Page 5 of Seven Year Itch

"I'm on your side, always, but in this case, I think you've got it wrong, and as your friend, I'm just pointing that out."

"Come on, you've got to admit it all sounds suspicious. And according to the article in Ardor—"

Mia cut her off. "Are you really going to take that load of crap as gospel?"

"Well... no," Ali said, feeling a little embarrassed.

Mia didn't let her off the hook. "You are!" She snorted. "It's a bunch of garbage, Ali."

"It made some valid points," she kept defending, feeling silly she'd brought it up in the first place. "What would you do if you suspected Mark was cheating on you?"

Heat entered her eyes, and a twisted smile warped her lips. "I'd castrate him."

Ali laughed. "There's the Mia I know and love." Then after a beat of silence, she confessed, "I'm thinking of looking through his phone. If he's hiding something, it'll be in there."

Mia's expression turned serious again and her brow furrowed. "Do you really think that's such a good idea?"

"Absolutely. At the very least, I'll find out who's texting him all the time."

"Just don't go making a mountain out of a molehill. Promise you'll talk to me before you act on anything."

Ali nodded. "I will." She looked at the time, took the last swig of her coffee, then stood from the stool. "I've got to get Noah. Thanks again for watching Emma for me yesterday even if it was a bust."

"You know I don't mind. It's actually less work for me when she's here. She keeps Callie company and saves me from having to play Barbie."

Ali giggled, scooping her three-year-old off the floor and placing her on her hip. "Still, I owe you one. Maybe you and Mark can have a date night soon. God knows, my calendar is wide open."

"Call me tomorrow and let me know what you find out," Mia said, picking up her now complaining two-year-old and mimicking Ali by placing Callie on her hip. The little girl instantly stopped whining and had a big smile on her face, proud she'd gotten her way.

"I will." Ali gave her a wave as she let herself out of the house.

≈≈≈≈

Ali lay awake, waiting for the sound of deep breathing, signaling Garrett was asleep. Then waited longer, working up courage and debating with herself whether she really wanted to do what she was planning to do.

She had a moment of doubt—ashamed of herself for not trusting her husband and thinking to invade his privacy. But if Garrett wasn't hiding anything, it shouldn't matter whether she looked through his phone. And he shouldn't care.

Then why sneak around? Why not just ask to look at it?

Because if hewerehiding something, that would put them both in an awkward spot if he didn't want to hand it over. She would then have to confront him abouteverythingwhen she wasn't ready to do that yet. Not until she had more solid facts.

Sick of arguing with herself, she slowly slid from her husband's embrace. He made a noise and rolled over. She stilled, waiting to see if she'd woken him, but his breathing remained deep and even. For the first time since they started sleeping together, she wished her husband snored. She scooted the rest of the way from the bed, being careful not to jiggle it too much.

Moving silently around to Garrett's side, she made sure he was still fast asleep before nabbing his phone from the nightstand.

Dashing on her tiptoes, she made a beeline for the bathroom, soundlessly closing the door and making sure to lock it before turning on the light.

She needed to pee and decided to get that out of the way before she started snooping.

Snooping. Such a dirty, dirty word.

She looked at the phone, lying on the bathroom counter while doing her business, telling herself it wasn't too late to change her mind. But curiosity got the best of her, and though her stomach was in knots of apprehension, she still picked the damn thing up and pressed the wake button.

She punched in the password on the lock screen but nothing happened. Thinking she mistyped, she tried again with the same results.

Did he change his password?

Why would he change his password?

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