Page 7 of Ever After

He shifts his body toward me, almost touching my knees. “I got here last Saturday. I’m here for another week. You?”

“Today.”

“Today?” he asks, shocked. “How the hell did your douchebag husband find someone on the first day here?”

I’m still trying to figure that one out myself. “I honestly don’t know. Our therapist suggested this trip to help us rebuild our marriage. We’ve been having a hard time. We went to a bar to have some drinks and ended up in an argument. He walked away, and a few hours later I went back to the hotel…you know the rest. A lot of good this trip did. Now I’ll be filing for divorce when I get home.”

“You don’t want to work it out?”

“No! He knows that this is something I would never tolerate. Cheating is a hard limit for me. Did you try to work it out with your ex?”

“No.” He laughs. “She and my supposed friend can live happily ever after with their fucked-up situation. He was a married man with children. I had to break the news to his wife that day, too. Eventually, my ex is going to realize how bad she messed up. There’s no way she’ll want to be a stepmom or deal with the kids’ mom.”

The waiter sets both of our drinks down and takes our empty cups away. “Did they stay together, then?”

“I don’t know. No one tells me and I don’t care to know.”

“You sound like you’re pretty over it already?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “It’s been six months. I had to move this trip out after everything went down. We had bought a house that we were going to move into, but I sold it and bought another house. It’s been a crazy six months. I’m still hurt. Especially knowing that it was one of my best friends, but…it is what it is.” He looks down at the bar before back at me again, and I can see the hurt flash in his eyes. It isn’t something you can just get over quickly.

It makes me wonder where I’ll be six months from now.

Will I still feel this betrayed?

“I’m so glad Aiden and I don’t own a house. This divorce would be even messier than I can imagine. When does this bar close?”

“Two o’clock, I think.”

I reach into my purse and grab my phone, checking the time. I forgot I turned it off. “Do you know what time it is?”

He taps on his phone that’s set down on the table to brighten it up. “It’s almost that time.”

Nerves hit the pit of my stomach. Where the hell am I going to sleep?

“Do you want to walk down by the beach?” he asks.

“Sure, I need to run to the bathroom first, though,” I tell him as I get up from my chair.

“If you’re not coming back, let me know. My feelings won’t be hurt.” He laughs.

I laugh. “Shut up. I’ll be back. Plus, I have nowhere to go. A walk will be nice.” I shrug my shoulders and walk over to the bathroom.

As I start the walk, I realize I’m a little more intoxicated than I thought. I shouldn’t have agreed to go to the beach when I need to look for a hotel. I get to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. “What a mess,” I say, to no one but own reflection. My cheeks are bright as a tomato from the alcohol. They pair well with my red eyes. As I walk back to the bar, Jay is getting up from the chair, asking if I’m ready to go. “I need to pay first,” I say.

“Don’t worry about it, I covered your tab.” He puts his wallet back into his back pocket and the bartender hands me my card.

“You shouldn’t have. I should have covered yours since I stole your chair.”

He laughs and leads us outside.

The humid air hits my skin, and I feel a little at ease. I don’t know if that’s because I’m not alone right now or if it’s because I’m in Hawaii. I never expected to feel this calm. When I’m calm about unpleasant situations, I know I’ve accepted it. Should I have accepted this situation this soon? Have I accepted it because deep down I knew it wouldn’t work and I needed an out? Why couldn’t I have been strong enough to leave Aiden before this?

I needed something to finally push me over the edge. I still don’t know how it is going to be when I get home. There is still an entire process I will have to go through. Who knows what will happen between now and then? I wish I could run away and not deal with it—or him.

“Are you okay? You look deep in thought?” Jay asks.

“Yeah, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do now.” We got to the beach and found a spot to sit. I kick off my sandals and run my feet and hands through the sand. I’m calm because of where I’m at. When I arrived at the beach earlier tonight, I was calm. I’m calm now again.

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