Before You Go

Chapter Six

"Where do you live?" Carter asks me after ten minutes of complete silence.

I tell him my address and I input it in his car's GPS navigation system. "So, we're finally able to ask these questions?"

"We crossed a lot boundaries since this morning, Valentine Clarke." he states, still keeping his attention on the road. "But we're not even, yet. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm in marketing." I shrug. "It's not as impressive as being a pilot, that's for sure."

"My job is not that impressive."

"You get to travel the world, see new places, watch the sun rise and set at thirty-five thousand feet above the ground. You're flying the freaking plane. That's very impressive, Carter." I frown at him. I know he's just being modest with his work, but he has no idea how amazing it is.

"It's not all that glamourous. I'm away from home a substantial amount of time." he mutters and steals a glance at me. "I was away from Cynthia a lot. And it's part to blame for our divorce. She wanted and needed attention and I couldn't give her enough of it because I was always away. always at work."

"I didn't look at it like that." I say and look down at my hands on my lap.

"She accused me of cheating multiple times when I never did. She'd think I had a girl in every layover trip that I had. I'm too tired to even eat when we arrive at the hotel."

"Why would she think that?"

"Pilots have a reputation for being womanizers- different girls in different countries." his voice is hushed, and I can see him clenching his jaw. He's gripping the wheel now, his knuckles slowly starting to turn white. "It pisses me off because I never cheated on her, or even thought about it."

My gaze drops back down to my hands. "Technically, you did with me on March 15. You two weren't divorced yet."

"March 15 doesn't count." the gloom on his expression is replaced, and he's smiling now.

But I'm not. "Carter, I slept with you, stayed two days and nights together with you while you were still legally married."

"What are you trying to say?" he asks. "Yes, we slept together while I was still married but I was going to divorce my wife anyway. I caught her cheating on me red-handed. The baby isn't even mine. I wasn't planning, nor did I ever have thoughts about staying with her. I thought I was clear about that the night we met."

"I feel like a homewrecker, okay?" I huff out and cross my arms over my chest like a little girl. "I knowingly slept with a married man."

He releases a pent-up breath. "Val..."

He trails off. He doesn't know what to tell me. I don't know what to say. So we don't say anything, and the car is silent again. I use the silence to my advantage and think. I think about how I possibly helped wrecked a marriage.

His wife cheated on him. His wife has a baby with another man's child.

I look outside the window. It's dark now.

"In ten yards, turn right." the automated female GPS system says. Carter turns right. "You have arrived at your destination. Your destination is to your right."

He stops the car, but I don't unbuckle my seatbelt to get off. We sit there for good minute or two in complete silence.

"Val..." he starts. "You didn't destroy my marriage. Cynthia did that all by herself when she decided to invite another man to my house, to my bed."

I don't respond to him right away. I know he's trying to reassure me that whatever we did has nothing to do with his divorce. I know that. It's just not an easy feeling to shake off especially when my own father had an affair.