“It’s amazing.”
She leaned against him.
I stared at the road.
Five years.
Birthdays.
Christmas mornings.
Sunday dinners with his parents.
Late-night movies.
Arguments.
Apologies.
Plans.
The first apartment we rented.
The first couch we bought.
The night my grandmother died and Mason sat on the bathroom floor with me until sunrise.
All of it suddenly existed beside another life.
One with ultrasound photographs.
One with a hotel.
One with a woman calling him sweetheart.
I should have stopped the car.
I should have screamed.
Instead, something in me became very cold.
I asked,
“How long have you two been married?”
The silence that followed was immediate.
Mason looked at me.
Chloe did not notice his panic.
She smiled brightly.
“Just a month.”
My fingers went numb.
“A month?”
“Yes.”
“Small ceremony.”
“Just family.”
She laughed.
“We didn’t want anything huge because I’m already exhausted all the time.”
I swallowed.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Then she continued.
“I live in Milwaukee.”
“Mason works here.”
