Jilted

Chapter 2

JESSE

The face-to-face with Eric went a million times better than I’d anticipated.

In the days and hours leading up to it, I’d envisioned plenty of ways it could’ve gone badly.

Though Eric had been mellow the two times I’d met him before—dinner with him and Selena, followed by the threesome—there’d been no telling how he’d react to the news I was breaking.

Tear into me verbally until his voice gave out?

Throw a punch? Tear into me and then throw that punch?

Anything was possible, and could I blame him?

I wasn’t so sure how rational I’d be if the roles had been reversed.

I wasn’t a violent man by any means, but I could see losing my shit if some guy sat me down and told me he’d been seeing my partner.

Especially since I hadn’t just been telling Eric, “Yo, I slept with her one night.” Selena and I had carried on a whole relationship.

The sex wasn’t even the half of it; we’d had a full-blown affair.

But Eric had just quietly listened to me break the news.

He’d looked over the screenshots with the most unreadable expression I’d ever seen.

I’d kind of wanted to goad him into crashing out because watching him quietly absorb it all had been killing me.

I felt awful about all of it, and it didn’t matter that I hadn’t known I was her sidepiece.

Just yell at me or something, man. Throw your coffee in my face. Do… do something!

He hadn’t, though, and our conversation had been so quiet and civil, I doubted anyone else in that shop had a clue I’d been kicking the foundation out from under his world.

Now, hours later, as I milled around my condo and waited for a text from him, I had a feeling some of his subdued reaction had just been shock.

Here he was, less than two weeks before his wedding, finding out that his bride had another man.

I couldn’t imagine that degree of upheaval—emotional or logistical.

He’d jumped right ahead to trying to figure out his next move as far as canceling the wedding and finding a place to live, and I’d have bet money that was a way of pulling his own focus away from his emotions.

I could relate. Selena and I hadn’t been engaged and we didn’t live together, so logistically, splitting up with her would be easy.

Emotionally, though?

Fuck me. I’d loved her. I’d genuinely imagined a future with her. And then…

Then the goddamned bottom had fallen out of everything.

I was still reeling, Still an absolute mess over her.

I swear, the only thing that had kept me from breaking down in the coffee shop was the bone-deep fear of how he was going to react.

Even after he’d taken me up on my (admittedly impulsive and not-at-all-thought-through) offer to live with me while he got on his feet, I’d still been sure the other shoe was about to drop.

It hadn’t, though. We hadn’t even stayed much longer after that; he’d had to get back to work, and I imagined he needed to pull himself together before he was back on the clock.

Me? I’d asked a barista for the restroom code, let myself in, and heaved my guts out.

Then I’d left too, coming home to—ostensibly—get back to work.

Yeah. That wasn’t happening.

I’d given up around one o’clock and told my boss I was taking half a personal day.

Then I’d logged out and gone in to shower just to chase away the gross feeling that had been crawling all over me since I’d found out about Eric.

It didn’t help much. I suspected time was the only thing that would scrub away all that guilt and disgustingness.

After getting dressed, I’d spent some time putting the spare bedroom together for Eric.

It didn’t get used much—my brother was the only one who stayed in it with any regularity, and he was only in town once or twice a year.

I dusted and vacuumed, put sheets on the bed, and made sure the en suite bathroom was stocked with anything a guest might need.

And that…

That was about all I had to do. I didn’t have to worry about hiding evidence of Selena—I’d tossed all of that before I’d ever reached out to Eric—but I did a sweep through the condo just in case. The last thing he needed was to stumble across a photo I’d forgotten to take down.

With the spare bedroom set up and the condo devoid of any remaining Selena debris, I dropped onto the couch and tried to figure out what to do with myself.

Clyde, one of my two cats, jumped up on the couch and crawled into my lap.

I absently petted him, and he purred as he rubbed against my hand.

Usually that was more than enough to break me out of any funk, whether it had been a shit day at work or I’d had a tiff with the woman I’d thought was my girlfriend.

Today, even my aggressively affectionate cat couldn’t puncture this nauseating guilt and misery.

I didn’t want to feel these feelings. My sister had told me the other night that it was important to do just that, especially while I was going through something like this.

I understood it on an intellectual level.

Bottling it up and ignoring it never did anyone any good; my siblings and I had all learned that watching our dad.

But I didn’t want to feel any of it. Not right now. I hadn’t even confronted Selena yet. I’d wanted to talk to Eric first. I hadn’t wanted her to have a chance to do damage control or conjure up a lie to make me look like the bad guy. Now Eric wanted some time to think, too.

“I don’t know when or how to do this yet,” he’d said before leaving the coffee shop. “I need to figure out what I should do next. I don’t want to tip my hand until I’ve strategized, you know?”

I got that. And theoretically, that didn’t preclude me from dropping my own bomb on her. I didn’t have to tell her that Eric knew about me. I could just end the damn relationship and start moving on with my life.

On the coffee table, my phone chirped with Selena’s text tone. I cringed. She was getting off work right about now, wasn’t she?

The words on the screen confirmed it:

Hey babe! (kiss emoji) Heading home from work.

My mouth tasted bitter as I replied:

How was your day? Drive safe. (heart emoji)

Our flirty banter had been the highlight of my day more times than I could count.

