He Used Me, I Destroyed Him

She smiled through every lie. Then she cashed them all in.

My best friend handed me her phone and said, "You need to see this." Three weeks of texts. Two voicemails. All from my boyfriend. All meant for her.

Travis Miller didn’t know Kendra told me.

He thought she’d keep his secret. He thought I was too comfortable, too loyal, too predictable to ever figure it out.

He kept coaching me for a promotion at the bank where we both work, kept kissing me goodnight, kept asking casual questions about Kendra’s weekend plans while I sat across from him pretending I didn’t know exactly what he was doing.

I let him help me. Every résumé edit. Every interview tip. Every connection he pulled. I wrote it all down and I used every bit of it.

Then there’s Kyle Frederickson. Longtime bank customer.

Runs his family’s ag supply store. Remembers my name, asks about my day, and has apparently been showing up at my teller window for three years hoping I’d eventually notice him.

He builds fence lines with his bare hands and his mother keeps a notebook of my dessert preferences. That’s the kind of man he is.

Travis said I’d never find someone better. The entire town of Sugar Ridge is about to find out exactly how wrong he was.