One of my closest friends found out her husband was cheating today.
Not just cheating... he had a whole mistress.
A well-cared-for, constantly provided-for mistress who might as well have been his second wife.
My door was thrown open with such force that I thought it had been ripped from its hinges.
Her tear-streaked face broke my heart even before she opened her mouth.
"Munir is having an affair." She managed to choke out the words before erupting in a fresh bout of wails.
A ripple of gasps erupted from the rest of our friends, who had been chilling before she stormed in.
Kate was the first to break out of the shock, as usual. "Who do I have to kill?"
Tory, the wailing wife, threw herself into Kate's arms.
Watching her held like that made my eyes sting.
A silence fell, a small, bitter salute to another beautiful marriage wrecked by a wandering dick.
Tory’s gaze found me. I swallowed.
"Wait... your husband is my husband's closest friend. There's no way he didn't know Munir had a whole woman shacked up somewhere."
She pushed away from Kate and took a step toward me. I shrank back.
She wasn't done.
"And if your husband knew, it means you knew! Didn't you?"
My mouth opened for some seconds... and closed without a sound.
The room hummed with fresh gasps.
My mouth opened again. "I'm sorry, Tory. My husband said he was going to make him tell you. I-- I didn't want to be the one to break your heart."
She didn’t stay to hear more. She was out the door before I finished the sentence.
One by one the others gathered their things and left, none even bothering to say goodbye.
I wasn't the one who cheated on her... yet I felt like shit.
------
It was hours later when we were settling in to bed that I raised it with my husband.
"Tory came by today."
He was checking his teeth in my vanity mirror. "Ohh, you hosted your girls today, didn't you?"
"Yes, but she didn't come by for the get-together."
"No?"
"No."
He arched a brow. "Why did she come then?"
“She found out Munir was cheating on her.” My voice went thin. He stopped mid-motion.
"He told her?"
"I don't know... she didn't go into the details."
He crossed to the bed and laid a large palm on my thigh. “She must be torn.”
I nodded, shivering at the memory. “She was. She asked if I knew, and I couldn’t lie. The girls all left with her. They all hate me.”
He rubbed my thigh. "They don't hate you... They're just in shock. Munir and Tory were couple-goals. I can imagine how disillusioned they're feeling. It has nothing to do with you."
I smiled bitterly. "You know who else are couple-goals?"
He knew the answer but played along. “Who?”
“Us.” I held his eyes, willpower bracing my chest. “You’d never do that to me… would you?”
He took my hand and kissed it. “I swear on my life. I swear on our love. You’re the only one I love. The only one I fuck.”
I smiled despite myself.
He crawled over me, widening my smile.
"Speaking of fucking..."
Several minutes later, he had divested us both of our nightclothes and was making himself at home between my legs.
My last coherent thought before he slipped inside me was that he loved only me.
I could trust him.
No matter that Munir was his closest friend.
I had absolute faith in him.
Absolute
Faith.
As my eyes rolled back... a tiny voice whispered, When was the last time you checked his phone?
