And they never fucking will.
I down the rest of my drink, annoyed with my own thoughts and ready to get the night over with.
“I’ll catch you two later,” I say as I stand up and straighten my jacket.
“Have fun,” Baron says.
“And good luck,” Maverick adds. I make a mental note to pop him in his bad shoulder the next time I see him.
I walk over to Jenica and loop my arm around her. In turn, she puts her hand on my chest, laughs about something she and her friends are saying, and then looks up at me with pursed lips. It’s my cue to kiss her, so I play along.
“I think we better make our way to dinner,” I tell her.
She smiles and says goodbye to her friends. We make our way out of the lounge and into the elevator. I press the button for the second floor, where the dinner is taking place in the event room.
The moment the door closes, our smiles drop and I check my phone.
Jenica takes in a breath and lets it out. “Here we go,” she says.
“Don’t sound so excited,” I tell her as I go through my notifications.
“Well, why would I be excited?” she asks. “You’ve made it clear you don’t care if I’m here or not.”
I shove my phone back in my pocket and look up at her. “I stood next to you. I put my arm around you. Hell, I even kissed you. I’ve done everything you asked me to do.”
“But she’s still coming, isn’t she?”
“Who is still coming?”
She just gives me a look.
“Amara is my assistant,” I say. “She works at Apex and this is an Apex party. So yes, she is coming.”
“What are people going to say when they see her pregnant and alone?” she asks.
“The same thing people say at the office when they see her pregnant and alone.”
“Which is?”
“Nothing. Because I am the boss and no one that works at Apex is looking for termination papers.”
The door opens before she can say anything else, thank fuck.
We make our way out. Arm in arm, of course, because show is everything. But so is alcohol, so I make my way straight for the open bar, whether she likes it or not.
I know we’re married. If anyone fucking knows that, it’s me. And I get that all of this is hard on her, but it’s not like I’m enjoying myself. If I’m being honest, I kick myself regularly for agreeing to any of this in the first place. I would have held out and waited until I was thirty if shit hadn’t gone down with Tristan and I wasn’t worried about a war breaking out.
Jenica and I make the rounds before finding our seats. We eat, we drink, I talk business to rich men with dollar signs in their eyes and women on their arms.
Speaking of women, Jenica is laying it on thick. And I meanthick.She’s laughing and involving herself in conversations she has no business in. Her hands keep finding mine no matter how hard I try to occupy it elsewhere. She steals kisses every time she finds an in. And she keeps referring to me asdarling.
At one point, she’s hanging on me, laughing too loudly at something that’s not funny at all, when all of a sudden, she stops. Her smile fades completely, replaced by a half-panicked look of disgust.
That’s when I realize all the heads in the room are turning towards the door.
Naturally, I follow suit.
And when I do, my heart stops.
