“Fuck your sorry. Both of you. Your sorries mean nothing. Why would you even say anything about all this? It was none of your business and now you’ve ruined everything. You’ve ruined me.”
He sighed. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“What do you care, anyway?”
“You know why. I can’t win you back if you’re fake married to him.” He gave a disgusted nod toward Tucker. “He’s barely a man, Holly. What were you thinking?”
I flinched, as another wave of embarrassment flowed through me.
“How’d you even know about that?” Tucker asked.
He was right. We hadn’t told anyone except Meredith and people we trusted. How did Rick know about the fake marriage and our attempt to secure a donation for the library.
“It’s a small town. I have friends here.”
“Yeah, Smarmy Stark,” Tucker sneered. “How much did he pay you?”
I flinched. What?
“Don’t put this on me,” Rick said to Tucker. “You’re why all this has gone down.”
“Fuck you.”
I put my hand on Tucker’s arm, not wanting another altercation.
“She’s smart enough to know you’re an asshole. I mean seriously, what sort of idiot would leave a woman like her on her wedding day? You’re the biggest fucking moron in the world.”
Rick leaned in closer to Tucker. “At least it would have been a real wedding.”
I wanted to punch them both. Luckily the car pulled up. “You two can continue your pissing match, but I’m going home.”
“No, it wouldn’t have been real because clearly you didn’t love her. My fake marriage was more real, in every way, than whatever you had before.” He followed me down the steps and opened the car door for me.
I got in, and sat ramrod straight as I waited for him to get in and drive us home.
“Holly, really, I’m sor—”
“Don’t bother, Tucker. The plan was foolish from the start. I was an idiot to think it could work.”
“It wasn’t an idiot thing to do. It would have worked.”
I shrugged.
Too late to know now. We drove the rest of the way in silence.
As he neared my house I said, “You can just let me off.”
“What?”
“You can go back to your place. There’s no reason for you to stay.”
“Holly, let’s talk about this.”
“About what? There’s nothing to talk about. The ruse is over. Now we can go back to our old lives, just like we planned.” Of course, I couldn’t go back to my old life. I was now the town idiot. How would I ever show my face?
“What about my stuff?” His voice was tight.
“If you need it now—”