Page 45 of Revenge Honeymoon

“And he didn’t love me back.” Ruby sighed. “I guess I was good enough to date, but not good enough to marry.”

“He’s a fool.” Emily picked up one of the many tubes of sunburn cream she’d bought at the ship’s store and spread a thick layer on her stomach to quell the heat.

Ruby held out her hand for Emily to pass the tube. “I’m the fool.”

“You could never be a fool.” She squirted a dollop of cream onto her best friend’s hand. “You’re brilliant and smart and successful...”

“Not that successful.” Ruby rubbed cream into her arm.

“What do you mean?” Emily screwed the cap back on and set the tube on the nightstand. “You’re the top salesperson at work. You are a sell monster.”

“I used to be.” Ruby carefully rolled on her side to face Emily.

“But you and Tyler...the big wedding, the new house, and the Beamer.” Emily blinked. “I thought you bought that with bonus money.”

“It’s a lease.”

“Oh.” Emily rolled on her side so that they were facing each other.

“I thought the wedding would fix everything. Two incomes, shared expenses, and he didn’t seem to mind all of the travel I had to do.”

Emily wiped a clump of cream off her friend’s eyebrow. “So wait? I thought you guys looked so perfect. I thought you were in love. I thought—”

“I don’t know.” The former bride pressed her lips together. “Maybe I don’t know what love is supposed to look like. I mean, he stood me up at our wedding. Clearly, I wasn’t reading the signals right.”

They both rolled onto their backs.

“So work’s not going so well?” Emily asked.

Ruby blew air out of her cheeks. “They like young and hot at my work.”

“You’re young and hot.” How could anyone say Ruby was not young and the hottest of hot?

“I’m pushing thirty, Em.”

Emily raised her eyebrows. “That’s still young.” Who knew gorgeous Ruby was considered old and haggard in her job? Ridiculous. They must’ve lost their minds.

“Not in the pharmaceutical industry it isn’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before, Rubes? I had no idea.” Emily had assumed her friend had it made based on looks alone. That she hardly had to try to sell the latest drugs to the doctors she visited every month.

“It was embarrassing,” Ruby said in a low voice.

“Oh, hon, nothing you could tell me would make me think any less of you.”

“I had a hard time admitting it to myself.”

Emily picked up the room service menu from their nightstand. “Hey, remember when we were kids, what we’d do when we had a bad day?”

“Pig Out City!” Ruby cackled.

“Yes! You remember!”

“How could I forget?” Ruby popped up from her prone position and sat cross-legged on the bed. White cream smeared all over the comforter. “Roll the dice, the number on one die determines the food, the number on the other determines the bites.”

“Maybe we need to order room service?” And a new comforter. Emily grimaced at the amount of cream that had transferred to it. “Piles of room service. And play some Pig Out City.”

Emily sat up and shared the menu with her best friend, so they could examine the choices together.

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