“Wh-what do you mean?”
His mouth turns into a straight line at the exact same moment the look in his hazel eyes shifts. He no longer looks confused; he looks guilty.
“There’s someone else.”
My ears ring. No way. This…this can’t be happening.
“There’s someone else?” I finally squeak out after a long stretch of silence.
His shoulders hunch, and his head hangs. He nods. He doesn’t even look at me. The dread inside of me flips. It turns into something hot, something angry.
“Becca baby, I’m sorry. I—”
“No,” I croak out. “You don’t get to call me baby.”
I stand there, practically naked, and glare at my boyfriend as I struggle to process what’s happening right now. My boyfriend of three years is cheating on me.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “How could you do this?”
He tugs a hand through his sandy blond hair. He exhales, his jaw hard set like he’s irritated. “Come on, Becca. Don’t act like this is shocking news.”
“What the—are you saying that I should have expected you to cheat on me?”
He presses his eyes shut once more and shakes his head. “No, that’s not…Look, things between us haven’t been all that great lately. You’ve been working such long hours. I have too. We’ve been growing apart. You can’t say that you haven’t felt things between us changing.”
I stand there, mouth agape. “Ben, are you serious right now? Of course I’ve felt the disconnect between us due to how crazy work has been. But it’s been, like, three months. You cheated on me because we’ve both been busy with work for three months?”
He winces when my voice turns pitchy at the end, but I can’t help it. Is he seriously saying this justifies him cheating on me?
There’s another shift in his expression. That guilty look again. “I’m sorry, Becca. Someone else came along, and it just feels different this time. It feels…right.”
I stumble back a step.
He starts to reach for me, but I hold up my hand. “Don’t you fucking touch me.”
I don’t miss the way his eyes go wide. I hardly ever swear, so when I do, it’s a bad, bad sign.
“Becca, I’m sorry. I didn’t plan for this to happen. It just did.”
His tired gaze turns pitying as he glances up and down my body. A hot flash of embarrassment travels across my skin. God, I’m pathetic. And clueless. I’m a pathetic, clueless loser covered in whipped cream who just got dumped by her cheating boyfriend.
Tears prick my eyes. I try to blink them away, but they tumble down my cheeks anyway in hot streams.
Through my blurry vision, I can still make out Ben’s pitying stare. “Becca. Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”
I press my eyes shut. “Stop. I don’t want to hear your apology.”
He starts to speak again, but I stop him.
“Get out.”
He hesitates for a second. “Can I at least pack a bag?”
“No,” I blurt.
He babbles something about not having enough clothes for tomorrow.
“Have your new girlfriend get you some clothes.” I sniffle.