Now it just made me sick to my stomach. How often had she been sending me kissy faces and suggestive messages while doing the same thing with Eric in another window?

Or while Eric was in the same room? In the same bed? Ugh. Gross.

My phone pinged again. Gut roiling, I eyed the screen.

A client told me about a new sushi place downtown. Want to try it tonight?

The words “I would but I’m getting my condo ready for your ex-fiancé to move in” wanted to leap from my fingertips, but I kept them back. I didn’t give a fuck about her feelings, but I wasn’t going to upend things for Eric more than I already had.

Sorry, baby. (sad emoji) Doing overtime tonight.

Aww (sad emoji) I haven’t seen you all week.

I’m sorry.

figures, right when my work starts lightening up, yours goes crazy. (crazy eyes emoji)

lol always how it works, isn’t it?

Yep. Any chance you want some company? I’ll bring food and something to entertain you during breaks (wink emoji)

It was alien, imaging that there’d been a time—a very recent time—when I’d have been excited at the prospect of her coming over like that.

We’d spent many evenings hanging out on my couch, me on my laptop while she scrolled her phone, pausing to eat dinner and fool around.

Lately, she’d been slammed with work, so I hadn’t seen much of her.

At least, I’d thought she was slammed with work.

Turned out she’d been up to her eyeballs in planning a wedding. To another man. To the man she’d said had broken her heart, which had led to me “comforting” her and—

Ugh. I felt disgusting.

Baby? You there? I can pick up Thai or something. And I know you want dessert. (wink emoji)

The way my jaw tightened just then was reminiscent of when I’d gone into the coffee shop’s restroom earlier, but I swallowed hard to keep from throwing up.

It was only by chance—by sheer dumb luck—that I’d found out about Eric.

Which meant it was only by sheer dumb luck that I wasn’t at half-mast, grinning while I texted her what to order me at the Thai restaurant in between promising to make her scream as soon as she got here.

I suddenly wanted to ask my sister if she was willing to swing by and smudge the place. I wasn’t into all that stuff, and I hated the smell of burned sage, but it was either that or have someone come over and exorcise all the ghosts of nights I’d spent with Selena.

Nights I’d spent with her… but rarely a whole night. She’d nearly always had to leave because she had to be up early for work, and even on the weekends, she’d only stayed here a handful of times.

And I’d never been to her house after the threesome because “it feels weird to sleep with you in the same place we fooled around with my ex.”

I was so stupid, so gullible, and so ridiculously in love with her that it had never occurred to me that her “ex” was still sleeping there. That Selena was still with him. That she was marrying him, for God’s sake.

I squirmed on the couch and chafed my arms. I wasn’t rigidly monogamous, and it didn’t bother me to be non-exclusive to someone.

I’d had open relationships before and never thought twice about it.

When I thought my partner and I were exclusive, though, and I found out they were banging someone else? That grossed me the hell out.

Sighing, I started writing out another message.

Sorry, baby. Maybe this weekend?

Can’t (sad emoji) Going to my parents’ cabin.

I made a disgusted sound in my otherwise silent condo.

Then I switched to a different window and texted Eric.

Please let me know when you tell her. This is killing me.

His reply was almost immediate.

That I’m leaving? You haven’t told her you’re done?

I wanted to give you a chance to bail first. Because of the house and wedding.

Right then, Selena texted.

Are you working at home on Friday? I could swing by in the morning for a little quickie before I head out of town. (kiss emoji)

I wrinkled my nose. I hated how much I’d loved those “I’m heading out of town quickies” in the past. Especially now that I wondered where she’d actually been going… not that I needed to ask with whom.

Sorry. (sad face) I have meetings at the office all day Friday.

A lie, but I didn’t feel the least bit bad about it.

Then Eric texted.

I’m moving out this weekend. I’ll put my stuff in storage and get a hotel room if you’re not ready that soon.

Guest room is ready when you are.

Okay. I’m going to move out while she’s out of town.

Oh, so she was going out of town, but not with him.

Not a couple’s trip, then?

Bachelorette weekend.

Jesus Christ. I wondered how many dicks she’d be sucking on that trip.

The next text was from Selena.

Going to be super busy the next couple of weeks. Going to see the family in two weeks. We need to have some alone time before I go!

I groaned. Now I suddenly understood why she’d insisted she couldn’t invite me along no matter how much she wanted to. She’d said her “conservative parents” would never approve of a boyfriend coming along on a family trip. That was the same reason she’d balked at moving in together.

“They hated that I lived with Eric,” she’d told me the first time I brought it up. “I don’t think my dad will ever forgive me if I move in with another man I don’t end up marrying.”

Uh-huh. Whatever you say.

But then another piece clicked into place, and I switched to Eric’s window.

Your honeymoon is a 3-week trip, isn’t it?

…yeah? Why?

She told me she was going to see her family. Couldn’t bring me because her conservative family would never stand for it.

LOL OMFG. Conservative family, my ass.

I was curious about that—about what her family was really like—but before I could say anything, he added:

I’m confronting her on Sunday when she gets home. Want to join me?

I actually laughed at that, and I damn near broke my screen writing back:

YES PLEASE.

I hadn’t been lookin forward to sitting down with Eric today.

But oh hell, was I looking forward to the look on Selena’s face come Sunday.