He crinkled his nose. “How do you know that was a her?”
“I have eyes.” Adelie smiled in an attempt to cover the uneasy speculation swimming inside of her. He’d mentioned coming to Paris with someone else before. Was it with whoever this Ruby was?
“Are you going to tell me who she is? You don’t have to. I mean, I know this is just a favor you’re doing me, and we’re not on a real honeymoon or anything like that. I don’t want to keep you from anything.”
What was she doing, saying something like that? The words hurt on their way out. She didn’t realize how heartless it sounded until they’d already escaped. The truth was, she was falling for him. An admission like this made it sound like he was as disposable to her as she felt to him in that moment.
Maddox’s green eyes glinted with realization. A crease appeared between his brows, and he scowled at his phone.
“You’re right,” he said, resting a hand on Adelie’s arm. He then brandished the phone. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”
With determination, he strolled away from her, away from the wooden pedestrian bridge they’d paused near and its view of the Seine running right through the city. The river appeared almost concrete, like another street.
Adelie waited a moment near the bridge’s side, taking in its lampposts and the benches lining every handful of feet. She remembered hearing a story of a love lock bridge in Paris, where tourists would attach a padlock to its barrier and throw the key into the Seine as a symbol of their undying love. It hadn’t been all that long ago that the number of locks attached to the bridges began compromising the bridge’s safety and stability because of their massive weight, and the mayor of Paris had ordered the locks to be removed.
Had this bridge been a love lock bridge?
Whether it had been or not, this was Paris, the City of Lights, arguably one of the most romantic places in the world. It wasn’t exactly the ideal location to get ditched.
Adelie couldn’t deny that was how she felt watching Maddox turn away from her to answer the call of an extremely beautiful woman who he refused to tell her anything about.
The same jealousy that had gnawed at her during their lunch turned from a drip to a deluge. She wasn’t unfamiliar with the sensation. She’d spent the entirety of her teenage and adult life watching every guy she’d ever been interested in show interest in someone else.
She hadn’t had a claim on any of them, though, so the heartache that usually accompanied those instances had been relatively easy to manage.
This, though. Like it or not, she did have a claim on Maddox. A huge claim. Adelie tried to argue it away, to tell herself she shouldn’t be so rash, that regardless of the M-word joining them, their relationship wasn’t that serious and never would be. While she’d wished their wedding was more of the romantic variety, she hadn’t realized until that moment how badly she wished their relationship was everything that word stood for and more.
An unforeseen wave of sadness swept over her as she watched his back, as he continued his conversation, as he made his way farther and farther from her.
Before he’d taken the call, he’d said she was right. He’d told her to wait for him.
She was right? Right about what, how he shouldn’t let her keep him from talking to whoever this other woman was?
Adelie stepped out of herself for a moment. What was she doing here? She was in this heritage-rich city, standing on a bridge, surrounded by dozens of others but feeling utterly alone. Adelie hadn’t known herself since she met Maddox. He was constantly trying to get her to be something she wasn’t. A model. A wife.
She should have stood her ground from the start. Then again, was there a better time to start doing just that?
The old Adelie would have waited near the bridge. She would have hung around while her husband was off chatting on the phone with another woman, too scared to navigate her way back to their hotel room on her own.
She was done being that timid dormouse. She was ready to be the Cheshire Cat, living each day with a smile, coming and going as she pleased. If that meant she was a little mad, she’d take it.
Not waiting to catch his attention, or seeing if he would make his way back toward her, Adelie walked away from the fence and down the bridge. She had money. She could find her own hotel room. Maybe in America, back where everyone knew her as the Alice to his Wonderland, she had to play the part to the role she’d agreed to. But here in France?
She was ready to be the woman she’d always dreamed of being. Larger than life, confident, secure, no longer letting anyone else dictate her actions or make her live in fear. She was also beyond eager to have her own room to manage her heartbreak without having a witness.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Adelie made her way to the nearest bus stop and boarded, feeling strangely out of focus. She sat on the first available seat, not bothering to make her way to the bus’s upper level the way she’d done with Maddox, and she rode her way through the city toward the Elir.
The longer Adelie rode, the more she began to awaken from her selfishness. What was she thinking? Maddox had invited her here. He’d paid for their airfare, the hotel, he’d arranged everything. He’d been so kind to her. She was being petty over a silly phone call. It didn’t mean anything, and if it did, the least she could do was allow him to explain who it was.
She checked her phone, eager to text him and apologize, only to press the button multiple times and receive no response.
“Great,” she muttered to herself. She’d forgotten its
