I slept maybe forty minutes.
When I woke, the first image in my head was not Rachel kissing Cole.
It was Rachel sitting on his lap.
That surprised me.
A hidden kiss should have hurt more.
Instead, my mind returned to the public moment again and again.
Because the kiss told me she wanted him.
The lap told me something else.
It told me she was willing to hurt me openly.
The kiss happened when she believed nobody was watching.
The lap happened while she looked directly into my eyes.
By morning, I knew I could not return home.
I texted my older brother, Steven.
Can I stay with you for a few days?
His answer arrived less than a minute later.
Of course. Come whenever.
No questions.
No demand for details.
That simple kindness almost broke me.
Steven lived about twenty minutes outside Denver in a small house with his wife and two teenage boys. He had always believed my apartment was overpriced and used nearly every visit as an opportunity to explain how much yard I could have bought in his neighborhood. When I arrived carrying one overnight bag, he never mentioned real estate.
He hugged me.
That was all.
I slept most of Sunday morning.
Then I drove back to the apartment around three because I needed clothing for work.
Rachel was waiting.
She looked like she had not slept.
Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, and she wore one of my old college sweatshirts.
Seeing it made me angry in a strange new way.
“Can we talk?”
“I’m getting clothes.”
“Mark.”
I walked past her.
The apartment smelled like pizza, bourbon, and the stale remains of last night.
The board-game box sat exactly where I had left it on the dining table.
Rachel followed me into the bedroom.
“Cole left immediately after you.”
I opened a drawer.
“I don’t care.”
“He tried to talk to me, and I told him to go home.”
“Good.”
“Please don’t do that.”
I looked toward her.
“Do what?”
“Talk to me like I’m some stranger.”
I zipped open a duffel bag.
“I watched you sit on another man in our living room.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“I asked you to get up.”
“I know.”
“You laughed at me.”
Her voice dropped.
“I know.”
“You kept sitting there.”
She said nothing.
“Then I found you kissing him.”
Rachel covered her face.
“It lasted a second.”
I stared at her.
She immediately lowered her hands.
“I know how terrible that sounds.”
“You know how small you’re trying to make it sound.”
“Nothing happened before last night.”
I continued packing.
“That’s the truth.”
I placed two shirts into the bag.
“You have to believe me.”
“No.”
Rachel froze.
I looked toward her.
“No, I don’t.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I am telling the truth.”