Chapter Two
Devin’s POV
After they passed, I was lost and didn’t want to finish med school, but I knew they’d be disappointed if I didn’t finish.
They had been so proud of their granddaughter who was going to be a doctor.
The first in the history of the family. Something they bragged endlessly about to anyone who would listen.
So, I did. I finished. I met Caleb, fell in love, and got married.
My parents helped where they could while caring for my grandparents in their final months.
I threw myself into school, forcing myself to focus on nothing but that.
I was desperate to finish and walk the stage before they passed.
I wanted someone to send my parents a video of it, of me walking the stage, since they were in Ireland with my Móraí and Daideó. It never happened.
Closing my eyes, blinking away the memories and tears, I stared at the ceiling.
I pulled my phone up, pulling up the group chat with my two best friends.
They had worried about me and were there for me every step of the way when I wanted to give up.
Eddie more so than Emilia, but just because she was majoring in marketing while he and I were in med school.
Tuesday, 11:57pm
Eddie: Deal, but why?
Eddie: And don’t tell me ‘no reason’ because we both know there’s a reason. And I’m here to listen and kick ass if needed.
I sighed at my phone, at his response, knowing he was most likely going to start making demands. It’s not every day your married bestie tells you she needs a full STI/STD panel.
Tuesday, 11:59pm
Devin Fia: Because I just need it.
Devin Fia: Can we get into the details tomorrow? After my appointment?
I really didn’t want to make this into a thing, not this late at night. All I wanted was sleep that I knew wasn’t coming, but something told me Eddie was going to pester me until I told him.
Wednesday, 12:01am
Eddie: You’re not getting off the hook that easily. I need the deets lady.
Wednesday, 12:02am
Em: WHAT?! An STI panel?! Girl! This is not news you drop on someone at midnight. Some people just laid down to go to sleep, doctors.
Wednesday, 12:03am
Eddie: I can think of only one reason why she needs an STI screening ASAP tomorrow. And it’s not because she and Caleb decided to join a monastery.
I couldn’t stop the eye roll at these two as I readjusted, trying to get comfortable enough to actually close my eyes. I was comforted by the pinging of my phone, thankful these two had my back.
Wednesday, 12:05am
Eddie: She’s the married one. Why do you think she needs an STI panel?
Wednesday, 12:06am
Em: She’s overly cautious? I don’t know! I was trying to sleep!
I knew I had to break this up or it could get ugly. An Emilia without sleep was a super cranky Emilia.
Wednesday, 12:07am
Devin Fia: Hey now. Before this turns into Wrestle Mania, I want it on the record that I’m not entirely sure what exactly is going on yet.
I was trying to figure out how to say the second bit, but figured it’s better to just spit it out as soon as I saw the bubbles popping up on my phone.
Wednesday, 12:08am
Devin Fia: But there are messages between Caleb and some girl from his office. He’s asleep, I’m sleeping on the couch. He and I will be talking tomorrow. After I get the panel.
Throwing an arm over my eyes, I dropped my phone on my chest, ready to try and get a little sleep when it buzzed consistently, like a bomb about to go off.
Wednesday, 12:10am
Em: You haven’t talked to him?!
Eddie: If there’s enough of a reason for you to want the screening, that means there’s enough evidence for you to feel betrayed, babe. What’s going on?
Em: Are you fucking kidding me?! He gets to sleep, IN BED, while you’re on the couch?! Fia! No babe!
Wednesday, 12:11am
Em: Wake his bitch ass up and demand answers! I am heated and awake now! Want some help with the interrogation?
Tears filled my eyes as I read their messages.
Because while I was trying to be level-headed about this betrayal, coming at it as logically as I could, my mind wouldn’t stop racing with scenarios.
My imagination was running wild. I gave up on sleep, at least for a little while and called Eddie.
We added Emilia to the call, and had a three-way night chat like we used to in college.
I wrapped the blanket tighter around me like a cocoon that could shelter me from the heartbreak that was coming.
I wanted so badly to be strong, but the ominous feeling that lingered on the horizon told me I wasn’t going to be that lucky.
I had just finished telling them what I had found, sounding as clinical and detached as I could, when a sob ripped through me.
I covered my mouth, trying to keep as quiet as I could.
I did not want to let Caleb hear me. I didn’t want to wake him because there was no way in hell I was ready for this confrontation.
I had to be at work tomorrow, only to get the STI screening from Eddie done, but I wanted to be in and out as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, we’d chosen different specialties when we were in school together.
He had already informed me when we were still in med school that I was having him deliver all my future babies, no way around it.
Having him test me for STIs because my husband was probably fucking his fucking coworker?
Not something I ever thought I would have to have him do.
We’d been on the phone roughly an hour and I was ready to scream and rage at Caleb.
These two had me ready to stick up for myself and my boundaries.
I wiped my tears, letting the anger settle deep within my bones, simmering below the surface so I could let it anchor me, steady me for the talk he and I would need to have tomorrow.
I couldn’t let myself get lost in the heartbreak.
Not until I knew for sure and had a plan together.
I took a deep breath and cleared my thoughts, speaking lowly so Caleb wouldn’t hear me, even if he woke up.
“Well, that’s the thing I thought was weird and why I checked, ya know?
I heard his phone going off after I got out of the shower and it was almost eleven.
Who texts that late anyway, right? And we’ve always had an open phone policy, so I was like, ‘Okay, who’s texting my husband so late at night’, ya know? ”
“Mmhmm, yeah,” I heard from both of them.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate finding what I found if the roles were reversed.
It’s fucking Becky! They haven’t admitted to sex outright in the messages, at least, I couldn’t find it anywhere.
So maybe they haven’t? But I did find that hidden texting app, with lots and lots of nudes.
” I angrily swiped at the tears that refused to stop pouring down my cheeks.
“Gross. Not something any spouse should have to see.” They both agreed.
“Those are, unfortunately, burnt into my brain. There’s no getting rid of those.
So…I guess the positive here is that it’s probably just an emotional affair.
At worst? He’s already fucking her and I have no idea.
Hence, the screening. And in the earlier messages, she mentioned me, talking about, ‘your wife this’ and ‘your wife that’.
He mentioned me, too. Even more so in recent messages, when she’s asking if I’ve caught on to them yet. ”
“The tits this bitch has on her!” Eddie hissed. You could tell he was pissed. I heard Emilia gasp at the news. Just as I opened my mouth to tell them I had it all saved, I saw Caleb coming into the kitchen from my spot on the couch.
“Hang up the phone, Devin,” the volume of his voice was even, but his tone was irritated and mad, “We’re going to talk about what I just heard you say.”
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 tell me what 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 I do not like 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. You promised you 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 least try to 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 she has 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 the hell am 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 big deal, 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.