Page 75 of Insta Bride

“Looks like all the others.”

“How can you say that? You slept with her.”

“Apparently, but I can’t remember the details.” I tried to pull Elena back to bed. Drunk Elena was easy to distract. Tipsy Lena wanted to talk things through.

“She’s a human being and you treated her—”

“Like I said, she looks like all the others, so I probably treated her like them. We hooked up with no expectations for anything longer than one night. I told you, babe, you’re my first girlfriend and the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry.”

“Do you?” Tipsy Lena had curled up into my lap. Her head resting in a dangerous position if she got pissed off at me, again.

“Lena, you’re the only woman I want. You’re the only woman in my life. I promised you no lying and no cheating.”

I almost said the three little words. They almost came out in a spiel of emotional crap. But she deserved to hear them when she knew we were both sober enough to deal with the consequences.

“But you’re still an asshole?”

“Babe, you wouldn’t love me any other way.”

Elena

Luckily, my bosses had welcomed me back to work not only with my job intact, but with a promotion.

All the recent global turmoil meant that financial consultants were in hot demand. I remained one of the best.

Widows loved me. I treated them as if they were my grandmother, and made sure their investments were in shares to benefit their financial security, not my bonus. It had been a strategy that caused me no end of grief in my first few years’ consulting. But now, happy clients led to repeat business and word of mouth referrals.

I’d deserved the promotion two years ago.

But back then, I’d drowned myself in work for all the wrong reasons.

These days, I arrived at the office happy and left it wanting to see my husband.

Kye sent me flowers, movie and concert tickets to randomly cheer up my day. If he won a new client, he bought me jewellery. If he lost a client, he bought me shoes.

I’d been surprised at how we’d both grown up in Sydney but never moved in the same circles. But, all my girlfriends had been friends since high school. Looking at us through Kye’s eyes, we were a small, insular group. Our parents had wealth, but expected us to make our own way. We didn’t buy into the whole class system, but we humbly accepted our privilege.

Olivia did pro-bono work for charities and managed two social media accounts in her spare time. Jess almost single-handedly ran the Lifeline Book Fair each year. Tash was the spare pair of hands you didn’t think you needed—until you did.

Kye’s friends lived the party lifestyle. Weekends away fishing and playing golf usually ended up in business connections and hangovers. But, to his credit, Kye had started inviting Hunter, Olivia’s husband on the trips, freeing up us girls to have our own weekend.

I continued to fall head over heels in love with my husband.

Unfortunately, so did the rest of the female population, and most of the time I felt powerless to compete.

All Good Things

Is There An Australian Love Story?

While Benjamin and Kenzie are sharing their love, one charity fundraiser at a time, word on the street is that Kye Branson has gone back to his single man days.

One photo might lie.

But my inbox is filling up as more of you take snaps that could cost this heartthrob and his wife, half a million dollars.

This is Danielle Stone from Wake Up Australia

Kye