Page 28 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

“I can’t believe you thought I would do that to Christine! I could never betray her like that! She’s my wife!” Duke snarled.

“And why would I lie? There’s no reason to. Plenty of hot ass happy to have this dick on a non-exclusive basis.” Ryder held up his palm, which Duke high-fived.

I admired their coordination. Their palms slapped perfectly, but neither was looking at the other because they were both drilling into me with harsh, judgmental glares.

“I can’t believe you thought we were both cheaters all this time. That’s so insulting,” Ryder said.

“We’re ethical non-monogamists!” Duke hollered. He looked actually hurt. “Man, we’ve even talked to you about this before. Many times!”

I had no memory of those conversations whatsoever, but the parallel to how I missed Callie’s confession of her witch powers was immediate. Probably when Duke and Ryder had told me all this, I had been staring at some woman’s ass while I only pretended to listen.

“So, you don’t have any agreements with Callie? All those times we saw you pick up other women, you were just… cheating?”

I don’t think Ryder could look more sickened if he’d learned I was a serial killer with thirty bodies buried in the basement.

“Yes. It was all cheating… she didn’t know about any of it,” I admitted. I felt like such a jackass. Seeing the contempt and disapproval in my buddies’ faces brought a whole extra dimension of disgrace to my situation.

Duke and Ryder began to trade off berating me.

“How could you do that to her? Callie is such an incredible woman!”

“Way better than you, if we’re being honest.”

“We always wondered how you landed someone so out of your league.”

“And you didn’t even appreciate how much you scored with her?”

“You have a woman that incredible at home, and all you do is lie to her?”

I tried to mumble a defense. “I thought… I thought this is just what every married guy did. Take care of it privately, don’t let her find out.”

“Maybe in the 1950s!” Duke snapped.

Ryder shook his head. “Damn dude. Get with the times.”

“I don’t think she’s going to forgive me, guys.”

“I wouldn’t blame her,” Duke said.

“No one would,” Ryder agreed, cold contempt in his eyes.

“I don’t know what to do.” My voice came out smaller than I’d ever heard it.

“Well, get the fuck out of here for one thing,” Duke commanded.

“Yeah. Go home to your wife and start begging,” Ryder instructed.

“And pray she doesn’t realize how much better she can do than you,” Duke finished.

At that, the two of them walked off to leave me marinating in my debasement.

Well, that was almost as bad as if they had learned of the curse.

I sat there alone in the corner, the thumping bass of the club feeling like it was pounding directly into my skull.

Duke and Ryder’s condemnation was a blow I hadn’t seen coming at all. The truth was, I’d always used them to validate my own behavior. We were all doing the same thing, like all guys do.

Or so I had thought.