by seven.”
In her experience, rehearsals were usually short, but she imagined the wedding Matt was attending tomorrow was more elaborate than any she’d been to.
“Have you finished your speech?” When he’d left on Wednesday, he’d only had the opening lines.
“Yeah, early this morning. I couldn’t sleep, so I worked on it. I haven’t slept well since I’ve been here.”
Were his sleep problems caused by the same thing as hers? As much as she’d love to know, that was one question she’d never ask.
“What have you been up to today?”
She’d planned to experiment with a new chicken recipe, but her day hadn’t gone as she’d hoped. “I ended up working the lunch and dinner shifts at the restaurant. Maggie called in sick. And before your text, I was checking out the pictures from your cousin’s bachelor party. It looks like everyone had fun.”
“Damn it. I’d hoped to avoid that. I didn’t see anyone outside of our group taking pictures. Where the hell are they posted?”
Was he so upset because he was worried he’d been photographed with another woman?
“I saw them on the Star Report’s website. I don’t know if they are anywhere else.” Until now, she hadn’t thought to look. Curious now, she grabbed the tablet she mainly used for reading off the nightstand and typed “Today Magazine” into the browser. She wasn’t surprised when a similar headline to the one on the other site appeared.
“How the hell did someone find out about the dinner cruise afterward? What new mystery woman?” It sounded like Matt was on the Star Report website. “Liv, that’s my cousin’s wife. I didn’t take anyone with me last night.”
A tiny voice wondered if he was telling the truth, but she stifled it. He sounded sincere; not to mention, he’d never given her a reason to not trust him.
“I know you didn’t.”
Scrolling down the page, she looked for any other pictures of Matt with the woman.
“There’s a similar piece on Today Magazine’s website. The pictures aren’t the same, though.”
The website displayed a picture of Matt standing near the woman from the other page, but in this one, he didn’t have an arm around her. Instead, it appeared as though Matt, the woman, and a man she didn’t recognize were having a conversation. A humorous one at that, judging by their expressions.
While the set on the Star Report’s site had all been taken at the brewery, it was clear that a few on the second website were taken somewhere else. Liv assumed it was during the dinner cruise.
