Chapter 4 - The Empty Side of the Drive
I didn't go back to the table. I couldn't stand the thought of sitting down in that green dress with everyone watching to see if I would cry or cause a scene.
I slipped through the side aisle toward the lobby, past the white floral towers and the cleared dessert plates. My heels sounded too loud on the marble. I kept my chin up because I'd learned a long time ago that if you look like you know where you're going, people don't stop you.
Nathan stayed a half-step behind me. He didn't touch me. That mattered.
"What did he mean, pre-planned?" I asked once we were out of the ballroom doors. My voice was low. The lobby air was cooler.
He glanced toward the front glass. "Ask the valet. You'll want to hear it from him, not me."
The porte-cochere glowed warm under the hotel lights. A line of tuxedos and gowns waited at the valet stand, laughing, checking phones, pretending the night wasn't ending. I didn't want to stand in that line. I could already feel two women from table twelve looking at me.
I stepped up anyway. The valet was young, maybe twenty-two, with a little book in his hand.
"Hi," I said. I tried to keep it steady. "My husband — Daniel — black tux, short brown hair. Did he pull his car around?"
The kid flipped a page. "Last name?"
"My last name is Carter," I said. "Daniel Carter. Dark blue Audi, I think. He parked it himself."
He checked his screen, then frowned. "Yeah. About twenty minutes ago. Your husband had us bring it up. He left with the lady in the red dress."
My stomach dropped, even though I'd already known. Hearing someone else say it made it real.
"You're sure?" Nathan asked from beside me.
"Yes, sir. I opened the door for her myself. Long blonde hair, red dress you couldn't miss. They turned right out of the drive toward downtown."
I nodded because I didn't trust my mouth. The couple behind me shifted closer. I could smell perfume and bourbon.
I stepped to the side, out from under the awning light, and opened my clutch. Lipstick. Powder compact. My phone with the cracked corner I'd been meaning to fix. A folded valet ticket for a coat I hadn't brought.
No key. Daniel had driven us here. He'd kept the fob in his jacket pocket like he always did because my little purse couldn't fit anything. I'd never even thought to ask for the spare.
I stared at that empty space where a solution should have been. My fingers were shaking just enough that the crystal bracelet slid down my wrist.
"Claire?" Nathan said quietly. He'd remembered my name from the ballroom.
I snapped the clutch shut. "He took the car."
"I heard."
The valet line was getting longer. A man in a gray tux kept glancing over. I knew what tomorrow's version would be at the office — did you see his wife just standing there?
I started doing the math in my head. Call a rideshare in this dress? Stand out on the sidewalk and wait forty minutes while everyone from the gala drove past? Call my mom at almost eleven and tell her my husband left me at the company gala?
Nathan must have seen it on my face.
"Look," he said, "the dressing suites have their own entrance around the west side. Private hall, no crowd. You said you left your wrap and your bag up there?"
"My tote with my flats and my apartment keys," I said. "Second floor suite."
"I've got my car right here in self-park. I can drive you around to that side door in two minutes. You won't have to stand in this line."
I looked at him. The lobby light caught the edge of his tux jacket. He wasn't smiling. He wasn't reaching for me either.
"You don't even know me," I said.
"I know enough to know you don't want to cry in front of these people," he said. "That's all I'm offering. A ride around the building."
A black SUV pulled up and the gray-tux man waved and stared straight at me. My cheeks burned.
I thought about Daniel's Audi turning right toward downtown with her in the passenger seat. The seat I'd sat in on the way here when he'd told me to smile tonight because the partners were watching.
"Okay," I said before I could talk myself out of it. "Just to the suite door. That's it."
May you like
He nodded once and started walking toward the garage elevator, matching his pace to mine so my heels could keep up. I didn't look back at the valet stand.
Behind us, another car door slammed and tires rolled over the drive where Daniel's car should have been waiting for me.
