My Second Chance at Love

He knows

Emma’s POV…

It’s the last period of the day and I have twenty more minutes. The lesson is done and the kids are doing group work. My phone dings. I glance and see that it’s from Rob. s**t.

I open it. “I know everything bitch.” Attached is a picture of Andrew and I from the parking lot of the grocery store on Sunday morning. I’m nauseous and begin to cry. I knock on Hannah’s door. She looks at me and I flash my phone to her. She grabs me in a bone breaking hug.

“What are your students doing?”

“Group work. They’re fine.”

“Okay. Call Andrew. Tell him. If nothing else, he will calm your nerves.”

I just nod. I call him and he answers.

“Hey babe. What’s up?”

“Rob knows,” I sob into the phone. “I don’t know for sure what all he knows but he sent a picture of us together from town this weekend and said that he knew everything.”

“Do you care that he knows?” I can hear smugness and panic at the same time in his voice.

“No and yes. I don’t care because he’s an ass and I don’t care what he thinks. I do care because I know he’s gonna twist it and tell everyone I was cheating.”

He exhaled loudly. “Who cares if people think you cheated?”

“It’s part of my morality clause. I could lose my job and my teaching license forever. I just got my masters degree. What would be the point in all the work?” I’m in full blown panic mode now. What would I do?

“Emma, what’s the picture of?”

“It’s us from the grocery store parking lot. We’re loading groceries into your truck and it’s the way we’re looking at each other.”

“Tell him I’m a friend. We don’t have a label or any of that s**t so just tell him I am a friend that was helping with groceries.”

“Okay,” and I swear it’s the first time I can fully exhale since the text came in.

I go to the text from Rob and reply, “Yes. You know. You know everything. He’s a friend Rob. A friend that helped me get groceries. That’s all. Problem?”

“A friend that has f**ked half the town and is known for it. He doesn’t help do anything for free. Do you know about the r**e?”

What the actual hell? I refuse to respond. I refuse. I’m not going to feed into him.

A r**e? Andrew wouldn’t r**e anyone, would he? s**t! I’m sick. I’m gonna throw up.

“Hey class, put your work on my desk before you leave.” The bell rings. Thank god! I race to the bathroom and empty the contents of my stomach in the toilet.

My phone dings again. I look down.

“Tell Andrew I know his secrets. Tell him I said stay away from you or I’ll expose them all. You’re mine Emma. You always have been and you always will be.”

Oh my god! Secrets! With an S, like plural? More than one?

Who have I given myself to? I know my judgement of character is awful, I picked Rob after all.

Hannah finds me.

“Emma, what’s wrong sweetie?”

I just hand her my phone and continue to cry.

“Have you called him?”

“He told me to tell him he was a friend.”

“That was smart. I meant since the other two texts.”

“No.”

“Okay. I’m gonna send him a screenshot. Then we’ve got five more minutes and you can leave.”

“Okay. Please do.”

I hear her sending the screenshot text. I hear my phone ring and Hannah answers it. She’s telling him I can’t talk right now that I’m sick. He’s not being agreeable but she snaps.

“If you care half as much as you keep claiming, you’ll give her an hour to compose herself and get home, then you’ll call and tell her the damn truth. If you can’t do that then lose her number.”

She disconnects the call.

“Okay, Emma. Let’s get you ready to go home.” She walks me to my room and packs my bag. She grabs my stuff and walks me to my car. “I’m following you home Emma.”

“Okay. That’s probably good.”

I drive. I’m in a fog. I’m on auto pilot. I get to my apartment and am overwhelmed by his smell. I begin to cry and I don’t stop until my phone rings.

I know it’s do or die time when I see his name so I answer. At this time Hannah excuses herself with a nod and mouths “see you tomorrow.”

“Hello?”

“Emma,” and it’s more of a winded sound than a word. “Baby I never r***d her. I was a sophomore in high school. We had s*x. Her dad was a preacher. She got pregnant but miscarried. When they found out she was pregnant they were hard on her. She said I forced her. Emma, I had my tonsils out and she was taking care of me. If anything, she took advantage of me, honestly baby. I swear to god. I love s*x but I don’t want to force anyone.”

He’s quiet now. It all came out so fast. I could tell he’d said it at least a thousand times over the years and I felt awful for doubting him. How could I treat him like that.

“Andrew, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I doubted you. I’m sorry you went through that. I’m sorry no one stood up for you. I’m just so damn sorry.”

“No. This isn’t on you. This is Rob’s fault. That ass is desperate now.”

“Okay. I swear I’ve been holding my breath since I got that text. Jesus Andrew. What other secrets?!?!”

“Emma, I’ve had a shitty life. Baby I made awful decisions, okay? I didn’t do terrible destructive things to others though. I’ll tell you everything but I need time. I swear I’ll tell it all to you though.”

“Okay.”

“About the r**e. We had s*x three different times. I lost my virginity to her. When she cried r**e, I asked her which time was supposed to be r**e. Her dad hit me and broke a tooth. My dad broke his arm. Everyone said it was because of my mom and her absence from my life. It wasn’t. I just really liked the girl. We had a normal teenage relationship. That’s all. When she miscarried I was so relieved.”

“I’m really sorry Andrew. I’m sorry that your peers talked bad about you. I can imagine how bad it got.”

“Oh it was bad. I was the poor kid. The son of a drunk and a druggie. She was the golden child. The preachers kid. When she miscarried and they dropped the charges, it took about six months for everything to go back to normal for me. I threw myself into football harder than I ever had and I promised myself to get the hell out of that tiny ass little town.”

“I had no idea. I want to know everything about you but I want to know it when you’re ready to tell me okay?”

“Okay. You know I’ve got you, right? I’ll take care of you, no matter what. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I’m figuring it out.”

“Good. Go make your supper. Call me later beautiful.”