Xavier's breathing went ragged.
"Didn't Lauren just want to come witness the happiest moment of our lives?"
"I could hardly drag her along to the hospital with me, so I checked her into the hotel first."
When Xavier lied, he talked faster.
For a while I said nothing.
That was when Xavier finally caught the wrongness of it.
He was sick, and I hadn't asked after his health.
He was late, and I hadn't pushed him to hurry.
Instead, the first thing out of my mouth had been Lauren Simmons.
I'd never been the jealous, suspicious type. I rarely went looking for things to resent.
So if I'd brought her up, I already knew.
Xavier lit a cigarette, almost lazy about it. "Since your friend saw, I won't keep it from you anymore."
"I did sleep with Lauren!"
"But I swear, Lauren's just for fun. You're the one I'm serious about!"
"Don't worry. Five years between us, I won't forget that. The wedding and the marriage license are still yours!"
I'd always told myself we were happy. Devoted, even.
Xavier had been at my beck and call for years.
"Why?"
"Crystal, no matter how good you are, five years is five years. A man gets bored!"
Bored. That was the whole of his explanation.
My long silence put him on edge.
His voice dropped. "A lifetime is long. You've got to let a man glance out the window once in a while!"
He'd cheated with his whole body and his whole heart, and he called it a wandering eye.
Not a flicker of guilt.
"They say a man's heart goes where his money goes. You of all people should know I've given you everything!"
Xavier dropped the cigarette and ground it out underfoot. "An hour, tops. I'm on my way."
"I promise, I'll get you your big night. Lights lit, vows done, the whole show!"
I gave a cold little laugh.
The Xavier who had cheated had long since lost the right to light my lantern.
But I wanted a clean end to five wasted years.
From tonight on, whoever I married, whatever child I bore, none of it would have anything to do with Xavier.
I spoke slowly. "Xavier, I'm giving you ten minutes."
He didn't like that. "The wind off the water's brutal at night. You want me to speed?"
The old Xavier had once driven five hundred miles through a night of rain just to see my face for a moment.
And now he was worried about speeding.
I tipped my head back and looked off into the distance.
The moon over the sea was the same moon in the sky. The man in front of me was not the same man.
"You're not here in ten minutes, I'll find someone else to light my lantern."
Xavier laughed outright. "Crystal, can you not throw out childish threats like that to scare me?"
"Tonight's your forty-ninth lantern. Whoever lights it is your groom. Who exactly are you going to dig up on the spot to light it for you?"
Xavier knew our customs inside and out.
It wasn't that he didn't know how to love me. He just loved himself more.
One phone call, one easy chance with Lauren, and he'd thrown me aside on the most important night of all.
Just to crawl into a hotel bed with her.
A man like that, I didn't want anymore.
"I mean every word."
I cut the call. There was less going back in that than there had been in his betrayal.
Robert found me fast. "Crystal, give Xav one more chance. He really does care about you!"
"Right, right, he made one little mistake. Just pretend he went on a business trip and now he's home!"
"The whole lantern ceremony's set up. Xav bought this, bought that, decorated the entire town for tonight. That shows you his heart!"
"Exactly! Xav's a huge creator, tens of millions of followers, the pressure to keep posting is no joke. He earns all that money for you to spend, you ought to be a little gracious about it!"
My best friend, Janice, pushed up her sleeves. "Does any of that sound human to you? Xavier cheats and now he's the victim?"
"Without Crystal, how do you think Xavier ever became a creator with tens of millions of followers?"
Robert sneered. "That's what I can't stand about you women. The second a man makes it, you slap your name on it, the woman behind the successful man, like half the credit's got to be yours!"
"Sure, Crystal pitched plenty of ideas, and the videos she planned all blew up. But take her away and Xavier still couldn't have made it big?"
"She's not the money behind it. You telling me she's the one who turned Xavier into a star?"
One taunt after another from Xavier's buddy crew, until Janice was past her limit.
I caught her by the arm and announced it then and there.
"In ten minutes, we light the lantern."
