The grip on my phone tightened as my throat swelled shut with the emotion wanting to escape.
This. Mother. Fucker.
He had the audacity to come in here and think he could tellmewhat to do?! Annoyance let a dark and humorless chuckle rise up out of the depths of my chest where my heart used to be.
“What does it matter, Caleb? I’m talking to my best friends.” I knew I was challenging him, testing whatever patience he had.
“Devin.” His face twisted in frustration.
“Afraid to tarnish that squeaky clean image you have? Or are you going to tell me I didn’t find an emotional affair going on with one of your coworkers?” The honesty in my voice, addressing Caleb caused Eddie and Emilia to let out their own humorless chuckles and scoffs, filling my ear.
“I want to be able to talk about this like adults.” Adults?! An adult wouldn’t have been doing this to his wife of six months! I wanted to scream it at him, but I held back.
“Caleb. I don’t think you understand the gravity of this situation we find ourselves in. I’ve told you before, that Ido notlike any woman I do not know trying to sell you this version of‘friendship’. You asked me not to get close to men who don’t respect our relationship and you promised me the same thing!” I said, complete with air quotes. She knew he was taken, that we’d taken vows to each other. Some of which involved forsaking all others. Clearly, he’d forgotten that bit.
“I can explain,” he sounded pleading. It was pathetic.
“This should be good. Yeah, o-kay,” came through my phone. He looked like he was ready to ramble on.
“But you can’t,” my voice dropped, “When you started mentioning her name more, that you guys were working close together, I told you that I was uncomfortable with it. Youpromisedyou would cut her off. You said she knew you were married. How is flirting with a married man alright?” He didn’t have anything to say so I continued. “You‘swore’to me that she was ‘just a coworker’.” I used the air quotes again when I was talking to him.
“Remember that? We had a fight in our bedroom because we were cuddling, post-sex, and you started talking about work the next day and how you guys had a work dinner the next night to celebrate finishing the project? You went on and on about how good things were going at work even with all the late nights.” He had the decency to at leasttryto look ashamed at that.
“Then, you missed our date night last week! How did you not notice? You went out with coworkers.Again.” He opened his mouth ready to protest or defend himself on the shitty ground he stood on, but I continued to break it down for this absolute man-child of a husband. To clarify. What I’m pissed about is that it feels like you dipped out on our date night to go out with her.Again. Because this is the second time you’ve gone out with the coworkers since we got married, and the second time that shehas gone too.” His face was beet red, there was silence on the phone, and I was breathing like I had just run a marathon! But I wasn’t done!
Oh no! She’s still got steam!I thought as I stood from the couch like one of those creepy shadow things from scary movies that raise up right before they get someone. I was exhausted from work, heartbroken because of him, and more than a little pissed that he thought he could talk his way out of this! I had half a mind to move back to the bedroom, but I needed a new mattress and sheets first.
“And! In case you didn’t realize! You had your goddamn arms wrapped the fuck around her! How do I know, you ask? Your ‘friends’” again with the little finger-air-quotes to really drive the crazy I’m feeling now home, “AKA, your coworkers! Posted it and tagged you in the picture! So please! In all your infinite wisdom and explaining! Tell me. How thehellam I supposed to take this, finding flirtation messages and naked fucking photos on your phone, Caleb?! Hmm?!”
My arms were crossed. My hip was popped and my leg was pointed straight out. The pose that every pissed off girl did in the early two-thousands! The one that said, ‘You sir, are about to get all the sassy and every single time you wronged me pulled from the archives for further review!
He didn’t have anything to say to that. Not surprisingly.
“I love you both,” I said into my phone, making sure that my besties knew I was hanging up because I was done with his shit. “I’ll see you bright and early, Eddie.”
It hadn’t been long since I’d told them I’d been having some suspicions that he could be talking to someone. I was trying to downplay it. I didn’t want to make it seem like a bigdeal, but I asked them anyway. I needed to know how they’d caught cheaters in the past. I hadn’t told them everything, because I didn’t want to sound like I was crazy, and now that all was said and done, and I was dropping back into the couch with my blanket all the way covering me, I wish I did. I hadn’t even been ready to admit all of the red flags that I had seen the last couple-few weeks. I’d never been cheated on before, and the thought that it might be happening with the man who promised me forever, hurt like hell. It didn’t help that I was also deeply ashamed that I couldn’t seem to keep my husband’s interests.
Unfortunately, this was feeling like it wasn’t nothing. It was the only thought I had as I rolled over on the couch. Clenching my eyes, I wrapped my arms around myself, desperately trying to stop the emotions from busting through the seams that were quickly fraying at warp speed. I was trying to hold myself together so he didn’t see my pain.
I already knew that this was going to hurt.
Chapter Three:
Caleb’s POV
Being a light sleeper had a hell of a lot of drawbacks, like waking up a few times a night whenever a neighbor was moving about, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have its benefits. Usually I heard Devin when she would come home if I had fallen asleep early, that way I could wake up to spend a little time with her before going back to bed. Tonight though, I woke up when I heard mumbling coming from somewhere in our apartment. I had thought I’d heard the shower earlier in the evening but I was also dreaming of having sex in the shower, so I couldn’t be sure about that one.
Looking around our room, I didn’t see my wife, and upon further inspection, I didn’t see her pillow either. I blinked a few times, wiping the gunk from my eyes, trying to shake the sleep off as I stumbled my way out of bed to the bathroom. I looked around, turning on the light and noticed her slippers were gone from the bathroom too.
Where is she? Is she sleeping on the couch?
I grabbed my phone and checked the time. It was late, after-midnight late. I didn’t see any notifications on my lock screen that she would have seen, and I hadn’t pissed her off that I knew about today or yesterday, so I was feeling pretty confused. I wasn’t entirely sure where her being on the couch was coming from. I had hidden all the raunchy shit in a text app buried on my homescreen. She wasn’t technologically inclined, so I knew it was somewhere she’d never find it.
There was no way she’d seen anything ofthatnature.
Maybe she was talking to her friends?
I wandered back into our room, still groggy as hell after taking a leak. I looked around the bathroom and it was obvious that she’d taken a shower. Her scrubs were in the hamper, the puff thing she scrubs her delicious body with was still sudsy and dripping. Exactly how I hoped she would have woken me up. The shower had water droplets on the glass door, and I knew she hadn’t been home too long. Thoughts of my shower sex dream came rushing back to me. I was quickly stiffening in my pajama pants as I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen. I was rubbing my hands together, excited at the thought of rubbing them over her soft body when I heard her more clearly.
