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“He dumped me.”
All three of their faces fall.
“Excuse me? You let that pathetic man-child dumpyou?”
“Well technically, he didn’t dump me, we’re just…on a break.” As I suspected, their expressions tell me what they’re going to say.
“A break?” Caleb leans across the table. “Sweetie, we’re heading into our late twenties, we’re not eighteen anymore. We don’t go on breaks at this age unless a man sees a piece of ass he wants to tap but can’t do it in good conscience.”
I grimace and Caleb gasps, his hands covering his mouth. “Oh no, that’s it, isn’t it? That Tiffany girl.”
“I don’t know for sure. He said over and over that nothing was going on, and I literally have zero proof. I know he wouldn’t let me see the texts, but in all our years together, he never gave me a reason to doubt him or suspect infidelity. He’s never given me a reason to not trust him.”
“Till now,” Ariel pipes up. “Sadie, you mentioned months ago that he was acting differently. It wasn’t just her name popping up on his phone, it was him hiding his texts, the fact he didn’t want to be intimate anymore, changing his mind about kids, and now he wants space?”
“I know, I know. Trust me, I feel like an idiot. I want to be over him. I hate that I’m hung up on him, that I’m worried I’ll never find anyone else. I just hear all these awful stories about women finding out a guy has an entire secret family, or he’s married, or he’s secretly a serial cheater, or just ghosts you after you catch feelings. That shit is terrifying.”
Karlie grabs my hands. “So is burying your head in the sand, babe. You’re better than this. You’re not that girl who ignores shit out of fear. There couldn’t be more red flags and neon signs pointing to the fact that even if he didn’t cheat, he wanted to, and he clearly doesn’t value what you built together because he’s willing to throw you away for a break.”
I hang my head in shame because that’s all I feel. “I know. It’s hard because he wasn’t always this way. Remember back in the day when you guys liked him? And my family did too? Then when he got hired on at his firm, things slowly started to change.”
“Yeah, he turned into an arrogant asshole,” Caleb says.
“I think more than anything I just want closure. I want him to be honest; I think we both deserve that. I just wish he and I could sit down and just talk about everything.”
“Has he reached out?” Ariel questions.
I shake my head. “I haven’t either. He said he wanted space, and honestly, I’d feel pathetic. Plus, I’d feel worse if he just left me on read.”
“What’s the plan then? If a month from now he calls you up and says he’s done having space but doesn’t tell you if he slept with someone else, would you take him back?” Caleb asks.
“No. A lot would have to change for that to happen.”
“Wrong answer. Listen to me.” Caleb slides off his stool and puts his hands on my shoulders. “Unless that man can turn back time and erase the shit he’s said and done, you don’t take him back. We are telling you this stuffbecausewe are your best friends. We care about you, and as people who love you, we’d be shit friends if we weren’t honest with you.”
I smile at him. “I know, and I do appreciate it.”
“So was that the piping hot tea?” Karlie asks.
“Uh…” I laugh. “Part of it. But I also accidentally saw my boss’s…um, candy cane.”
The frequency of my friends’ screams would make dogs howl.
“Lead with that next time!” Ariel jokes with a laugh.
“Spill everything,” Caleb adds as all three of them gather around me like we’re back in middle school.
I explain in painstaking detail why I’d gone to my boss’s residence, what went down when I got there, and how Mr. Snow gave me a private tour of his zillion dollar penthouse.
“Are we talking hot dog?”
I shake my head.
“Bratwurst?”
I shrug.
“Oh god, kielbasa?”
