“The last relationship I was in, he cheated on me.” She sighed, leaning her head back on the pillow but still maintained eye contact. “We were together for a year. I know things were good at first. We were in an off-Broadway play together and with each other practically twenty-four-seven. But then the play ended. He got another bit part practically right away. I didn’t have anything lined up for a couple of months.”
Kind of like their situation now. He could see how her imagination jumped to the wrong conclusions when she saw those pictures.
“Anyway, a few weeks after he started the new job, I started seeing less and less of him. At first, I chalked the late nights up to new-show rehearsals, and then I justified his absence to working extra hard to make a good impression. We both know the hours involved to produce a flawless opening night, right?”
She gave him an imploring look, begging him with her eyes to agree with her. He knew where this story was going and didn’t have the heart to disagree, so nodded his understanding.
“I thought it would be nice to surprise him with dinner one night. He’d texted me earlier and told me everyone had worked through without a chance to eat. When I arrived at the theater, the place was empty. Of course, curiosity got the best of me, and I went backstage. I found him in his dressing room. He wasn’t alone. He also wasn’t wearing any clothes.” For the first time in her story, a glint of anger hit her eyes. “And that, as they say, was the end of that.”
As fucked as that story was, it wasn’t nearly as fucked up as the thoughts going through his head—how he was happy the prick fucked up, giving him his shot with Victoria. Of course, he didn’t say that out loud, that would make him an asshole, admitting he didn’t give a shit about Victoria’s feelings. And he did care, he hated that she got hurt, but he was selfish enough to admit, at least to himself, he was happy it had happened.
Now he just needed to know one more thing, then he could set her straight and put this whole fucking conversation to bed. “Did you love him?”