Keep It After Midnight

Tessa Mercer and I had had a birthday game since we were ten. Every year on our birthdays, we were allowed to borrow one thing from the other person, then return it twenty-four hours later. At ten, she borrowed the red dress I'd just received. At eighteen, she borrowed the camera I'd spent six months saving for. At twenty-five, she drove off in my car and didn't bring it back until just before midnight, grinning as she returned it. For twenty years, I'd never once refused her. On her thirtieth birthday, Tessa finished the champagne in her glass. Across the table, piled with gifts, she lifted a hand and pointed at Xavier Dalton beside me. "I don't want any of these this year." She tilted her head, the corners of her eyes flushed from the alcohol. "Yvonne, lend me your husband for a day." Chapter 1 Laughter erupted around the table. Someone slapped a hand against it and shouted, "Tessa, you're really going there this year?" Another guest already had a phone out, the camera trained on us. For the first time, I stopped playing along. Xavier Dalton had been peeling shrimp for me, but his fingers went still halfway through, as though even he hadn't expected Tessa Mercer to choose him. She rested her chin on one hand and winked at me. "It's only twenty-four hours. You never had a problem lending me your camera or your car." I slid the plate of shrimp back in front of Xavier and met her eyes. "No." The room went quiet so fast it was almost jarring. Tessa paused, then smiled again. "Getting possessive?" "He's a person, not something for you to play with." My voice came out sharper than before. Instead of answering me, she looked past me at Xavier. "What if Xavier's willing?" My heart sank. He didn't laugh it off or tell her she was being ridiculous. He simply pulled out a wet napkin, wiped his fingers one by one, then looked at me. "I'll just spend the day with her." For a moment, I thought I'd misheard him. "Say that again." His brows drew together. "Yvonne, it's a birthday game. Don't make this awkward for everyone." Heat rushed straight to my head. "I already said no. Why should I care if anyone else feels awkward?" Tessa's smile faded. "Forget it. I'll choose something else." She reached for the car keys on the table, but Xavier got to his own first. He closed his hand around them, stood, and picked up his coat. "Come on," he said to Tessa. I grabbed his wrist so hard that my chair toppled behind me and hit the floor. "Xavier, what exactly are you doing?" He looked down at my hand, my knuckles white where I gripped him. "You've always been happy to lend her whatever she wanted. Just think of it as me spending her birthday with her." "It's my birthday too." My voice had started to shake. "You're going with her and leaving me here?" Something flickered across Xavier's face. Tessa gave his arm a light tug. "Yvonne's really upset. You should stay." Her considerate tone scraped across my chest like a dull blade. Xavier only frowned harder. "She's been spoiled rotten." Then he peeled my fingers from his wrist one at a time. "I'll be back tomorrow." The sudden emptiness in my palm made me freeze. I watched the two of them leave side by side. Just before the door swung shut, Tessa glanced back and mouthed, "Twenty-four hours." No one at the table dared laugh after that. I snatched up my purse and ran after them, but the elevator doors were already closing. Through the last narrow gap, I saw Xavier bend his head and smooth the hair that had been mussed beneath Tessa's shoulder strap. The gesture came so easily to him that my stomach churned. Back home, I threw my phone onto the coffee table and held out for half an hour before calling Xavier anyway. It rang three times before Tessa picked up. Music thundered in the background, tangled with the laughter of men and women. "Yvonne?" My grip tightened around the phone. "Put Xavier on." She laughed softly. "Once you've lent something out, you can't ask for it back halfway through." "Give him the phone." Somewhere behind her, I heard Xavier's muffled voice. Tessa brought the phone closer instead. "Did you forget our rules?" She paused. "You broke them." Then she hung up. I stayed on the couch until dawn began to pale the windows. Xavier never came home, and he didn't send a single message. I washed my face twice, but the eyes staring back at me from the mirror were still badly swollen. We'd been married five years. Even on business trips, the first thing he did after landing was text me to say he'd arrived safely. Now he was somewhere in the same city, and I had no idea where. In the end, I didn't call again. If he'd decided to lend himself out, then I'd wait and see how he