“Whois this?” a woman’s voice asks, and my body freezes solid, the world around me coming to a full stop.
The gears in my mind spin, working overtime to come up with an explanation. He probably just lost his phone or left it somewhere.
“Hi. This is Lainey. I’m looking for Cole, my boyfriend. Did you find his phone?” I ask, anxiously awaiting her response.
I have to be right about him misplacing it because the alternative … I don’t think I’d be able to handle the alternative.
“Yeah, I found it.” Relief washes over me, and I brush off the angry tone of her words until she continues, “On his nightstand. Wait. He told me he didn’t have a girlfriend. That you guys broke up when you moved.”
Time stands still, and it takes all of my strength not to lose my grip on my phone. This can’t be happening. I must’ve heard her wrong.
“What?” I’m numb, in disbelief of what she said.
It must be a prank. It must be some horrible, twisted joke that he’s playing to get back at me. He roped her in on it.
Cole’s voice screams in my ear as he yells at the girl, “Did you answer my fucking phone, Courtney? What the hell?”
She snaps back at him, “You have a girlfriend, you piece of shit?! The only reason I finally gave in to your endless messages was because you said you were single.” The audio muffles for a moment, like wind blowing over a speaker. “Never call me again.”
“Trust me, I won’t!” he shouts at her as tears roll down my face, my heart shattering into a million pieces.
A door slams shut, and I hold my breath, waiting for him to grab the phone, waiting for him to tell me that I imagined this, that I imagined every warning that everyone gave me, for him to tell me that I didn’t waste years of my life with a man who didn’t respect or truly care about me.
“Lainey, I can explain.” Cole’s voice is pained.
I have a thousand things I want to say, even more questions that I want to ask, but … my lips stay sealed. I freezeagain, like I have in the most important moments of my life, and I’m so fucking tired of it.
“Lainey, I love you,” he cries, and I’m surprised that I feel no sympathy for his tears, only numbness.
I’m quivering, my hand struggling to hold on to my phone from the shock coursing through me. But as visions of the last six years flash in my mind, that shock turns to blood-curdling rage.
The bell behind me on the bar door sounds, and a warm arm wraps around my shoulders. Vanilla invades my nose and I turn to find long pastel-pink hair.
Morgan.
I don’t know her that well. There may be a darkness in her that I recognize from my own trauma, but at the end of the day, I barely know her at all. Yet, somehow, having her arm around me gives me strength, enough to do something I never imagined having to do.
My voice is as shaky as the rest of my body as I declare once and for all, “We’re done, Cole. Don’t call me. Don’t text me. Don’t ever talk to me again. Got it?”
He scoffs. “You don’t mean that, Lainey! You just need time to think?—”
The world suddenly speeds back up, everything moving faster than natural. It’s like my mind is rushing to the presentfrom the past I’ve been stuck in, and the skies in my brain unclouded for the first time in years.
He always does this, always makes me feel crazy for however I react to his bullshit, and I’m done with it. I’m not putting up with it any longer.
Suddenly, everything is clear. I’ve been an idiot this whole goddamn time, and everyone around me was trying to get me to see it, but I just wouldn’t listen.
Well, I am now.
I’m not going to let Cole talk his way out of this. I told myself that all of those weird moments with him were coincidences. The late nights, the quiet phone calls, the emotional distance—I let him explain his way out of every one of them. But he hasn’t been the loyal boyfriend he convinced me he was—no, he’s probably been cheating on me this whole time, and I was just in denial.
This feels like amoment, like one that changes your entire life, no matter if you’re ready for it or not. The air feels colder, the odor’s stronger. It’s like my body and mind are going through a change in the blink of an eye.
Jensen’s face appears in my mind, and I’m angry all over again forsomany reasons.
Heknewand wouldn’t tell me exactly what was going on.Thisis what he was talking about when I confronted him about hurting Cole. He’s been making a fool of me this whole time because he was butt hurt that I pushed him away.
Luca knew too. Luca’s warned me about Cole since the beginning. I chalked up his annoyance to rumors. I have bones to pick with them, but I think the biggest one will be picked with myself because I’ve been blind for so long because I was scared.
