He was trying to distract me. Trying to spare me from standing there watching what everyone else could clearly see. It was kind. It was also humiliating.
“Yeah,” I managed. “I was just looking.”
“That Sedona package looks amazing. My wife and I went there last spring. Beautiful hiking. Great restaurants. Totally worth it if you can get it for a reasonable bid.”
I nodded, pretending to listen, but my eyes kept dragging back toward Levi and Sienna across the room. Marcus kept talking about hiking trails and red rocks, filling the silence with words that didn’t matter, and I appreciated it even as it made me want to disappear. After ten minutes of that painful kindness, I made a decision. I was done hiding at the silent auction table. I was done being protected by near strangers who felt sorry for me. If Levi wanted to parade his affair in front of everyone we knew, then I was going to make him look me in the eye while he did it. I grabbed two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and walked straight toward them. Sienna saw me first. Her eyes flicked to me, and for one second I saw irritation flash across her face. Annoyance at the interruption. At the wife showing up to ruin whatever moment they thought they were having. Then her expression smoothed into professional politeness so fast I almost doubted I’d seen the real reaction underneath.
“Hazel,” Levi said, accepting the champagne I handed him without making eye contact, without thanking me, without acknowledging that I’d been waiting alone for forty-five minutes while he laughed with another woman. “This is Sienna from marketing. Sienna, my wife, Hazel.”
Not my wife Hazel. Not Hazel, who I’m lucky to be married to. Just my wife, as if I were a category, a role, a piece of furniture.
Sienna extended a manicured hand and gave me a perfectly practiced smile.
“Oh, I’ve heard so much about you.”
The lie was so transparent it was almost funny. Levi never talked about me at work. I knew because his colleagues had stopped asking how I was at these events. When someone’s name never comes up, people stop inquiring.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking her hand briefly.
Then I tried to join their conversation. I really did. Over the next hour, I made four separate attempts to be part of whatever they were discussing. Every time, Levi either talked over me mid-sentence, or Sienna smoothly pivoted into some inside joke about the office, something about a presentation gone wrong, about their boss’s terrible golf stories, about the new hire who couldn’t figure out the coffee machine, details deliberately designed to exclude the wife who didn’t belong. When I mentioned that some of the silent auction items looked interesting, Levi actually sighed out loud, like I was a child interrupting something important with something trivial. Sienna touched his shoulder and leaned in, whispering something I couldn’t hear. He grinned, that same intimate grin, and whispered back. She laughed, her hand lingering on his arm. I stood there holding my champagne, invisible. Irrelevant. A prop in someone else’s story. After ninety minutes of it, something inside me finally broke. Not dramatically. Just quietly, like a bone cracking under pressure it was never meant to hold. I interrupted them mid-sentence.
“Levi, I’d like to leave soon. I’m not feeling well.”
He looked at me like I’d just announced I was setting the building on fire.
“Now? We just got here.”
“We’ve been here almost two hours.”
Sienna glanced between us, expression carefully neutral, but I saw the satisfaction under it. She was enjoying this, watching me ask my husband to leave, watching him choose her over my comfort, watching me lose in real time.
“We’ve been here almost two hours,” I repeated quietly.
Levi’s jaw tightened. He leaned closer, lowering his voice, but not enough. Marcus was still nearby. That couple by the bar was definitely listening.
“Look, if you can’t handle me talking to a colleague without getting insecure about it, maybe you should just walk away.”
