No Strings

“How long has this been going on?” I ask, glancing at the two of them while keeping my tone under control so I don’t show just how much my heart hurts. It’s not over the fact that my husband cheated on me with another woman—our relationship has been over for a while since I came home from work and smelled the woman’s perfume on him—but because it was with my best friend. The irony that she was my maid of honor isn’t lost on me. Or that she told me dozens of times how lucky I was and how she hoped to find a man like Neil one day.

“For a little while,” Lois says softly.

I nod and stand, ready to leave and get as far away from my ex-husband and ex-best friend as possible. Too bad I have nowhere to go. “Him, I understand. He has zero respect for women, including his wife. But you… you were supposed to be my best friend.”

“I really am sorry,” Lois cries, crocodile tears skating down her cheeks. “We didn’t mean to fall in love. It just happened.”

Yes, she did. Like me, she has been so desperate for love and attention for years. I have no doubt the second Neil paid the slightest bit of attention to her, she soaked it up—just like I did.

Looking over at Neil, whose features are devoid of any emotion, I wonder what I ever saw in him. How I could be so desperate to find love that I would allow myself to fall for a man like him.

I pluck my keys from my back pocket and hand them to Lois. “I guess these are yours now.”

“Where are you going to go?” she asks. “If you need to stay here…”

I bark out a humorless laugh at my ex-best friend’s offer to stay in my ex-home with her and my ex-husband. The same home I opened up to her, where she and my husband proceeded to have an affair behind my back.

At first, when I called him out on his cheating and told him I wanted out, he begged for forgiveness. Promised he was just stressed. I didn’t accept that as an excuse and made it clear I wanted a divorce. For several days afterward, he pleaded with me to change my mind, offered to go to counseling, and came home with gifts galore, thinking I would forgive him.

Then, one day, something in him changed. I came home from work and was served divorce papers. And because he’s rich and I’m not, I lost everything. Because everything of mine was because of him. I gave him all of me, and now I’m left with nothing. I’ll never make that mistake again.

I spend the next hour packing up my clothes and putting them into boxes in the back of my SUV while Neil and Lois make themselves scarce. Technically, Neil didn’t kick me out, but there’s no way I’m staying under the same roof as them. I still have an iota of my dignity intact.

Once I’ve gotten everything that’s mine from the house—which isn’t much—I get in my vehicle, refusing to let the tears fall. But the second I turn on the ignition, it hits me. Aside from a little bit of money I’ve saved and the car Neil gave me as a wedding gift that’s in my name, I literally have nothing. No home, no place to go. I have my clothes in my trunk and nowhere to take them.

Because Neil’s father holds a lot of weight in this town, our divorce was expedited. I couldn’t afford a lawyer, and I didn’t want to fight, so I let him handle it. It only took seven weeks to finalize the divorce and leave me homeless.

I knew Neil was having an affair, but I didn’t know it was with Lois. I knew I would need to move out, but I thought I would have some time. It all just happened so quickly. In the blink of an eye, I lost everything. Then again, maybe I never really had anything to begin with.

My phone rings over the Bluetooth, startling me out of my thoughts. I glance at the caller ID and see it’s Brianne. It’s like she knew I needed her. “Hey.”

“Oh my fucking God! That trifling, no-good, husband-stealing skank! Did you see her post? Did you know?”

I bark out a watery laugh, loving that my friend has my back. “I’m assuming you’re referring to Lois and Neil.”

“Yes! That bitch. I knew I never liked her.”

It’s the truth. I met Brianne in college, and we immediately clicked. She was my dormmate for two years, and then we shared an apartment off campus for another two. Every time Lois would come to visit, Brianne would tell me something about her felt off. Guess I should’ve listened…