My Husband Laughed at the Anniversary Dinner I Spe…

“And I’m grateful, babe. I really am.” Derek didn’t look up from his phone. His thumb scrolled.

“But maybe save the romance novel aesthetic for when it’s just us. This is a little much.”

Todd laughed outright then. “Dude, you’re being roasted by candles.”

There was a ripple of uncomfortable noise around the table.

Not quite laughter. Not quite protest. That half-suppressed sound people make when they know they’re witnessing something that should be private and isn’t.

I set the dish down carefully in the center of the table. My hands were steady, even though my face felt like it was on fire. Seven years of marriage.

Seven years of romantic gestures met with increasingly open mockery. Seven years of watching the man I’d once believed was my safest place in the world turn into someone who seemed to actively enjoy humiliating me in front of his friends. “You’re right,” I said, surprising myself with how calm I sounded.