planned to come back. Chapter 2 Darkness had settled over the city again by the time I finally heard the lock turn. Xavier walked in wearing a crisp shirt, his hair still damp and a strong perfume clinging to him. I stared at him. He rubbed the tip of his nose. "Still mad?" Before I could answer, Tessa peeked around him with a smile. "Special delivery~." She smiled as she held out her hand. A wedding ring lay in her palm. "Almost forgot. This needs to be returned too." Something exploded in my head. I picked up the ring and turned it between my fingers. Our initials were engraved inside, and there was still a tiny nick along the edge from where it had gotten knocked against something last year. "Why did you take it off?" Xavier swallowed. Tessa leaned against the doorframe and answered for him. "It got in the way." My hand flew up. The slap cracked across Xavier's face, turning his head to the side. Tessa went rigid. My palm burned and tingled, but somehow the pain made everything suddenly clear, as though I'd finally woken up from a ridiculous dream. "Did you two sleep together?" Xavier turned back to me, a red mark already spreading across his cheek, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. My stomach lurched. I grabbed the entryway cabinet and dry-heaved. When Xavier reached for me, I knocked his hand away. "Don't touch me." "Yvonne." His voice tightened. "We'd both been drinking last night. Later, neither of us was in a good state of mind, and I..." "You were drunk when you took your clothes off, and you were drunk when you took off your wedding ring?" I hurled the ring at him. "But you were sober enough to shower before you came home, weren't you?" The ring bounced off the floor and rolled to Tessa's feet. She glanced down at it, the faintest hint of a smile curling at the corner of her mouth. Xavier's face darkened. "What's done is done. If you want to hit me or yell at me, fine." He rubbed between his brows. "But we've been married for five years. Are you really going to make this into such a huge fight over twenty-four hours?" It felt as if something had stabbed straight through my chest. I stormed into the bedroom and started tearing his shirts and pants out of the closet. Hangers clattered against the rod as I yanked the clothes down one after another. Xavier followed me in and caught my wrist. "Yvonne Carter!" I grabbed the clothes and threw them in his face. "Go sleep somewhere else." He clenched his jaw. "Take your anger out on me if you want, but leave Tessa out of it. She was drunk last night too." My hands slowly went still. "She was so drunk she still remembered to keep your wedding ring safe?" Tessa stood in the doorway, her eyes turning red. "Yvonne, we've been friends for twenty years. Are you really going to fall out with me over a man?" I grabbed her purse and hurled it into the hall. Her compact popped open when it hit the floor, and a tube of lipstick rolled several feet away. "Get out." Tessa stood there staring at me for a few seconds before letting out a cold laugh. She bent down to pick up the lipstick, then looked at Xavier. "How much longer are you planning to keep this from her?" Xavier's expression changed instantly. Tessa shoved the lipstick back into her purse. "Before I even asked yesterday, he already knew what I was going to borrow." The room went dead still. I stared at Xavier, my fingertips still tingling from throwing everything around. "What does that mean?" His jaw tightened as he avoided my eyes. "She wanted to help me find out whether you really love me." My chest seized. Tessa gave a quiet laugh from the doorway. "That's a nice way of putting it, Xavier." I stared at him. "Find out what?" He raised an arm across the doorway, irritation plainly written across his face. "Yvonne, you're too worked up right now. Don't listen to her when she's deliberately trying to get to you." My eyes burned. "You spent the night sleeping with her, and you're worried about her upsetting me?" He went rigid. "I'll explain what happened last night." "Sure. Explain it now." I shoved his arm aside, my fingers trembling. "Explain why she already knew you'd agree." Xavier opened his mouth, then reached for me. I stepped back before he could touch me. His hand hung in the air for a moment before slowly dropping to his side. Tessa was still leaning against the doorway, but the color had suddenly drained from her face. "If you really want to know, ask him what he's been thinking for the past six months. He's convinced you don't really have him in your heart. Everything that happened last night was supposed to see whether you'd actually worry about him." My ears rang. "Tessa, shut up," Xavier snapped. Her