“Trust you?” I repeat incredulously.
“I know that it doesn’t seem like it, but I’ve always just wanted to protect you. I’m still protecting you.” He squeezes my hands. His eyes have gone shiny.
My heart dives to my feet. I yank my hands away and stumble as I step back. The world is swaying.
“Matt, did we see each other after Savvy dropped you off that night?”
“No.” He says it again, immediately, like an automatic response he practiced. I don’t believe him.
I push down the panic rising in my chest. “Just tell me who it was, okay? Who came over to see you that night? At one in the morning?”
“Lucy, just … don’t, okay?”
“Just tell me, Matt. You owe it to me.”
He sighs, running a hand down his face. “It was Nina. Nina Garcia.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
LUCY
It was Nina, I text Ben the next day, as I sit down in Mom’s office with my laptop. I’m ignoring Matt’s advice to stop helping Ben. Fuck Matt. If I did it, then let Ben figure it out. The smug bastard deserves it, after all his hard work.
The person who Matt was fighting with in our driveway after the wedding, I add.
I’m going to need you to tell me that story with the mic on, he replies immediately. Come over? Do an interview? And stay?
I’m tempted to run over there immediately.
Interview and stay? Is that like the podcaster version of Netflix and chill?
Maybe.
I have to write for a few hours. I can come later.
Okay. Does Nina know you know?
Not unless Matt told her.
Do me a favor and don’t say anything yet.
I should be more protective of my high school best friend, but I know exactly why Nina was dropping by to see Matt in the middle of the night, even if he wouldn’t admit it.
No problem.
* * *
Ben greets me at his hotel room door with a smile. He’s barefoot, in jeans and a faded T-shirt. It’s cute in a way I both hate and love.
“Let’s do this,” he says, walking to the small table in the corner where the mics are set up. “Then I thought we could order some food?”
I nod. He turns on the microphones.
“You saw Matt recently?” he prompts.
“Yeah, he showed up at my house last night. He wanted to talk about…” I trail off, deliberately. “He just wanted to talk. And I wanted to know who he was fighting with that night after getting home, so I went out to talk to him. I’d been trying to get in touch with him for days, but he’s been ignoring me.”
“Did he tell you?”
“Yeah. He said it was Nina Garcia.”
“I told you she was a bitch,” Savvy says. I try my best to ignore her.
“Did he say why she was dropping by in the middle of the night? And why he lied about it?”
“He sure didn’t. But … well, you’ve heard what people have been saying about our marriage. I doubt she was coming over so they could go play checkers together.”
Ben’s mouth twists like he’s trying not to laugh. He makes me recount the whole conversation, which means I have to carefully navigate around our discussion of Julia and that moment when I let him kiss me.
Not how innocent people act.
“Okay, it’s off,” Ben says, switching the mic off when we finish. “I guess we know now why Nina doesn’t like me.”
“Or it’s just your personality.”
He winks at me.
* * *
I wake up in his bed, alone. The clock on the nightstand says 3:38, and I roll over to see the bathroom door open, the room dark. Light filters in under the door from the living room.
I slide out of bed, find my underwear and tank top on the floor, and pull them on. I push open the door and peek out.
Ben sits on the ground next to the sliding glass door, wearing a T-shirt and boxer briefs. It’s cracked open, and he’s smoking a joint, blowing the smoke out the door. A half-finished drink is on the floor next to him.
He turns when I step outside the bedroom. “Hey.”
“Can’t sleep?”
He shakes his head and then holds the joint out, offering it to me.
“No, thanks.” I walk across the room and sit down across from him.
“Matt texted you.” He points to my phone, which is on the coffee table.
I reach over and grab it. “You’re not even going to pretend that you didn’t look at my phone?”
“Nope.” One side of his mouth lifts. “In my defense, it flashed on the screen like half an hour ago and I just happened to see his name.”