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“I assumed no, but I just wanted to?—”
“You didn’t assume if you had to ask,” he snapped. “And no, there was no one else. There’s never been anyone else since the moment you agreed to marry me.”
My eyes dropped to the bubbles on the surface. “I wasn’t with anyone?—”
“I assumed so.” His deep voice commanded me to look at him again. “That’s what trust looks like.”
Everything had been perfect the last two days, but now it all went to shit. “I didn’t mean to offend you?—”
“But you did.”
“We weren’t together. It’s not like you would have been cheating?—”
“Physically together or apart, we’re together as far as I’m concerned.”
“I just want to make it clear I wasn’t accusing you of anything,” I said. “So please stop jumping down my throat.”
He looked away, grabbed his glass, and downed the rest of the contents. He returned it and stared at it a moment longer beforehe looked at me again. A slow breath moved into his chest and then out again. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
The tightness in my chest evaporated.
“That was a hard time for me. Anytime I think about it…” He looked at the empty wineglass again.
“It’s okay.”
Silence trickled by, and he stared at the open bottle of wine like he was considering pouring another glass, but his mind must have been somewhere else because he didn’t reach for it. “What are your plans for the restaurant?” Maybe he asked because he really wanted the answer, or maybe he just wanted to change the subject.
“Um, I kinda dropped everything this last week. But I signed a lease for that hole-in-the-wall we saw together.”
He looked at me again. “I thought we agreed a bigger place was more suitable.”
“The bank wouldn’t give me a bigger loan than what they offered, so that was all I could afford.”
“We’ll cancel the lease.”
“That’s not how it works. I’m committed for the next year.”
“That’s a problem I can fix.”
“How?”
“Money.”
“Axel, it’s fine. I don’t mind opening a smaller place, and I’d rather not waste money.”
“You’ll waste more money running that little place and expanding later rather than doing it right from the beginning. I really think your food deserves something much grander, something that attracts the wealthy people of this city. That hole-in-the-wall place blends in with everything else on the street. It’s saturated. You need something that stands out.”
“I think it’s fine?—”
“Well, I don’t,” he said. “My family and I own lots of businesses throughout the city, so I know a thing or two about this sort of enterprise. Let me help you.”
My arms crossed over my chest under the water.
“You wouldn’t have signed that lease if things had been different.”
If my father hadn’t sabotaged my life.
He never actually said the words, but it was clear in his gaze.
