Page 13 of Even Exchange

“We’re both clear,” Jonathan says, as if that should make everything better. As if I should be totally chill with the fact he rawdogged me, then fucked his mistress immediately after.

“If you were so unhappy, why didn’t you break up with me?”

He shifts on his heels. “I honestly thought you’d have done it by now.”

“Oh, so you’re a coward?” He doesn’t speak, jaw tight. “Well, you’ve got your wish. We’re done.”

“Charlie, wai?—”

I rush out the door and pull it shut behind me with a rattle. After sprinting to the elevator, I smash my finger on the down button, praying he doesn’t come after me. Hours pass, realistically seconds, but it’s too damn long.He’s not coming after me?My eyes find the door to the stairwell, and I bolt, running down them like I’ve robbed a New York City penthouse. When I finally make it to the lobby, I’m winded and my veins are overflowing with anger.

How could he do this?

My hands shake as my eyes blur with tears. Four years of my life I’ve given to him, and this is how he repays me?

My heart aches, the memories of our shared past hitting me like a grenade all at once.

“I love you, Charlie. Forever,”he told me for the first time while we were tangled up in the sheets our sophomore year.

“After I go pro, I’m wifing you up,”he said, spinning me in circles on the Longwood High School football field after he’d thrown a game-winning touchdown.

“You’ll always have a place here,”he told me after my grandmother died. I needed an escape from my home life, and he would whisk me away, keeping me distracted with his smile and pretty words. He was thoughtful and kind and gentle, and god, was it easy to fall in love with him.

What the hell happened?

Stepping outside his building, I’m slammed by a wall of humidity, snapping me back to reality.

Formonthshe cheated on me, and I had no clue? Am I really so dumb I didn’t seeanysigns?

Guess Sophia was right.

“Maybe you should stop making excuses for him and realize he might actually be the goddamn villain, Char.”

Well, fuck me for not believing her.

Jonathan’s words about our sex life echo in my mind: “You sure as hell never finished me off without explicit directions.”

We may not have had the best sex, but was it really all me? I think back to last night and his words to me after another shitty lay.“It’s okay, babe. I’ll help fix you.”

I guess I’m still broken.

A rumble surrounds me, vibrating to my bones, and I glance up, small rain droplets hitting my face already damp with tears.

Then the sky splits open, and we cry together.

3

NOAH

“You’re seriously saying no to popping bottles at LIV?” Theo asks, dumbstruck eyes on me as we exit Ken’s Karaoke. Our group’s heading to one of Miami’s most renowned clubs, but after a day at the beach, paired with multiple Grammy-award-worthy performances, my eyes are fighting for life.

“Sorry, bud,” I say, the stench of stale beer and cigarettes seeping deeper into my pores with every second. “The hotel shower is calling my name.”

“I’d feel less disappointed if the redhead was joining you in it.”

“Nah, not my type.”

He smirks. “Why, because she’s not brunette and in a relationship?”

---