“Who else did you say went?”
“Jim and John from the Boston office, and Daisy. It was a good group.”
“Daisy went?” Cory hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to go. Not that she did, but she was surprised to hear that Daisy went with them.
“Didn’t I tell you? She’s working in the Boston office now too, training to be an analyst. She loves the business.”
“No, you didn’t mention that. I had no idea about Daisy. I thought she liked not working and doing her charity stuff.”
“I think she got a little bored with all that and was looking for something more challenging.”
“Well, I can certainly relate to that.” Mandy couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice and Cory just nodded.
“I’m going to head upstairs and unpack. I’ll be back down in a bit.”
She watched him go, waited a few minutes and went up after him. He was just about finished unpacking when she walked in the room. And he hadn’t noticed the bill on the bureau yet. He looked up and smiled when he saw her. Mandy went to the bureau, picked up the bill and handed it to him.
“This fell out of your gym bag when I was emptying it to do laundry.”
He looked surprised but just took the bill and stuffed it in his briefcase.
“Thanks.”
“So, who is Scott Lawson?”
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Mandy waited, with her arms crossed. Cory looked down and she could sense his wheels turning trying to come up with an explanation. Finally, he laughed.
“Yeah, it’s a funny story. I thought I’d lost my cell phone, but I was also pretty sure it was going to turn up so I didn’t want to get a new phone with the same name and number. This way I figured I’d just have a backup phone. And I was right. Turned out I left my phone in the Boston office. Patrick overnighted it to me the next day. But in the meantime, I couldn’t be without a phone. You know how that is.”
“What’s funny is if that is true, you never mentioned it to me.”
Cory just stared at her, saying nothing. Did he really expect her to buy that ridiculous story?
“Who are Margie, Sharon Jones and Anna Davis?” Mandy glared at him.
A look of shock flashed across his face. But he quickly recovered and tried again.
“They’re new high-net worth clients.” But he didn’t look her in the eye. He just stared at the floor, saying nothing.
“I’m not an idiot, Cory. You didn’t call anyone else. I don’t know who they are, but they’re not new clients. What’s really going on?
Finally, he sighed. “Okay, I messed up. I’m sorry. I used that phone and my middle name for a discreet dating site. Nantucket is a small place, so I had to be careful.”
Of all the things she imagined him saying, going on a dating site wasn’t it.
“A discreet dating site? You were online dating?”
“Well, not exactly dating. It was no secret that I was married, that’s why it’s called discreet.”
“So, you were hooking up with random strangers? Why?” Mandy stepped back and wondered who this person was that she was married to.
“None of it meant anything. It has nothing to do with you. It was just something I needed to do. It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, try. I’d love to know why my husband thought it was a good idea to find other women online to sleep with.”
“It was just a release. And the thrill of doing something forbidden. I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s true. I didn’t care about any of those women. I love you. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Mandy’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious? You expect me to forgive that and act as though it never happened?”
A panicky look crossed Cory’s face. He wasn’t used to people saying no. “I swear I’ll make it up to you. I don’t want to lose you.”
“You should have thought of that before you got your second phone and placed that ad. I think you should leave.”
“Now?”
Mandy sighed. It was after ten. “No. You can stay here tonight. But tomorrow you need to go. I can’t forgive this Cory. It’s too big.” She sniffed and looked around for a tissue. She tried to keep the tears back, but they fell hard. Cory took a step toward her and looked like he wanted to hug her. She sidestepped him and walked toward the door.
“I’m so sorry, Mandy. I never intended to hurt you.” He did sound sorry, but she knew he was probably more sorry that he got caught than anything else.