What She's Doing Now (Sequel to The Great Pretenders)

When Did You Stop Loving Me

By Hunter Hayes

Tell me, when did you start drifting away

And have you loved me less

With every single day

If you were over me, girl, tell me,

Why did you stay

When did you start drifting away

What do I do

With the mess you made of me

With all that I lose

I think you owe me one thing

No, I don't need your reasons

Or your sympathy

Girl, just tell me, when did you stop loving me

Matt dialed Val's number absently. His mind was still on all he'd learned over the last day or so and he was wondering how in the hell he was going to explain to his wife. He probably had to talk to Lucy first to confirm everything Brian had told him but did he need to tell Val before he knew anything for sure?

"Hello?" a male voice answered causing Matt to pull his iPhone back from his ear to make sure he'd dialed the right number. Val's name and picture reflected on his phone. Yeah he'd dialed the right number.

"Who is this?" he demanded roughly.

"Give me the phone," he heard Val's voice in the background "Hello? Matt?"

"Who the hell was that?" Matt asked angrily.

"Chill out, Matt," she said calmly "That was Anthony."

Matt tried to recall the name but came up "Who the fuck is Anthony?"

"He's Michelle's boyfriend," she explained "I'm having lunch at Chelle's and I was changing River."

"So he was comfortable answering your phone?"

"Sure, it was just for second till I was done with the baby. Would you relax," she said sounding annoyed.

"Relax?" Matt's voice climbed "You haven't returned any of my calls in the last 24 hours and when you finally answer the damn phone, a guy answers it for you. How am I supposed to relax?"

"Okay Matt," she said loudly startling River who started to ask for his daddy "Fine. You're right."

Matt settled down a bit "Where have you been? I've been trying to get a hold of you since Saturday night?"

"Oh I hung out with Lacey and Kim on Saturday," she said quickly. "I lost track of time and fell asleep. When I got up this morning, I went to my parents to pick River up."

"Really?" Matt asked "What did you all do?"

"We had dinner and then some drinks," she rattled off confidently.

Matt knew she was lying. Johnny and Arin had both confirmed that their wives were together but at the movies.

"Sounds fun," he said hoarsely.

"It was," she continued on happily "Are you feeling okay? You sound like you're catching a cold."

He cleared his throat "Maybe I'm coming down with a little something."

"You should drink some chamomile tea. I asked Jason and Matt to stock it on the bus for you. I'll bet they hadn't even told you," she replied.

"I'll go find it," he said "How is River?"

"He's good. Today Chelle and I are taking him to the zoo for the day and maybe the park."

"You and Michelle? And Anthony?" he said accusation in his tone.

She sighed "Come one Matt, seriously. I told you who he was. Why are you being such an asshole?"

Because you just blatantly lied to me. Because you don't even seem to want to talk to me. Because I have a 15 year old daughter with a girl I used to be in love with but never told me about and I have no idea how I'm going to explain that to you, my wife. "I'm just tired," was what he settled on saying.

"You should rest," she said, her voice softening "Did you get any sleep on the way to San Jose or did you guys stay up drinking again?"

Should he tell her the truth? That he didn't sleep a wink not because he was drinking with the boys but because he had been up thinking about seeing Lucy and then he actually spent time with her. No he wouldn't. Not till he figured out the truth about everything and until he figured out what was up with her. He'd have to enlist the other wives for help on that one. "We stayed up drinking," he lied as easily as she did. The words were bitter coming out of his mouth. He wondered if she felt as bad lying to him.

"You shouldn't do that. Especially when you've got back to back shows," she scolded. "You really need to take care of yourself."

"I'm fixing to knock out for a few hours here. Hopefully I'll walk up feeling better."

"Good," she replied "Well let me get on the road here. River is starting to get impatient."

Her statement was punctuated by their son's cries of "Les go, mommy" in the background.

"Yeah, he sounds like he's ready to go. I'll Facetime you all tonight."

"Great," she said sounding like she didn't think it was great at all. "We'll probably be done with dinner around seven so any time after that. Get some rest, okay?"

He took a deep breath "I'm laying down now."

"Good."

"I miss you, Val," he said a twinge of sadness in his voice. "When I come home next week, we need to spend some time alone. Just you and me."

"Uh huh, me too," she said quickly "I gotta go Matt. I'll talk to you later."

"Kay Val. Have a good time. Give Riv a kiss and a hug from me," he said quickly but she had already hung up the phone.