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“Teddy,” he grumbles. “You always call him Teddy, even in your sleep.”
“I’m pretty sure he hates it.”
“No, he doesn’t. He loves anything you say, even if he’s too stupid to admit it.” Taking a deep breath, he says, “Good luck, Maggie. I hope I’m wrong about him,” before he walks around me and out the door.
I go over to the mirror in a daze. Standing there, staring at myself, I check my makeup and wipe away some of the black mascara underneath each of my eyes before finally making myself leave the bathroom.
Theo is waiting just outside in the hallway. The tight clench of his jaw tells me he’s been here long enough to have seen Wyatt leave the ladies’ room.
Before he can speak a word, I say, “So, it was Wyatt and Genevieve skinny dipping together?”
Theo’s hazel eyes widen, and some of his anger dissipates. “I wasn’t sure who he was with.”
“But you knew it was him out there with someone in the water that night.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I saw his stupid orange flip-flops in the pile of clothes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
“Because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“So, you just wanted me to think that our fake relationship was getting to him, making him jealous, when he was screwing someone else?”
“Why do you even care about what he’s doing, Maggie? I thought you were over him.”
“I am over him!”
“Bullshit. You were just alone with him in the bathroom and now you’re pissed, taking it out on me for some reason.”
“She’s Monty’s sister, and he’s like twenty years older than her!”
“I don’t think it’s much more than ten.”
“Does Monty know?” I ask.
Theo shrugs. “You would have to ask them.”
“I can’t believe you kept this from me.”
“If I had told you that he was with someone else, or that he came here this week with the intention of getting you back, of convincing you to marry him, then the past few days wouldn’t have happened, would they?”
“Would it have hurt to know he had moved on? Yes, a little. Could I have handled it? Absolutely because…because it doesn’t matter,” I say rather than admit that I’m not in love with Wyatt. “And what do you mean he came here to try and get me back?”
“That’s what he told Monty.”
“He may have said that, but I don’t think he really wanted me back,” I assure him. “And asking me to marry him was more of an ultimatum. Neither of us would’ve been happy.”
“What did he say just now in the bathroom?” Theo asks through gritted teeth.
“He admitted that he’s been with Gen. I slapped him at first for being so callous. Then I apologized to him, for hitting him and for hurting him for leaving. He didn’t do anything to deserve either of those things.”
“You say that, but you’ve been miserable for months, Maggie.”
“I have. But it’s my own fault,” I admit with a sad smile. My fault for wanting someone I can never really have. “When we get back home, I want things to go back to the way they were for us,” I tell Theo. “And it’ll be easier to do that if I get the food truck up and going and find a place of my own.”
