The Other Man in My Wife's Tent novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Ginger Tea

I rolled onto my side and pulled the sleeping bag over my head.

It was the only thing I could think of.

Cold air poured across the floor of the tent.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lindsay said softly. "Is he asleep?"

"He just got to sleep," Freja said, in the shy Holly voice. "He's been awful all day."

"Poor guy. My husband had a bug like that last winter."

She said it so easily.

My husband, as if I were a nice neighbor.

"Does he get bad?" Freja asked.

"He gets quiet. He apologizes to the bucket." Lindsay laughed. "Here, I brought ginger tea. My friend and I have a whole bag of it. Make him drink it slowly."

A cold box was set inside the flap.

"That's so kind," Freja said.

"He sounds like a sweet man," Lindsay said. "Take care of him. A good one is hard to find."

The zipper closed.

Her boots crunched away.

I stayed under the bag with my eyes open in the dark.

Freja put her hand on my back through the nylon.

"She meant it," she said quietly. "That's what's so terrible about her. She meant every word."

"I know."

I pushed the bag down and sat up.

My face was wet, and I hadn't noticed when.

Freja took my face in both hands, thumbed my cheeks dry and kissed me once, softly, on the forehead.

Then on the mouth.

"I don't want to think about her," I said.

"Then don't."

"I don't want to think about any of it."

"Cal." She sat back on her heels and looked at me.

Her braid had come loose, and her hair was a dark gold tangle around her shoulders.

"We said when," she said. "It's warm in here. It's a decision."

She pulled her sweater over her head.

Underneath she wore a thin gray thermal, and under that nothing at all, and the lantern light slid down her collarbone.

I made a sound I didn't recognize.

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