Dear Ex-wife Marry Me by Twin Bridge

Athena glanced over just once before quietly lying down on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Tonight, for reasons he couldn't quite explain, Tyler just couldn't get into the mood. Maybe he was in a bad place emotionally, maybe it was something else. The woman he'd picked up was clean, pretty, clearly new to this whole scene-she'd followed him up here for the promise of a minor role.

Back in the day, Tyler would have taken his time, kept things going until sunrise.

But now, for some reason, his gaze kept drifting toward Athena. Once he was sure she was actually asleep, any spark of excitement he had fizzled out. It felt like he'd put on a show he'd spent hours preparing, only to find the audience seats completely empty. What was the point?

He wrapped things up quickly, introduced the woman to the director as promised, and stepped aside to light a cigarette.

He'd figured Athena was just pretending to sleep. But after he'd finished half his cigarette, he walked back to the bed and saw she really was out cold.

He clenched his jaw, a sudden surge of irritation rising in his chest. Why was he the only one losing sleep? Why did she get to rest so easily?

He couldn't stand it. Why should she sleep when he couldn't?

"Athena! Get up!" he barked, shaking her awake.

Athena blinked herself out of the fog of sleep, her eyes slowly focusing. "What do you want?"

Her simple question threw Tyler off. What did he want?

He'd just slept with another woman right here in this room. Shouldn't Athena be disgusted? Wasn't she supposed to scream at him, curse him out, demand to know if she was really the one he loved? That's how other women always reacted. But come to think of it, Athena had never been jealous, not even after stumbling upon scenes like this more than once. She always remained calm, almost detached.

Why? Didn't she care about him?

A strange, uneasy panic twisted inside him. He couldn't figure out why he felt this way. Or maybe he could-maybe he was desperate to know, to see if she really cared.

casual. "My stomach hurts. I want something home-cooked-by you. There's a twenty-four-hour grocery just downstairs. Go buy something

was

Tyler. She still cared. She was still his-always ready

to eat?" she asked,

kitchen; she could easily cook

he said with a shrug. "Doesn't matter. I'm just wiped out and

both knew exactly why he was so "wiped out," but Athena didn't say

go, so

make Tyler

Athena

so

go-wouldn't she

this unnerving

he called lan. Everyone knew how lan had chased after Maja back in the day, even played third wheel to Dave

had a wife, two kids, and a strict routine. He answered the phone, clearly annoyed. "This

you-back when you were pursuing Maja, if you saw her with another man-maybe

had never really been in love. He needed

to believe maybe some people were just that generous, that immune

wanted to punch every guy who even looked at

then said, "So

someone who says

about me, would do anything for me, cooks for me every day,

her gets up