Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: White Roses
Ross comes home with flowers and a lie, Cora cancels the anniversary dinner, and Sabrina posts a photo from Ross's car.
Ross got home a little before eleven with a bouquet of white roses.
They were the same flowers I carried down the aisle at our wedding.
I was sitting at the kitchen table with the tests in the drawer beside my knee and the socks in my purse.
He set the roses on the counter and kissed my forehead.
"Sorry I'm late."
"How was the party?"
"Boring. You didn't miss anything."
I looked at the man I had married five years ago, and he looked back at me with a clear, kind face.
"What was the dare this year?" I asked.
His thumb stopped on the buckle of his belt, just for a moment.
Then he smiled.
"Sabrina dared me to stay off my phone for twenty-four hours."
It wasn't a complete lie, because no calls to me was one of her rules.
He had only left out the chapel, the rings, the photographer and the honeymoon suite.
"Can you manage that?" I said. "A whole day?"
He laughed. "Of course."
He took the roses to the sink and ran the water for them.
That night he slept with one arm across my waist.
I lay awake with the baby socks in the nightstand, two feet from his hand.
In the morning Ross made pancakes.
He hummed and flipped them and set a plate in front of me, and if I had not been standing outside that dining room, I would have thought I was the luckiest wife in the city.
Then he told me the next lie.
"I've got a client dinner at Willow Creek tonight. It might run late, so I booked a room."
He said it smoothly, like a speech he had practiced in the car.
"Is Sabrina going?"
His hand paused on the syrup cap.
"Why would Sabrina be at a client dinner?"
"You were with her last night."
"I was with twelve people last night." He sat down across from me. "Cora, don't do this. Every time I see her you turn it into a problem."
He sighed.
"Her engagement ended three weeks ago, and she's having a hard time. We're all trying to keep her busy."
"By helping her pretend to marry you?"
The words got out before I could stop them.
I watched them land on his face, and then I watched him decide I had meant it as a joke.
He laughed. "That's not funny."
"Sorry," I said. "Are you coming home tomorrow night?"
"Of course. It's one night."
He said it gently, as if the answer ought to comfort me.
One night.
One wedding.
One honeymoon suite.
One more thing I was expected to forgive.
"All right," I said.
He believed me.
An hour later Ross left his phone on the edge of the bathroom sink and got in the shower.
The screen lit up.
[Bring your actual rings, nothing from a costume shop. Wear your wedding suit. Don't forget the silver cufflinks.]
I took a picture of it with my own phone before the screen went dark.
When he came out in a towel I was standing by the open garment bag on the bed.
The charcoal suit from our wedding hung inside it.
The silver cufflinks sat in their black box on the pillow.
I had fastened them on his wrists myself, five years ago, in a church hallway, with my hands shaking.
"That's a formal suit for a client dinner," I said.
"It's an important client." He zipped the bag shut. "Cora, I'll be gone one night."
He put both hands on my shoulders and smiled down at me.
"Saturday is ours. Did you confirm the anniversary reservation?"
Saturday was supposed to be the night I gave him the socks.
The restaurant had already added a note to our booking.
Pregnancy announcement, private dessert.
"I'll take care of it," I said.
When he went upstairs to get dressed, I opened the email on my phone.
Table for two, Saturday, seven thirty, special occasion.
I pressed Cancel Reservation.
A moment later the dinner vanished from the calendar we shared.
Ross came down at nine in the charcoal suit, with the garment bag over his arm and the cufflinks already on his wrists.
He kissed my forehead.
"Phone off for me today, remember?" he said, and winked.
"I'll remember," I said.
The front door closed.
I stood in the kitchen with the white roses dripping into the sink.
Then my phone buzzed, and the first thing in my feed was a new post from Sabrina.
It was a photo taken inside Ross's car.
Two coffee cups sat in the holders, and her hand lay over his on the console.
His wedding ring showed under her fingers.
Underneath she had written: Back with my original partner. Some traditions always lead you home.
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