Page 32 of Unfaithful

Maybe tomorrow I would feel lighter. Maybe tomorrow, the ceiling wouldn't feel like it was caving in.

A knock at the door made me turn.

"Sara," Archie's voice seeped through. "Can I come in?"

I hesitated for a moment before I answered. "Yeah."

The door creaked open, and Archie stepped inside, his face etched with concern.

He said nothing at first; he just stood there, watching me like he was trying to figure out how broken I really was. I turned back to the ceiling, unwilling to meet his gaze for too long.

After a beat, he said, "Are you okay?"

I let out a dry, humorless chuckle, but I said nothing.

"You're not okay," he concluded. He walked over and got on the bed, stretching beside me and folding his hands over his belly. "What are you looking at?" he asked.

"The ceiling."

"What's interesting about it?"

"Nothing."

"Want to talk about it?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Then let's talk about something else," he offered.

"Like what?"

"I had told no one about this, but I almost got married once."

My head snapped toward him. "What?"

He chuckled. "I was deep in the mountains, covering a conflict between rival factions that had turned a village into a battleground. The horrors those people faced... you couldn't even imagine. I stayed there for two weeks. The village chief was kind enough to give me and my crew room and board for a small fee."

He paused, shifting his long legs and crossing one over the other. "The chief had a daughter..." His gaze flicked to me, a small grin curving his lips.

I narrowed my eyes, already sensing where this was going.

"She was gorgeous—olive skin, inky black hair, big, expressive eyes, and cheeks always flushed. She had a way of drawing me in, completely captivating me. We flirted constantly, though she spoke little English, so most of our conversations happened through stolen glances and lingering looks." He paused for a moment to clear his throat. "Then, one night..."

"You slept with her?" I blurted it out before I could stop myself.

"Yeah. And the next day, she went to her father, telling him I took her virginity—which she wasn't a virgin, by the way—and demanded that I marry her. He had me and my crew captured immediately and thrown into a cell. They set the wedding for the next day."

"So, what did you do?"

"We escaped in the middle of the night and never went back."

I burst out laughing. "You coward!"

He grinned. "But I got you to laugh," he said.

"Was it a true story?" Suspicion crept into my voice.

He shrugged. "Yes. She was pretty, and I was lonely."

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