Page 42 of The Other Guy

Jeff: I won’t be home tonight.

That’s it. No explanation for where he will be. Not sure even why he’s telling me, since the last several weeks I haven’t crossed his mind.

“He’s not coming home tonight so you don’t have to stay to protect me.”

“How about I help you get some shit packed first? You can’t drive tonight anyway but we can get it loaded up so you can as soon as you’re sober.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to. Two sets of hands will make it go quicker.”

“I just have my personal stuff, anyway. The furniture and everything is his.”

“Sounds good. We’ll get it done. Coffee?”

“Water. I need to sober up, like you said, and water usually helps.”

He marches to the fridge and pulls out a few bottles, uncapping one and bringing it to me. I drink it down quickly then refill it out of the spigot in front of the fridge.

I find all the boxes and my suitcases and laundry baskets I can to start loading everything up and within an hour, my life is boxed up and placed into my car. Pathetic, really. Saying goodbye to Nick, he promises to come visit me at The Landing as soon as the baby is a little older. He listened while I talked with Kyle on the phone and made arrangements for me to move back home. When I told Kyle I’d explain everything when I got there, he said “No, you’ll explain it when you get home. You’re coming home, sweet girl.” I almost started crying right then and there but held the tears back. Jeff wouldn’t get my tears. He doesn’t deserve them.

“Thanks for everything, Nick. I don’t know if I would have had the energy to take care of all this tonight if you hadn’t been here.”

“Consider it my payment for not working harder to stop him from cheating on you.”

I laugh at that. “I told you it wasn’t your fault, but I’ll take it.”

“Take care of yourself, Sierra.”

“Take care of that beautiful family of yours, Nick.”

“Plan to. See ya,” he says as he leaves and makes his way to his car.

I go to the bathroom and wash my face with hand soap and brush my teeth with a spare toothbrush I found because all my toiletries have been packed away, and lie down on the couch, not wanting to get into the bed I once shared with Jeff. Toby jumps up, nestling into a nook he creates by my legs, and falls asleep within minutes.

I, however, can’t seem to rest my brain enough to join him.

I lift my phone and find the contact that I added for Jack before I forget the number.

Me: So tonight was fun.

I wait to see if he’ll reply, wondering what he’ll say if and when he does. I can just picture his face right now, annoyed that this is still happening.

The three little dots appear and disappear letting me know that he’s typing, then thinking, typing, then thinking.

Eventually they disappear completely with no text reply and I wonder if he’s done with the entire business of making these women think Jeff is actually a decent guy.

Which clearly he is not. I was so, so wrong about him.

He’s a teacher! He’s neat and tidy! Ugh. He doesn’t deserve even a second of my thoughts and yet I can’t help but wonder how I could be so wrong about a guy. How could I have missed the signs that he was just a cheating asshole? My parents might not have had a conventional relationship, but they never cheated. I know this to be true because we’ve actually talked about it. Once I was old enough to recognize the dysfunction as what it is, I sat my parents down and asked how they lived in a marriage full of such turmoil. Their response was smiling at each other and simply shrugging. It shouldn’t work, but it does. At the end of the day, there was no one they’d rather fight with (and make up later) than each other. Their eyes never strayed to others. They never felt tempted to step out on their marriage vows. They just… argued. To each their own, I guess? It still confuses me.

My thoughts go back to Jack… wondering what it would be like to be with a man like him. Is he as honorable as he seems? Would the butterflies his grin gives me ever stop? Would his touch always be gentle or would it become something else entirely if we were between the sheets? Or on the kitchen counter. Or in his gym.

Damn, I really need sex. Good. Hard. Sex. It’s been ages.

I wonder what he’ll be like when I return to town. If he’ll be happy to see me or if it was all in my head and I just imagined the way he would stare a beat or two too long in my direction because I felt a little desperate for that sort of attention from a man.

I fall asleep that night with Toby snoring and dreams of a happily ever after I never envisioned for myself. A happily ever after.

With Jack Cole by my side.

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