My Hypocritical Best Friend

I was sitting on the living room sofa, my fingers absentmindedly scrolling through my cell phone screen. My social circle was still flooded with glamorous updates until a photo of Caroline Yip in a sexy swimsuit popped up. In the photo, she's standing by the sea, sunlight draping over her perfect figure, her smile so bright it almost stings. I froze for a second, casually tapped like, but nothing stirred inside. After all, Caroline Yip has always liked grabbing attention that way. Over the years, I've gotten used to it. One afternoon a week later, I went to the underground garage to grab something and decided to help my husband, Blake Xavier, bring up the dirty clothes from the car. As I opened the passenger door, a familiar perfume hit me—that was the brand Caroline usually wore. I furrowed my brow and glanced under the seat. A crumpled swimsuit was carelessly tossed there, the fabric stained with unknown marks, clearly roughed up. My heart dropped—the style and color of that swimsuit matched exactly the one Caroline Yip had flaunted on her social circle. Holding back the panic rising in my chest, I picked up the swimsuit and stuffed it into my bag. Once home, I hid the swimsuit in the bottom drawer of my wardrobe, then went about making dinner like usual. When Blake Xavier came home, I was busy in the kitchen, tying on my apron. "Why are you being so productive today?" He walked over and gently hugged me from behind, his voice tinged with fatigue. My body tensed for a moment, then relaxed. I turned around and forced a natural smile, saying, "I know you've been working hard, so I wanted to make you something nice." During dinner, I casually mentioned, "By the way, I saw on social media this afternoon that Caroline seems to be dating a guy who's quite a bit younger than her lately." Blake paused as he picked up some food, his eyes flickering slightly: "Why are you asking this all of a sudden?" "I just find it kind of interesting. Didn't she say before that she didn't like guys younger than her?" I raised my cup and took a sip of water, trying to hide my nervousness.