Page 56 of How to Ruin Your Ex's Wedding
Pax throws back his head and laughs, so I do the same.
Which is how Hunter finds us when the door opens.
16
Pax
“What on earth? Tabatha, what is going on here? Who is this man?” Hunter asks her.
I realize I don’t have my hat or glasses on, so he would have no real way of knowing I’m actually the photographer.
Tabby scrambles to get off my lap, turning and contorting until she’s in a pose akin to yoga’s downward dog before straightening with superhuman core strength.
“Hunter,” she starts, pushing her feet back into her heels. “Thank god, we’ve been stuck in this elevator for over half an hour.”
She moves forward and gives him a hug. Hunter does not return the gesture. Instead, he looks over Tabby’s shoulder at me. I collect my jacket from the floor and hold it in one hand, my camera bags in the other. He looks annoyed, not worried. Just saying, if my girl was half an hour late, I’d be happy to find her okay when all was said and done.
“You had your shoes off,” he says to Tabby.
That’s what he’s going with?
“Uh, yeah,” Tabatha says. “I had to climb on Pa—Matthew's shoulder to try and open the roof hatch. But we couldn’t get it open, I think it’s locked—”
“Why didn’t you call someone?”
“We didn’t have service,” Tabatha explains.
“I have service,” Hunter says, narrowing his eyes.
“Well, I didn’t.” Tabatha takes a step back from him. “What? Do you think I’m lying?”
Hunter remains silent.
Wow. Okay.
“Uh, I didn’t have service either,” I add, putting my hat back on and tossing the glasses in my camera bag.
“I don’t need to hear from you,” Hunter says to me. “Who are you anyway? Clearly the hat and hair are fake, so you can take that ridiculous thing off. And what happened to the mustache? Did you shave or was that fake too? Are you even a photographer?”
“I assure you, I’m—”
“It’s Pax, Hunter.” Tabby looks down at her feet for a minute, then squares her shoulders and looks back up at him.
“Pax?” His mouth drops open. “Pax, as in your ex-husband, Pax?”
“Yes. I didn’t know it was him when you hired him,” she says.
“You mean whenwehired him,” Hunter says.
“Well, it was mostly you and Liza. I mean, I wasn’t really—” Tabatha starts.
“Oh, come on, Tabatha. Give me a break.” Hunter sneers. “You expect me to believe that you didn’t know it was him. That you didn’t push for him to take our pictures?”
“No! I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even get a say in the matter, Liza is the one—”
“You’re going to blame Liza for this?” Hunter asks, his expression cold and impassive.
“I hired Matthew Hanhauser,” Liza pipes in. “I don’t know who this guy is.”
