The Other Woman

This is a story that stemmed from one of my many unreasonable fears.  Enjoy.

Tyler was the best guy I had ever met, both in looks and attitude.  He was taller than me by half a foot and both that as well as the well-defined muscles he had acquired from weight lifting made me feel safe when I was in his arms.  We hadn’t ‘done,’ anything, in fact, I had made it quite clear to him on our first date that I was a virgin and that I planned to stay that way until my wedding night.  He didn’t push, which was something I appreciated, as well as something I couldn’t say for a vast majority of my exes.

            That morning, when I arrived to the daycare, there was a bundle of flowers with a note card saying, I love you, I’ll see you tonight ;)  I was really psyched for our date that night, and the flowers he had had delivered to work had really made my day.

            I was not prepared  for what happened when I took my lunch break.  I had gone to Braum’s and had just ordered and found my seat, when a tall, thin, blonde woman walked up to my table and slid in the seat across from me.

            “I’m sorry, do I know you?”  I took a sip of my Dr. Pepper and examined her quizzically.

            “No.  But you do know my brother-in-law.”  She crossed her arms and smiled a pinched, fake, smile.

            “I do?”

            “Tyler Anderson.”

            My heart stopped and I nearly choked on my pop.  Tyler Anderson.  My Tyler.  I started shaking my head, “No, no, no, you must be mistaken.  He’s my boyfriend.  He’s not married.  He can’t be anyone’s brother-in-law.”

            “Aren’t you funny.  He’s my brother-in-law.  Don’t act like you’re innocent.”  She tapped long, red painted fingernails on the table.

            In the background, I heard my order number being called.  444.  The Chinese number of death, three times.  I didn’t get up.  I couldn’t get up.  “But, he’s my boyfriend.”

            “Oh, I never said he wasn’t.  I just said he’s married.  Do you know what that makes you?”

            My whole world crashed.  That made me the other woman.  A slut.  A ho.  A whore.  I felt the blood drain from my face.  “I…I didn’t know!”

            “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?”  Her eyebrows raised.  “He wears a wedding ring.”

            I shook my head.  “No, he doesn’t!  He never has!”

            She gave me a look that could kill someone.  “Do you have proof?”

            I didn’t.  Wait.  I did.  Thank God for smartphones!  I got out my phone and scrolled through all the pictures I had of Tyler.  In each one that showed his hands, his left ring finger was always naked.  “I had no idea.  I really didn’t!”  I was too shocked for tears.

            “So we have a Two Black Cadillacs situation….”

            I swallowed hard.  He had taken me to the park.  He had taken me to expensive restaurants.  He had lied to me.  The Braum’s lady called my number again.

            “I’ll get it for you.”  The blonde got up and left me alone in my thoughts.

            When she came back, I had shed my tears, and was instead screaming at him in my mind.  “I had no idea.”  I told her.  “I have a date with him tonight.  I’m ending it then.”

            She looked me in the eye and I saw, in the depths of her blue eyes, that she understood how painful this would be for me.  “I see my baby sister bawling her eyes out, I hear her calling me, sobbing, because her husband is lying to her and isn’t showing up when he says he will.  I hear her telling me she suspects he’s cheating.  I see her pain.  I understand yours.”

            That night, I put on the colorful dress that Tyler had always told me he loved. I pulled on the zip up boots that he said were sexy.  And for the last time, I put on the hoodie he had loaned me.  Our date was at the park and I took with me a shoebox with the jewelry he’d gotten me, every picture we’d taken together and printed, all the movie stubs; I was giving them back to him.

            When I got out of my car and slammed the door shut, he was already there, leaning against a tree.  His smile was bright and his dark hair brushed on his forehead.  And he was not mine to love.  I had to remember that or I knew my resolve would crumble.

            I greeted him with a smile, and deflected his hello kiss.

            “I have something for you.”  I smiled at him, like just being by him wasn’t killing me inside.

            “Oh?  I hope it’s a loving kiss!”

            I smiled and felt the fakeness of it on my lips.  “No…not this time.”  I opened the shoebox.  “This is the necklace you gave me on our second date…when you told me I was the only girl for you.”  I handed him the heart shaped necklace.  “This is the envelope with every love letter you ever gave me.  This is a stub from when we went to see that movie you said you didn’t see the point in, but you went to because you loved me.”  I went on and on, handing him everything until his hands were full and things tumbled onto the ground.

            He didn’t understand what I was doing and with everything I gave him, a bit of my already broken heart broke a bit more.  “And this,” I dropped the shoebox on the ground and pulled a ring box from my pocket.  “is a new wedding ring, as you seem to have lost your other one.”  After that, I pulled his hoodie over my head and threw it on the ground.

            Then I turned and walked away from him, gasping with the pain, my body shaking from the sobs.  I got in my car and drove away, to the lake.  I had been cheated on before, I had been told I would never amount to anything and now, after I had finally opened up my heart to someone, he betrayed me.  “Et tu Tyler?”  I whispered, tears streaming down my face.  I wished it was raining.  I wished the skies felt as sad as I did.

            You always hear about the ‘other woman,’ and she is looked upon with disdain, sometimes hatred, but in this case, she was just as innocent as the wife.  And just as broken.

©2015 Katie Holm