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Great. Thank you.

Celeste

Are you okay? We’re going out with Cal. I’ll cancel.

Don’t. It’s okay. I’ll just talk Lily’s ears off.

“You look better. Glowing? If married life is this good, I may give it a try,” Cora greets me with a smile and throws her apron behind the counter. “Sanjay, I’m clocking off.”

Her employee, busy at the coffee machine, nods.

“I slept for more hours than I have in weeks, but I’m certainly not fucking glowing,” I groan and march to our table.

“What’s wrong?” Cora plops down beside me, her smile gone.

“Let’s wait for Lily.” I sigh.

“I’m here.”

I turn, and sure enough, our petite friend is barreling around the tables to reach us.

“What’s the emergency?” She sits down, wiping a strand from her face and adjusting her oversized, ill-fitting glasses. “You look good.”

I groan. “Yeah, my skin is all refreshed.” I can’t help the sarcasm in my tone. And feel like shit about it. These women don’t deserve my bitterness.

And they are right, several hours of good sleep, and I lost the deep shadows under my eyes. Several hours of mind-blowing sex with Corm and I gained a new glow.

Fuck. If only it wasn’t all so complicated.

The hollow feeling inside me keeps spreading despite my outside appearance.

“What happened?” Cora asks.

My eyes move from her to Lily and back. Over the course of the last few hours, I’ve been stunned, in denial, upset, in denial, frustrated. But mostly in denial.

And that was when I thought that Vito’s betrayal was my only problem.

Now, I’m just hollow.

I tell them what Corm found out about my manager, the man I trusted. The man I considered my friend and mentor.

I don’t tell them about another man in my life who confessed his commitment to our relationship, and casually threw around the notion of having babies with me.

That particular issue makes me feel all sorts of feelings, ranging from livid to strangely excited. He must have fucked my brains out.

But there is too much drama happening in my life at the moment to even unpack that baggage.

Well, I can be telling myself that, but that would be yet another denial. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t appreciate his bullying manner of professing his intention, but I find myself strangely intrigued by the idea.

It’s preposterous really, because there are so many red flags when it comes to me and Corm as a couple, let alone as parents. And yet… what trips me is that he is the first man I could imagine a long-term relationship with.

But that’s another problem. Right now, I’m trying to unpack the Vito bomb.

And based on Cora and Lily’s shocked faces, the explosion is palpable.

“I’m so sorry, Saar. That level of betrayal from someone you trust…” Lily reaches for my hand. “It’s heartbreaking and violating, and so fucking damaging.”

Cora glimpses her way, with her eyebrows raised. “Agreed, a great summary, but no comfort.”