lips twitched. Then she suddenly doubled over, one hand clamped hard against her stomach. Chapter 3 Xavier's expression changed, and he instinctively took a step toward Tessa. My heart sank with the movement, but before he reached her, he stopped himself. By then, cold sweat had broken out across Tessa's forehead. She slid down the doorframe into a crouch, her face drained of color. Xavier tightened his grip on his phone and called an ambulance. "Don't move. They'll be here soon." Tessa looked up at him. "What about you? You're not coming with me?" He hesitated, then looked past her at me. "The doctors will take care of you." The paramedics arrived soon after and took Tessa away. Once the elevator doors closed behind them, Xavier turned back to me, his eyes fixed on my face. I gripped the edge of the table for support. "What did she mean?" His throat worked. "Yvonne." "I don't want to hear my name coming from your mouth." My voice came out tight. "Before she asked to borrow you at the party, did you already know?" He didn't answer right away, but the night before was already replaying in my head. When Tessa pointed at him, he hadn't looked surprised. When I said no, he hadn't asked why or tried to make sense of what she was doing. He had simply watched me. At the time, I'd thought he was waiting for me to give in. Now I understood what I'd seen in his eyes. Expectation. Pain twisted through my chest. I dug my nails into my palm and forced myself to stay steady. "Xavier, look at me." He finally did. "When I said no, what exactly were you thinking?" Something flickered in his eyes. My nose burned, but I made myself keep going. "You already knew she was going to ask for you, didn't you?" The apartment fell so quiet that I could hear us breathing. Color slowly drained from Xavier's face. At last, he nodded. "Yes." My fingers curled tighter into my palm. His voice was rough when he continued. "I've known for six months that she was planning to ask at your birthday dinner." I stared at him, the pressure in my chest turning heavy. "Six months?" Xavier lowered his gaze, his fingers tightening unconsciously. "Ever since that time you left me home alone to go be with Tessa." Of course I remembered. He'd had a fever that day, and I'd promised to stay home and take care of him. Then Tessa called, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. She'd just been dumped, didn't want to see anyone else, and kept saying I was the only person she wanted to see. I put a cooling patch on Xavier's forehead, coaxed him into bed, and hurried over to her. By the time I got home, his fever had broken. He'd left the bedside lamp on for me, along with a glass of water on the nightstand. At the time, I'd actually felt relieved. Relieved that he never made me choose. Now the memory of that lamp seemed to burn straight through my chest. "What happened after that?" Xavier swallowed. "A few days later, I mentioned it while I was drinking with some friends." I watched him closely. "What did you say?" "That sometimes I don't understand you." His voice had gone hoarse. "I know you're good to me, but every time Tessa needs something, you always go take care of her first. Back then, I kept wondering what would happen if the two of us ever needed you at the same time. Who would you choose first?" My eyes stung. I pressed my nails harder into my palm and made myself listen. "How did Tessa find out?" "One of my friends mentioned it to her later, and she came to see me." Xavier rubbed a hand between his brows. His eyes were bloodshot. "She said if it had been bothering me that much, we might as well test it once." "How?" He was quiet for a moment. "She said that on your birthday, she'd ask to borrow me for a day." My stomach turned. "And you agreed?" "Not then." Xavier looked up at me, exhaustion weighing down his expression. "I thought it was ridiculous. But she kept asking whether I was willing to take the chance. She said if you really cared about me, you'd refuse." A laugh slipped out of me, and the tears came with it. "So you stood there waiting to see whether I'd say no?" His face went pale. I walked toward him slowly. "Did I?" Regret flashed across his eyes. "Yes." "I said no in front of everyone." My throat hurt so badly it felt raw. "You got the answer you wanted right there. So why did you still leave with her?" His lips moved several times before he managed to speak. "I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to see whether you'd come after me. Whether you'd actually worry about me." Chapter 4 My vision went dark for a second. "After that, we'd both had too much to drink. She kept using you to get under my skin, and I got worked up. I never