“Jia...” Dev held her arm when she would have gotten out. “You don’t seem... right. Are you sure everything’s okay?”
“Everything’s fine.”You bought me a house and told me you don’t want to live with me in it. After not even being married to me for a week.The honeymoon was most definitely over. “I’ll see you in a little while.” And because she’d somehow fallen for her dense husband, she kissed him on the cheek.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
JIA HADN’Texpected a party when she got home but when she opened the door to Katrina’s house, that was what it sounded like was happening. She followed the noise to the kitchen, where she found Katrina, Rhiannon, and Lakshmi gathered around the kitchen table. They wore comfortable clothes and had fruity drinks spread out in front of them, and the music piping through the speakers was loud. Prince, if Jia wasn’t mistaken.
They looked up when she walked in. “Well, well, well, look who decided to leave her man for a few—” Rhiannon started, then broke off. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jia said.
“You’re crying,” Lakshmi pointed out, with a trace of panic in her voice, and came to her feet. “Again.”
Jia brushed her fingers over her cheeks. “Oh, am I?” She wished she’d thought to tape some affirmations for herself, but she’d had none to play while she drove up. Of course she’d cried.
The other women all glanced at one another. Katrinapasted a determined smile over her face. “Jia, come sit down.”
It was too much work to pretend nothing was wrong, so Jia did just that, dropping down into a seat at the table. “Are you hungry?” Katrina continued, but she didn’t wait or seem deterred by Jia’s anemic no. She whirled away to the fridge, and Jia didn’t bother to protest. If the world was ending, Katrina would pause while they were all running from zombies to make sure everyone was stuffed. That was how she rolled.
Rhiannon scooched her chair closer to Jia. “What happened? Did that inspirational body builder comment something passive-aggressive on one of your posts?” Her words were light but her eyes were serious.
Jia shook her head, wishing the water would stop leaking from her eyes. “No.”
Lakshmi returned with a roll of paper towels and tore off a handful for Jia. “Is it your husband?”
Rhiannon gave a low growl in her throat when Jia buried her face in the towels. “Do we need to kill him, Jia?”
“We don’t kill anyone,” Lakshmi chided her boss. “Sienna, turn off.”
The pleasant female robot voice came from the speakers. “Sienna is turning off.”
Lakshmi waited a beat, then leaned forward. “You want us to kill him?”
Jia choked out a laugh. Katrina placed a sandwich in front of her, and she picked up a triangle to give her hands something to do. “No. There’s no need for violence. It’sdumb. He did something that was objectively thoughtful, and I got my feelings hurt.” She nibbled at the sandwich.
“What did he do?”
“He bought us a house.”
“Well, that is nice,” Katrina said as she sat down. She picked up her daiquiri and took a sip. “But that can’t be the only thing he did. Did you disagree on what house to buy?”
“No, because I didn’t know what house he was going to buy. He just bought it. Like, done deal.”
Lakshmi drew in a sharp breath. “Oh no. I would hate that.”
“I did, at first, and then I saw the house, and it’s exactly what I would have wanted. So I kinda lost my annoyance over that.”
“Then why did you come here crying?” Rhiannon asked slowly.
“Because the place has a little house in the back, and he said I could stay there,” Jia wailed.
The women exchanged a look. “Wait. Like, by yourself?” Rhiannon asked.
Jia nodded and swiped the rough towel over her nose.
“Did you ever discuss living separately before?”
“No,” Jia said.
