4: 4
I'd read Carina's move ahead of time and slapped her first, the blow landing before she even knew it was coming.
It wasn't enough.
Still not enough.
I said, cold and dismissive, "I let you win before because I couldn't be bothered to fight. But now—"
She felt how set I was, and her voice cracked into a scream. "No, that's not possible, Barnaby loves me, I know he does!"
"Want to bet?"
"Bet how?"
A few minutes later.
Barnaby walked into my dressing room.
He saw the woman seated in the chair with her back to him, and the tension in his face eased into a soft smile as he came forward. "Joy, why aren't you in the gown yet?"
Carina lifted her face, timid. "Barnaby."
His expression went cold. "Where's Joy?"
Carina stood and threw her arms around him just as he moved to go looking for me, rubbing against his back like a cat, her hands roaming to tease.
"Barnaby, take me right here. Please?"
"We couldn't finish the whole wedding, so let's do what real husbands and wives do first."
"Joy—"
"She, she didn't want the gown I'd worn. She sent someone to rush a new one."
Barnaby pried her hands off, urgent. "I'm going to find her!"
Carina flinched.
"Barnaby!"
She copied my look, struck a pose that was pure invitation.
He turned back, and slowly his gaze went dazed.
Carina crooked a finger, kicked the stool aside, sat up on the makeup table, and ordered, "Come here."
He wavered.
Carina let out a scornful laugh. "What are you afraid of? Joy won't be back anytime soon. You really don't want a taste of me?"
"Relax. After this once, I won't cling to you again."
This wasn't the Carina he knew, the timid one who cried and wheedled.
She was lively and cold, and that look of standing above him was very tempting.
Barnaby slowly loosened his tie and leaned in. "Carina, be my woman and it's for the long haul. Until I say so, you don't get to leave."
"I won't listen."
Carina turned her head away, and Barnaby's fingers caught her chin and pulled it back as he bent down into a hungry kiss.
Carina answered him without holding back.
The two of them lost track of the world entirely.
I stood behind the curtain of the dressing room's changing area, watching calmly, while I piped the whole scene onto the big screen out at the wedding.
When Carina hooked onto him again, refusing to let him leave, and it started a second time, I stepped out of the changing area and walked past them.
On my personal account I posted a new update: We've broken up. No reconciliation.
...
It was that night that Barnaby learned I was leaving to take over the branch office in the lawless frontier region.
He drove back to our wedding home like a madman.
I was carrying my luggage out the door when I ran straight into him.
"Joy, don't go!"
His eyes begged, his face broken.
"Carina was just a moment where I lost my head, but the one I truly love is you!!!"
"Bzz, bzz, bzz—"
Barnaby's phone buzzed.
He glanced at the caller ID and moved to hang up.
I spoke first. "Take it. So you don't leave any regrets."
He hung up anyway, then turned the phone off.
"It's just another one of her suicide acts, and I'm sick of watching them. Joy, listen to me, let's start over—"
I looked down, took out my phone, opened a photo, and held it up for him.
"Carina's decided to accept the classmate who's been in love with her for ten years."
"What?"
He snatched the phone in disbelief, and once he'd confirmed the photo showed Carina holding a huge bouquet of red roses, posing close with a man,
he threw out a hurried "Wait for me" and drove off in a frantic rush.
I didn't wait. I dragged my luggage out and got into the Uber.
In the car, I canceled my flight to the branch office, deleted the photo I'd doctored of Carina, popped out the SIM card, snapped it in two, and tossed it out the window.
Goodbye, Barnaby.
I'm going to start a new life. And you, sink into your hell of regret forever.
