Page 71 of Forty, Flirty & Fall Inn

"You know the type?"

"I was engaged to the type."

"Right."I take another drink."We built our first company together.Sold it for enough to start three more.The power couple of Silicon Valley, they called us.Young, successful, unstoppable."

The train rocks gently, and Sage tucks her feet under her."What happened?"

"Kevin happened."

"Kevin?"

"My cousin.My father's brother's son.We were both only children, grew up more like brothers than cousins."The words taste bitter."He was my best man at the wedding."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes."I stand, needing to move.The car is small enough that pacing is more like controlled falling, but it helps."I found out by accident.Came home early from a conference in Tokyo.Cliché, right?The husband who catches them in bed?"

"Luke..."

"Except I didn't catch them in bed.I caught them in my office.At my desk.Using my computer to transfer company funds to an account in the Caymans."

Sage sits up straighter."They were stealing from you?"

"Embezzling.Had been for months."The laughs that leaves my body is bitter."The affair was just recreation.The real relationship was crime."

"Holy shit."

"That's what I said.Right before Veronica tried to convince me it was my fault."I turn to face her."I worked too much.I cared more about code than people.I was emotionally unavailable.I drove her to it."

"That's bullshit."

"Is it?"I sink back into my chair."She wasn't wrong about the working too much.Or the emotional availability.I was a terrible husband."

"Being a workaholic doesn't justify embezzlement and adultery."

"No, but it explains why she looked elsewhere."I drain my glass."Kevin was everything I wasn't.Charming, spontaneous, present.He listened to her complaints about me and offered comfort.Among other things."

"Still bullshit.Also, gross.Your cousin?That's like...Game of Thrones level messed up."

I snort."Connor said the same thing."

"Connor's smart."She stands, wobbles slightly as the train takes a curve, and I catch her elbow."Thanks.Still getting my train legs."

"Sea legs."

"Train legs.I'm coining it."She doesn't move away from my steadying hand."What happened next?"

"Lawyers.Lots of lawyers.Criminal charges for the embezzlement.Divorce proceedings that made the Napoleonic Wars look friendly."I guide her to the window where mountains are starting to appear in the darkness."She tried to claim half the company was hers.Might have succeeded if the prosecutors hadn't found evidence of the affair going back two years."

"Two years?"

"Mmm.Turns out I'm very unobservant when I'm not looking at code."

"Or maybe you trusted your wife and cousin not to betray you," Sage suggests."Crazy concept, I know."

We stand at the window, watching darkness punctuated by distant lights.Her shoulder brushes mine, warm and solid and real.

Her voice lowers to decibels that are almost inaudible.I can hear her swallow.