“I’ll be the bad guy,” Gwen offered, hands slipping into her pockets. “I’ll tell them I have a work thing.”
“No. Come to Vegas. It’ll be a fun trip, and… we could just pretend to be okay for the weekend, if you’re good with that.” The feelings in Maggie’s chest were a mess of anticipation, hope, and deep, humiliating dread.
Gwen’s brows lifted. “Okay, so… we’re doing this?”
Maggie shoved another stack of clothes into her suitcase. “I guess so.”
A grin flickered across Gwen’s face — quick, mischievous — and for a heartbeat Maggie thought she saw actual excitement there. Then Jude yelled something about Arlo creating a marble disaster, and Gwen winked at her before disappearing back downstairs to save the game.
CHAPTER 6
Gwen
The thermostatin Dr. Elowen’s office was always set to what Gwen would call “unseasonably cozy” for the month of September. It made her blazer feel like a weighted blanket she hadn’t agreed to. Maggie sat across from her, curled into the corner of the couch like she might disappear into the upholstery if she tried hard enough.
Dr. Elowen looked between them, pen balanced on the edge of her notebook. “So.”
“We’re going on the trip,” Gwen said. She sat up straighter, smoothing her slacks with a deliberate palm. “Together.”
Dr. Elowen gave a slow nod. “That’s a big decision.”
“We agreed,” Gwen said. “I was all in for taking the fall, but we decided together.” She added it like a badge of honor, hoping Maggie noticed.
She knew Maggie was upset. Gwen could read it in her clipped tone over the past few days, the carefully blank expression. But she also couldn’t pretend this choice hadn’t lifted something off her. For the first time in months, she felt astrange kind of relief — a flicker of freedom, maybe. Not from responsibility or consequence, but from the limbo that had slowly calcified around them. She wasn’t expecting a miracle. She wasn’t even expecting forgiveness. But the idea of being in Maggie’s orbit again, even briefly, somewhere outside the weight of their shared house and history — that felt like something she hadn’t let herself want before now.
Maggie did notice. Gwen could tell from the way her lips pressed together, her expression flickering between impressed and bracing.
“Have you talked about how you’ll handle this shared lie… this, uh, shared story in front of your friends?” Dr. Elowen asked, crossing and uncrossing her legs.
Gwen’s eyebrows rose and Maggie caught her eye, her matching surprised expression telling Gwen they were on the same page about Dr. Elowen being so straightforward.
“Let me put it this way. How will you handle accommodations?” Dr. Elowen added. “I think it’s best if you plan for what you’re about to encounter to reduce anxiety and conflict in the moment.”
Maggie shrugged. “They booked a suite at some fancy hotel. I’m not sure what the exacts are. I just sent over our share of the cost and let someone else handle the details.”
“A suite? I thought we’d all have our own rooms,” Gwen said, a nervous flutter in her stomach.
Maggie shrugged. “I think every couple has separate rooms within the suite, but I haven’t asked the specifics or researched the floor plan.”
“Do not tempt me with floor plan research,” Gwen joked.
Maggie actually laughed. A short one, but real. “You’d probably ask the hotel concierge for a fire exit map and then reorganize the furniture for optimal flow.”
“Idocare about safety and aesthetics,” Gwen insisted.
Maggie held up her hands in a gesture of appeasement. “I never thought otherwise.”
Dr. Elowen smiled gently, setting her pen down. “So this really is something you’re doing together. Is it a reset? A trial run? An experiment?”
Gwen looked at Maggie, but she wasn’t sure either of them had the answer.
Dr. Elowen glanced toward Maggie. “Why am I feeling a negative energy coming from your side of the couch?”
Maggie shrugged. “I’m having a lot of conflicted feelings.”
Dr. Elowen raised her eyebrows. “Want to share any of them?”
Maggie’s shoulders lifted again.