thought things would go that far." Xavier's voice dropped lower with every word. "Yvonne, I know being drunk doesn't excuse what I did." The tears spilled over before I could stop them. "So you finally understand that now?" He went still. I wiped my face, though my fingers were shaking badly. "I couldn't bear to let you go. When she asked for you, that was the first time in twenty years I'd ever refused her, because I couldn't bear to give you up." Every trace of color left Xavier's face. He stood there as if the words had pinned him in place, his eyes slowly reddening. "When you said no that night, I should've stayed." Somehow, hearing him admit it only made the pressure in my chest worse. I turned to the drawer, took out a set of papers, and laid them on the table. I'd already smoothed every page flat and clipped a pen to the top. Xavier stared at the cover, his breathing suddenly heavier. "Divorce papers?" I nodded. He immediately shoved them back across the table. The pages scraped over the surface and bumped against the back of my hand. "You're too worked up right now." I watched the papers slide back toward me, feeling as though someone had hollowed out my chest. There was even a trace of weary patience in his voice, as if he were trying to coax me out of a tantrum. "Yvonne, don't throw away five years of marriage because you're upset." I looked at the white-knuckled grip he still had on the edge of the table and gave a bitter laugh. "You've spent all this time trying to find out how much I care about you." I pushed the pen toward him. "Now you know. It's my turn to decide what I want." Xavier stared at me. "You're too emotional right now." He picked up the agreement and moved it to the far end of the coffee table. "I'll take responsibility for what happened last night. We can talk about this when you've calmed down." The papers landed with barely a sound. All at once, the whole thing struck me as ridiculous. Since the birthday dinner, I'd cried, tried to stop him, and told him plainly that I wanted a divorce. Yet somehow, he still believed I was only throwing a fit. Just then, his phone started ringing. Tessa's name lit up the screen. Xavier glanced at it but didn't answer. She called twice more. On the third call, an unfamiliar number appeared instead. This time, he picked up. A frantic voice came through the phone. "Tessa has a gastric bleed. They just brought her into the ER, and the doctor says it's serious. You need to get here." Xavier's hand tightened around the phone. He snatched up his car keys and headed for the door. I didn't stop him. Only when he bent down to change his shoes did I call his name. "Xavier." He looked back, impatience and worry written across his face. "They're waiting for me at the hospital. We'll talk when I get back." I picked up the divorce papers and set them on the entryway cabinet. "If you walk out that door today, there won't be anything left to talk about." His brows pulled sharply together. "Yvonne, don't make me choose right now." My fingers twitched. "I'm not making you do anything." "She's bleeding internally." Frustration crept into his voice, the tone someone might use with a child who refused to be reasonable. "You're fine here. The divorce can wait a few hours. When I get back, you can yell at me all you want." I stared at him. Whatever warmth I still had left for him went cold. Then I nodded. "Okay." Relief crossed his face. He reached out as if to touch my hair, but I stepped back. His hand paused before he pulled it away. "Don't overthink this. I'll be back soon." The door opened and shut behind him. I went straight to the bedroom. My ID, bank cards, and a few changes of clothes went into a suitcase one by one. His shirts were still hanging beside mine, the cuffs on one of them freshly pressed from a few days ago. I left them exactly where they were. When I slipped off my wedding ring, a pale band remained around the base of my finger. I set the ring on the nightstand. The little borrowing ledger Tessa and I had kept all these years was still tucked inside the bottom drawer. I opened it to the last page. Item borrowed: Xavier Dalton. Return status: Rejected. My pen hovered over the paper for a moment before I closed the book and placed it beside my wedding ring. I never looked back as I wheeled my suitcase out the door. At the station, an announcement urged passengers to proceed through the gates. Just as I reached the turnstile, my phone lit up. A message from Xavier. [Calm down first. I'll be back soon.] I stared at it for a moment, then powered off my phone. The screen went black. With my suitcase rolling behind me, I joined the crowd boarding the train and never looked back.