But knowing that anything could happen—that eventhatcould happen—was completely fucking different than having it actually start to happen.
The idea of actually liking her at all, when I proposed, was just an abstract concept. An irrelevant impossibility, even. I convinced myself I didn’t like her because it was just easier that way. Because she hated me.
Now that she was my wife, what if I actually liked her… loved her, even… and she still hated me?
There was a time limit on this. A best-before date. I knew that.
In three months from now, things between us were going to start to sour. That was the plan. We’d break up and go our separate ways.
But when I was in Toronto, I realized I didn’t even want to be there. I wanted to be here, with Devi, for every moment I could get with her.
So that maybe I could figure out along the way, before it was too late, if I actually wanted more. And just maybe, if there was any hope in hell that she might, too.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Dane
Iwas getting dressed when I turned on my phone, and it started buzzing with all the messages that had piled up while it was off overnight.
I picked it up to check the morning onslaught. There were several missed calls from Velma, among others. I opened a text from her. There was a link in it.
Velma:Open this ASAP.
I clicked on it automatically, cold dread already seeping through my veins. I just knew it wasn’t going to be good. It felt urgent, and Velma’s texts were never urgent. She always came at me calm and collected, no matter what fire she was trying to put out on my behalf.
The link opened to an online news article… about me. And some woman.
What the fuck?
I scanned the headline and started thumbing through the article. Some former employee of Valhalla… was claiming that I… didwhatto her at an office party?
Shock and horror mingled in my brain as my skin grew hot and the only clear thing I could think was:Devi.
I bolted out of the bedroom, trying to do up my belt. I found her sitting at the kitchen island drinking her morning coffee, dressed and ready to go to work. It had been two days since that party at Johnny’s place, where we drank a few too many cocktails, ate poutine on the way home and fucked each other’s brains out.
And things had been okay since then. Tense, as usual, but okay.
We were a couple. Kind of. We found ways to work out our differences.
Or at least, we fucked until we momentarily forgot about them.
We’d been getting along pretty damn well, for the most part. Not one actual fight since I came back from Toronto. I really didn’t need it all to go to shit right now.
She was looking at her phone, but her eyes lifted to mine.
“Dane,” she said.
Ice-cold terror ripped through me. She’d seen the fucking article, for sure. “It’s not true.”
“Dane.”
“Devi. I swear to you. I don’t know what the fuck is going on. But it is not true.”
“What’s not true?” she said.
I approached the island slowly. “You saw the article? That woman—”
“Said you assaulted her. Grabbed her and kissed her at an office party and pushed her into a closet. Threatened to fire her if she told anyone.”
