Page 40 of Little Dark Deeds

Kismet.

Ifhe wasn’t married.

Tyler drummed his fingers along the dashboard, then looked at me.“If the two of you were such good friends, why didn’t she tell you how we met?”

It was a fair question.

When we’d gotten together for lunch, I was in full wedding-planning mode, and most of our conversations revolved around my big day.Thinking back on it now, I was riddled with some of the decisions I made that day.

When she started a new relationship, I often vetted the guy—without her knowledge, of course.With Tyler, I’d been so preoccupied with wedding planning, I didn’t look into him.

Why?

Maybe because it was the happiest I’d seen her in a long time.

I wanted Tyler to be different than the rest.

I wanted her to have whatIhad with Giovanni.

And I thought—what’s the harm in backing off, allowing her a moment to enjoy herself before I stuck my nose into her business.

Turned out, backing off was a bad idea.

I’d dropped the ball, and the hollow ache in my core was a constant reminder.I was so caught up in my feelings of guilt it took me a moment to notice Tyler had been eyeing me, looking confused.I realized he was witnessing one of my strange habits—the way my eyes glazed over when I was deep in thought, mentally checked out of a conversation.

“You all right?”he asked.

“Yeah, fine.Getting back to the first time you met, I’m guessing she hired you to be her real estate agent.Then what?”

“Hold on a minute.I asked you why you thought Tiffany didn’t tell you about the way we met.You expect me to answer your questions, but you won’t answer mine.Is that it?”

“Depends on the question.I’ll say this ...Tiffany talked a lot about you that day.We also talked about other things.I had a wedding coming up and ...You know what?None of that matters.What matters is I was aware of your relationship.”

What I kept to myself was the fact I’d cut our lunch short that day because I had a dress fitting at the bridal shop.I could have rescheduled the fitting, and I didn’t.

“When did you first realize you had feelings for Tiffany?”I asked.

“There was an immediate spark when we met at the grocery store.I didn’t realize it at first, but when it hit me, there was no denying it.”

“The spark couldn’t have been strong, in my opinion, since you continued to juggle two relationships at the same time.”

Tyler sighed and glanced out the window.

He looked disappointed, though not with me.

More with himself than anything.

“As hard as it is to believe, I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for my wife,” he said.

“Have you ever cheated on her before?”

“No, never.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Seven years.”

The good ol’ seven-year itch, a common lull in marriage where one often became restless, dissatisfied, and in need of something more—someonemore.If given the opportunity to take hold, it had the ability to end marriages, as evidenced with this one.