Chapter 3

"Hettie, why are you here?"

The color drained from Job's face, and he let go of Michelle's hand without thinking.

Once the shock passed, Michelle looked at me with mock reproach. "Hettie, how could you come without telling me? Do you even still think of me as a friend?"

If I'd told her, how would I ever have found out what the two of them had been up to behind my back these five years.

I stared at them coldly. "Am I not allowed to come? Or is it that you're afraid I'll find something out?"

Michelle let out an exaggerated laugh. "How could that be? We'd be thrilled to have you here."

"Oh, right, let me take my parents to the dining room to eat first. You two talk for a bit."

Afraid they'd say the wrong thing, Michelle grabbed one parent in each hand and marched them out of there.

Only then did Job breathe easier.

He pulled me off to an empty corner, his tone put-upon. "Hettie, how could you just show up without a word? And last night when I texted you, why didn't you tell me?"

I looked him dead in the eye, cold. "I spent my own money to come have a good time. Is there a problem with that?"

Catching that something was off in my mood, Job froze for a second, then pulled me into his arms the way he always used to.

"Hettie, that's not what I meant. It's just that you came without a word and I hadn't prepared anything. I only worried that once work got busy I wouldn't be able to look after you."

The moment he held me, the thick smell of perfume on him made me choke.

I remembered that this was the scent Michelle always wore.

I pushed him away in disgust.

"Job, I'm an adult. I can take care of myself."

"And how is it I didn't know when you got so close with Michelle and her parents?"

Job's expression stiffened.

He said it as if it were the most natural thing. "She's your best friend. Of course I'd look after them properly for you. I only did it for your sake. Don't go getting jealous over nothing."

Michelle, having settled her parents, came running back, and hearing this, she offered an apologetic explanation. "Hettie, don't take what my parents said just now to heart."

"You know how old folks are. They want to travel but they hate spending money, so I lied and told them Job was my boyfriend, that he could bring them on the cruise for free."

I wasn't looking at her. All my attention was on the rings on her ring finger and on Job's.

Six months into our relationship, Job proposed to me.

But every time before he boarded the ship, he'd put his ring away.

When I asked him about it, confused, he'd said it with such gravity. "There are so many people on the ship. What if I lost it?"

Back then I even laughed at him for being silly. Only now do I understand that I was the one who was a fool through and through.

My best friend and my boyfriend had been together behind my back for five years, and I was the last one to know.

Sensing my gaze, Michelle hurriedly pulled off her ring and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Hettie, don't get the wrong idea. This is a perk the company handed out to its top employees last year. Lots of my coworkers have one."

Job was quick to change the subject too.

"All right."

"Since you're here, tonight I'll take you somewhere good to eat. Right now I have to get to work. Be a good girl and wait for me in your room."