In the middle of dinner, my husband laughed and told our friends that no one else wanted me, so he married me out of pity.

Michelle leaned toward him. “Everything okay?”

Brandon locked the screen too quickly. “Yeah. Work.”

I had been married to him for eight years. I knew every version of his face: the polished conference-room face, the flirtatious dinner-party face, the irritated private face he reserved for me, the furious face he wore only when he thought no one else was watching. The face in front of me now was new. It was the face of a man realizing he was no longer in control.

Derek laughed. “At nine at night? Must be serious.”

Brandon forced a smile. “Client issue.”