Page 140 of Finding Us

I smile. “No.”

“You want more?” He smiles back.

“Way more.”

He continues, and the makeup shower sex is awesome. But I still feel like something is off with him. He isn’t telling me something. I don’t know why he thinks he needs to hide stuff from me. He should be able to tell me anything. So why is he doing this?

Later, as we’re eating dinner, Garret’s phone rings. He checks it and ignores the call. It rings again as I’m cleaning the dishes. This time he answers it.

“Hey. I can’t make it.” He listens, then says, “Maybe some other night. See ya.”

“Who was that?” I close the dishwasher and dry my hands on the towel.

“Just some guy I met today.”

“At school?”

“Yeah, at the gym.”

“What did he want?”

“He invited us to a party tonight. I told him we couldn’t make it.”

“Why can’t we go?”

“Because we don’t go to parties.” Garret walks over to the couch and sits down.

“Just because we didn’t go to parties at Moorhurst doesn’t mean we can’t go to them here.” I take a seat at the end of the couch, facing him.

“Jade, parties are just a bunch of people drinking. And you don’t drink.”

“You don’t either. Do you?”

“I meant to say ‘we.’Wedon’t drink. Therefore we don’t go to parties.”

I tuck my legs into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. “Garret, you can drink. I don’t care.”

“Yeah, you do. But it’s fine. I don’t need to.” He turns the TV on and starts flipping through the channels.

“Hey.” I stretch my leg out and nudge him with my foot. “Can we talk about this?”

His eyes remain on the TV. “What’s there to talk about?”

I don’t like his tone. He sounds angry. What’s his problem today? It’s like he got up on the wrong side of the bed.

“Garret, what’s going on with you?”

He doesn’t answer. He found a sports show to watch and now he’s not listening to me. I sit next to him and take the remote, turning the TV off.

“I was watching that.” He tries to get the remote but I hide it behind me.

“Tell me what’s wrong. You’ve been acting weird all day and I don’t like it.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Can I have the remote back now?”

“On our wedding night, you said I could kick your ass if you’re being a bad husband. Well, I’m officially kicking your ass.”

“Why? I didn’t do anything.”

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