"Yes, we should," Melody agreed despite a dance being what she wanted least at present. Any hopes she had of enjoying the evening were squashed under the weight of her mistakes like a bug. In another hour or so (sooner, if she could find an appropriate place to insert her farewells) Melody would leave with or without her husband. It wouldn't be the first or last time Ben find himself alone at such an event after marrying her. Perhaps he'd even find the one to make him happy.

Regardless of what he said to try and dissuade her otherwise, Melody understood what his slip had meant.

She stepped over to the side and waited for him to offer his arm without looking directly at him. Nothing she said would ever truly matter, it wouldn't change his perspective or make him care for her as she did him. No, they would eternally be stuck in this pattern of faking, and she would just have to learn to cope with it.

Merry bloody Christmas.