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‘Listen, Becky, I… Damn it.’ I rub my hands roughly over my face. ‘When I got voted in, Sarah was there, Marty was there, but the one person I really wanted to tell was you.’
She glances across her shoulder to her apartment door. When she looks back at me, her eyes are glazed.
‘Becky, I know what we said. I know we said we’d take it slow…’
‘Drew—’
‘Please. Let me finish. The thing is, I’m hoping that… Christ, I have no fucking idea how to do this.’
‘Drew, please, there are things I need—’
‘I love you, Becky. I’m in love with you.’
Her eyes widen and she presses her lips together as her eyes fill again. I feel helpless as I wait for her to say something. Anything.
The door to her apartment opens, stealing our attention. A man stands on the threshold, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.
‘Rebecca, what are you doing out here?’
I look from his dark, wet hair, to his bare feet, then I look at Becky.
‘Rebecca?’
‘I…’
The half-naked man moves toward us. ‘Who’s this?’ he asks, his voice thick and deep. British.
Becky clears her throat, shifting her focus between the man and me.
‘This is my friend Drew.’
He doesn’t make a move toward me, he just lifts his chin in acknowledgment, eyeing me suspiciously.
Her friend? Right.
As he holds out his hand to me his expression is anything but amiable. ‘I’m Mike, Rebecca’s husband.’
It’s as if someone just tackled me, crashing into my chest and taking the air from my lungs. I look at Becky, waiting for her to tell me it isn’t true. Silently begging her. She only looks at me through wet eyes, her mouth opening and closing without making a sound.
I take a step back and feel everything inside me start to crumble. Pain sears my body and stings my eyes.
I push out of the fire door and into the stairwell. I head down two flights of stairs before my legs give out and I sit on a step. I drop my head into my hands and dig my knuckles into the corners of my eyes. Bile rises to my throat.
She’s married. How can she be married? That makes no sense.
It hurts like hell.
22
DREW
I walk for a while before I flag a cab, trying to make sense of what just happened.
I can’t.
I replay every conversation we’ve ever had, searching for a clue. She said she had left a long-term relationship. I knew she had a past and that she was keeping something from me. But a husband?
My phone rings. My heart leaps until I see the caller is Sarah. I end the call and turn off my phone. I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to explain that I fell in love with a woman who made me commit adultery, who lied to me, who ripped out my fucking heart.
