looked at me yet again. Rachel noticed; her shoulders sagged.
“That’s why.”
She spoke more quietly. “That’s why you kept touching me every time she walked past.”
“That is not true.”
“You barely touched me in the car.”
“Rachel.”
“You were annoyed with me at check-in because I forgot the phone charger. Then she walked into the lobby and suddenly you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”
“And when you thought she was with another man, you practically dropped my hand.”
The entire arrangement suddenly made sense to her. She studied her wine, then looked at him.
“She wasn’t the audience,” she said.
“What?”
“I was.”
Then she corrected herself: “No. That’s not right.”
Her eyes grew wet, though she refused to cry. “I was the prop.”
Daniel reached for her and she moved away.
“Don’t.”
“Rachel, come upstairs. We’ll talk.”
“No.”
“Stop making a scene.”
That was a disastrous
