"To avoid today's fiasco, you should probably save my number," Phillip suggested with a brief pause, his tone bland. "Unless, of course, you prefer orchestrating your own amateur theatrics." So much for his gentleman act. Tina rolled her eyes.

Unlocking her phone and placing it in his palm, Tina shifted the blame onto him. "Why didn't you give me a heads up about hanging out with my dad? Made me look like a complete fool."

"Your actions are quite unpredictable, hard for me to anticipate what you might do next," Phillip remarked as he saved his number and added himself on her social media, handing the phone back to her. "But I'll try to keep up."

"Why would you do that?"

Phillip explained, "If all goes as planned, we're in this for the long haul. Getting in tune with each other and having each other's backs-it just makes things easier. Our partnership will be stronger for it." Halfway through his speech, Tina felt a touch moved, but by the end, any warmth had fizzled out.

Reclaiming her phone, she responded, "Well said, partner."

It was fitting, after all. Their marriage was essentially a business deal they both needed to manage.

Even after exchanging contact details, Tina and Phillip hadn't spoken much.

turning point in their relationship came

the Watsons at Hubert Perez's birthday this weekend. I'll have the

elegant white gown, though her heels turned out to be a bit of a torture device.

าวน์

esteemed status in Stonebridge, guests flocked to Phillip, leaving Tina no chance to sit and rest. Unable to escape, she discreetly slipped off her shoes under the

belongs to

even more exhausting than the shoes,

seemed to notice the

at?" Tina challenged, meeting his

eyes dropped to the floor, but her gown hid any evidence

again, momentarily regaining some height, as if he couldn't

looked away, signaling a server with a quiet request before resuming his

brought over a pair of slippers,

all eyes followed his

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