Page 82 of A Storybook Wedding

“I didn’t out you. I outed myself. It was never you anybody took issue with. It was always me.”

“That was totally unnecessary! You ran off at the mouth, and in, like, the most public setting possible.”

“You took the call, CJ! You opened up the can of worms, not me!” He’s getting frantic, and it turns my stomach.

Several graduates and their families exit the building, huddled together like a pack of penguins in the chilly air. “Come on. Let’s go up to our room. We can’t talk here,” I say.

“Not so fast,” a voice says. We turn in its direction. Alice Devereaux stands several feet away, her arms crossed over her chest, wearing a smirk that looks nothing short of evil. “I knew it, Mr. Ellis. I knew you were full of it.”

“Please. Not now, Alice,” he says, waving her off.

“Oh, yes. Absolutely now.” She grins. “So what was it? You began cavorting with a student and then bribed her to marry you in order to keep your job? Was it some kind of gag order? Blackmail?” She rubs her hands together. In her graduation robe, she looks like a witch. The tone of voice she’s using isn’t helping her cause any.

“Professor Devereaux,” I say. “Please—”

“No more out of you,” she chides me. “You’re not the only one who is capable of faking things around here, you know. I had a strong inkling that your relationship wasn’t real as soon as I read that piece of yours prior to coming to the island. No one in her right mind could possibly marry someone when they’re hung up on an ex-lover like that.”

I still. I don’t like the tone she’s using. My face contorts. “I thought you said my writing was good.”

“Oh, it’s excellent, dear,” she seethes. “Very, very convincing.”

“I didn’t bribe anyone, Alice,” Nate says. “CJ and I are a married couple. We have the license to prove it.”

“He’s right,” I say, standing up straighter. “It’s true. It’s on file with Human Resources.”

“That may well be, but you just admitted to the wedding being a sham. Not to mention the fact that on your first day here, I could hear the two of you through the remarkably thin wall separating my bedroom from yours.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“You’d both just arrived and were discussing what to do about sleeping arrangements. This was an issue for you because—in your very words, Cecily—you were ‘living a sham life in a marriage of convenience.’” Her air quotes stab me in the throat.

I’m stunned into silence. Another group of graduation attendees slips past us, too cold to stop and watch the horror show unfold here in the middle of the walkway.

“I’m not sure what you thought you heard,” Nate says.

“Please, Mr. Ellis. That’s enough. I was lying in my bed, reading. You came hurtling in like two bulls in a china shop. I heard it all. I just needed to find a way to expose you.”

“Expose us?” I ask.

“Oh, Cecily. It’s sad because you really are so naïve,” she says. “But I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

I nod. “But why would I be your enemy?” I ask earnestly. “I never did anything to you.”

“Not you. Him.”

“Alice,” Nate sighs, exasperated. “You’ve had beef with me since last summer, and I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s a little bit tired. You need to get over yourself and move the fuck on. You’re a grown-ass woman. Please behave like one.”

She huffs. “Excuse me, Nate. Get over myself? How about you get over yourself? You sauntered into this program like the goddamn cat’s meow, but you’re just a fraud, is all that you are. I knew it from the moment they signed you.”

“You know nothing about how I got this job.”

“Not Matthias, you moron. I’m talking about Boone.”

“Boone? My publisher?”

“Yes, Boone, you reckless twit! They signed your stupid book just two weeks before I submitted the manuscript that would have changed my life—and then they told me, We’re so sorry, Alice. We just signed an author whose work has similar themes. You’ll have to submit something else. And then your asinine story took off because of lucky timing? Only a narcissistic bastard would find a way to turn a pandemic that was killing thousands of innocent people into a payday.”

The vitriol spits out of her like dragon fire.

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