Chapter 2

Nina came home at two in the morning.

Her face was flushed with a satisfied glow, her eyes sparkling with a joy I hadn't seen in years.

The silk dress she was wearing, once smooth and pristine, was now a wrinkled mess.

She saw me, and her smile faded slightly. "Why are you still awake?"

"Waiting for you," I said, my eyes fixed on her.

Specifically, on a suspicious-looking stain on her dress.

"I just had a last-minute appearance, that's why I'm so late," she explained.

She was still wearing her gloves, keeping a careful distance from me, just like always.

But tonight, for the first time ever, she didn't rush to the shower to change the second she walked in the door.

Instead, she sat on the couch in her disheveled clothes.

Like a tired soldier after a long, hard battle.

Sensing my silence, she pulled a beautifully wrapped box from her purse and held it out to me. "Look, I brought you a gift."

"To celebrate our engagement today."

I didn't take it. Instead, I picked up the bottle of rubbing alcohol from the table.

She paused, then chuckled. "You don't have to be so careful. My mysophobia is much better now. I don't mind you."

As she spoke, she pulled off her gloves, extending her pale, slender fingers toward me.

Just as her fingertips were about to touch my skin, I squeezed the spray bottle. The sharp smell of alcohol filled the air.

"No. I mind." Her smile vanished completely. "Austin, can you please grow up?"

"I already told you, it was just for work. The thing with Jace is just a publicity stunt. It's fake."

"A stunt? You're getting engaged to him and it's a stunt?"

Nina rolled her eyes with annoyance. "This is how the entertainment industry works. You think I want to do this?"

She paused, then softened her voice. "Why don't you... go take a shower now."

"We can... you know... do it an extra time this month. As compensation?"

She tilted her head up slightly, her red lips parted in a mock invitation.

In the seven years we’d been together, sex with her felt more like a charity donation.

Once a month, like clockwork. Cold, and utterly passionless.

And now, she was trying to pay me off with it.

I took the bottle of alcohol and sprayed it all over her and her wrinkled dress.

"What are you doing?!" Nina shrieked, scrambling backward.

I turned and walked toward the door. "I'm going for a walk to clear my head."

"Austin!"

I ignored her shouting and slammed the door behind me.