At the wedding, during the toast, Lucas had walked up and shoved a glass of straight liquor into my hand.
"If you want to marry Sonia, you'd better prove you can handle it."
I'd frowned at the brimming glass of baijiu and laughed it off, saying I'd already had too much and asked if we could switch to wine.
He'd made a big show of it, raising his voice so the whole room could hear.
"What's the matter, bro? Weak constitution? No wonder Sonia says you can't perform in bed. All you're good for is bringing her breakfast."
His friends had roared with laughter. Every guest in the room looked at me differently after that.
And Sonia? She'd just patted him lightly on the chest and told him to stop making things up. Not a single word of real anger. Not one sharp rebuke.
After we got married, she'd answer Lucas's calls right in front of me without a second thought, chatting for an hour at a time. She gave away the birthday present I'd bought her, re-gifted it straight to Lucas.
On our wedding anniversary, she left me sitting alone to go comfort Lucas because he was in a bad mood.
It wasn't like I kept quiet about it. More than once I'd stewed in silence, then told her she needed to maintain boundaries. That there had to be limits between a man and a woman.
She'd just laughed and called me old-fashioned. Said I was a grown man with the pettiest heart she'd ever seen.
"Lucas and I have known each other since we were twelve. If anything was going to happen between us, would I have married you?"
That day she'd vanished for three days. Wouldn't pick up. Wouldn't text back. I was the one who apologized. I was the one who promised I'd stop overthinking. That was what it took to bring her back.
I compromised again and again. Told myself again and again that I was reading too much into things. That marriage meant giving each other space. That trust was the foundation.
Until that stack of movie ticket stubs, cheap props from a bad stage play, made me realize her acting had never been convincing. I'd just been too deep in the role to notice.
The next morning, Sonia was up early. I didn't know how to face her, so I kept my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.
From the living room, her voice came in a low murmur. Lucas's name still carried through the walls.
"Okay."
"Don't forget to bring your ID."
A moment later, the front door clicked softly shut. Her footsteps faded down the stairwell.