I ignored him, but he kept pushing.
"Alex, I heard you and Smokey have been married three years and still no kids?"
I couldn't hold back. "What are you getting at?"
"Nothing. Just seems like a waste—a woman that beautiful not passing on her genes."
Then he smirked and shoved his phone in my face.
A hotel room. King bed. Him and Smokey tangled together, her face flushed with satisfaction.
"I've always wondered," he said, leaning closer, "does she look at you like that too?"
I punched him.
Smokey had just walked back. She saw everything.
She ran straight to Derek and pulled him behind her.
"Smokey, I only said I envied him for having such a gentle wife." Derek's voice dripped with wounded innocence. "And he hit me."
Her palm cracked across my face.
"Alex, what is wrong with you? Why do you have a problem with Derek everywhere we go!" Her voice shook with fury. "From the second we got in the car, you've been giving him attitude. I told you—I'm just helping him with his treatment. Why can't you get that through your head? I never should have brought you here!"
She hurled a lantern at me, grabbed Derek's hand, and disappeared into the crowd.
I didn't follow.
I picked up the lantern. Wrote six words: Never see Smokey again.
Then I walked out of the square, flagged a cab, and headed for the airport.
Smokey was writing wishes with Derek when unease prickled at her chest. She glanced at his lantern: Smokey, I want to be with you forever.
She frowned. "Derek, I'm only helping you because you used to stand up for me when we were kids. Once you're better, you're leaving."
The uneasiness wouldn't fade. She turned toward the crowd, then pulled out her phone and opened her chat with Alex.
The last message was days old.
Guilt crept in. She thought of everything he'd done for her—and how badly she'd treated him lately. How often she'd hurt him.
She was about to put her phone away, already planning how to make it up to him, when a notification popped up.
Reminder: Pick up express delivery—Divorce Certificate.
