Page 69 of How to Walk Away

He held very still.

“Tell me!”

Then he did tell me. But he closed his eyes first. “I slept with someone.”

***

I HADN’T BEENwrong. I knew that’s where he was headed. But the words, once they were spoken, meant the end. They severed us. That was it. He’d made a choice, but I’d made a choice, too. I’m sure I felt many things at that moment, but the only one I remember is loneliness.

“Who?” I said.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does fucking matter.”

Chip stood up then—too fast—and knocked his chair over. It clattered to the floor. He didn’t pick it up, just paced around the foot of the bed. “Tara,” he admitted at last.

“Your old girlfriend, Tara? The one you call the Whiner?”

He nodded.

“You don’t even like her!”

“I know.”

I didn’t even know where to start. “Chip.” It was more of a sigh than a word.

“She saw my post about you on Facebook, and she got in touch. She started coming by to check on me. She brought soup.”

“She broughtsoup?”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t eating. She was concerned. And then one thing led to another.”

“Don’t tell me.” I felt it like a gasp: I didn’t want to know.

But now I’d gotten him going. “She came by one night and found me crying—”

“Am I supposed to pity you?”

“—and I just couldn’t pull it together. And so she just kind of put her arms around me—”

“Stop.”

“—and kind of cradled me—“

“Chip. Shut it down.”

“—and the next thing I knew, we were kissing—”

“Stop! I’m fucking serious! Stop!” I didn’t realize how loud I was shouting.

Right then, the door to my room pushed open, and Ian walked in.

He eyed Chip for a second before turning to me. “Everything all right?”

“Get the hell out, man,” Chip said. “We’re talking.”

Ian kept his eyes on me. “I wasn’t asking you, prick.”

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