I set my phone down, not really questioning Derek’s urgeto come to the spa. He stops by whenever he’s downtown with boba tea and sweet treats. I swear, he’s the perfect boyfriend, and totally changed my mind about the assholes I dated in the past.
Hello, how about a guy who considers your feelings? How about a guy who gives you hugs just because and soft kisses to make you feel special? Like, period, I want a guy who loves and cares about me the way Derek does.
I can’t wait to tell him that I got in. All the nights I was up late studying, he was there for me. He encouraged me to apply to Harvard in the first place, even if I had a worse GPA than the median and wasn’t sure I could even crush it in interviews. My sister has ten minutes left on her appointment, so I’m not sure if she’ll get here first, or Derek.
The little bell on the front door dings within three minutes and I look up from my desk to see him standing there, gorgeous as ever. He doesn’t know the big news I have, which explains the absence of a smile on his face when he sees me. I leap out of the seat and rush into Derek’s arms. He hugs me tightly, but when we let go, I sense something deeply wrong.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he said. “You have big news?”
“You go first.”
“Okay,” he says, taking off his baseball cap and running his fingers through his medium-length blond hair, almost like he’s nervous. About what? Maybe something bad happened at work.
“I cheated on you last month.”
He says it like he’s telling me he bought half-and-half on the way home.
“What?”
“When I went up to the family cabin last month, I slept with someone.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“What do you mean, you cheated?”
I feel like somebody just hit me in the face. My ears ring and I search his face for some sign that this is a prank. I can feel my own face contorting as the emotions surge through me and I just feel this unrelenting wave of nausea, confusion, and sadness.It’s over.It doesn’t matter what happens next. What he says. On the day that was supposed to be the best day of my life, it’s actually going to fall apart.
“Listen, Gabby… calm down for a sec, okay–”
I can’t stand here and listen to this.I didn’t suspect a thing.My stomach lurches again and my hand shoots out to steady myself against the counter. He flinches like a coward, as if I would be stupid enough to hit him and catch a case.
“Don’t tell me to calm down. You just told me you cheated on me. What thefuck?” I snarl at him, fury rising in my chest. I reconsider catching a case. He just has averypunchable face all of a sudden. The dumbstruck, bewildered, and somewhat embarrassed expression does absolutely nothing to stop the oncoming storm of my own feelings.
He was supposed to be mine.
I can feel the crash out coming on like a sudden thunderstorm in the summer. He cheated on me.A month ago?But a month ago he was with his family… The wheels are spinning in my head so fast that I don’t know which way to turn. I don’t know what to say first.
“I know. It’s over,” he said.
No apology. There’s a pit in my stomach that wasn’t there before, and now I fear it’s going to take up every inch of space inside me. Tears well up and I start spewing.
“I don’t understand. Who did you cheat on me with!?”
“Things got out of hand, Gabby.” His voice trembles. He sounds so sad. Like he’s the one hurt the most by this. I can’t hold myself back.
“Answer the question!” I shriek, totally forgetting that mysister is with a client in the back. Derek flinches, like somehow I’m the one hurting him in this situation and he’s not the one hurting me.
“Robyn.”
“YOUR SISTER?!” I shriek. I can’t believe how little he’s reacting to this information. I guess he’sknownthe whole time that he was a freak. But I thought he was normal. I thought he wasgood.Right now, I don’t even recognize Derek and while I stare at him for answers he just shrivels up entirely and seems like so much less of a man.
Derek nods, cheeks turning red as he mumbles out the dumbest sentence I’ve ever heard in my life, “Keep your voice down.”
He’s crazy. I now know that I’m looking at a crazy person, but I can’t countenance that with the fact that fifteen minutes ago, I thought he was the greatest thing to ever happen to me.
“You just told me that youslept with your sisterand you expect me to keep my voice down? I can’t believe this is happening to me.”