Page 72 of Man Vs. Woman

Colt and Hiram, meeting behind my back.

Gritting my teeth, I take a deep breath as I try to steady my trembling fingers. This can’t be happening. No way Colt would do this to me...no way would he stab me in the back like this.

Not him. Not Colt.

Turning the pictures around, I hold my breath as I read the notes on the back of the pictures.

Colt McCoy is using you, one of them says.

You’ve been fooled, another declares, and I start feeling a deep-seated anger well up inside me.Day of the meeting, Colt will bury your proposal.

Sitting on the stool by the counter, I push the pictures away from me, almost as if they were poisonous. This can’t be true. We’re being set up. Yes, that’s it—this has to be a set up. Someone is trying to screw with us.

But then...why is Colt meeting with Hiram? No matter how you spin it, the pictures don’t lie. The two men have been meeting behind my back.

Only one way to know for sure.

Reaching for my phone, I scroll down the contact list and let my thumb hover over Colt’s name. I almost press it, but I hesitate as I see one final picture taunting me from inside the envelope. With one hand still holding the phone, I use the other to grab the last picture, and my heart drops as I glance at it.

Colt...with a woman.

He’s sitting at a table in Per Se, of all places, and in front of him is a young woman. Abeautifulone, exactly the kind of woman that Colt wouldn’t be able to resist. They’re both laughing at something and, even though this is nothing but a picture, I can almost hear their laugh echoing inside my head.

Almost as if they were laughing at me.

Already feeling the tears stinging my eyes, I turn the picture around to see the note behind it.

You’re not the first to try, and you won’t be the last, it reads,but Colt McCoy will never change.