Faking it with hockey captain

The first thing I heard when I opened the apartment door was a woman moaning from my bedroom. I stopped with one hand still wrapped around my keys, my mind refusing to make sense of what I was hearing. I had spent almost ten hours at the university clinic, my feet hurt, my head was pounding, and all I wanted was a shower and sleep. Then I heard Ethan. “Keep your voice down.” My fingers tightened around the keys. For a few seconds, I stood completely still, trying to force an explanation that would make sense. Maybe I had heard wrong. Maybe the sound had come from another apartment. Then the woman moaned again. This time, I recognized her voice. Brianna. My best friend. I dropped my bag beside the door and walked toward the bedroom before I could think myself out of it. The door was slightly open, and through the gap I saw Ethan above her, his back to me, while Brianna’s fingers gripped the sheets I had bought for our bed. My stomach turned. I pushed the door open. Neither of them noticed me immediately. “Wow.” Brianna screamed and dragged the sheet over herself, while Ethan turned so quickly he almost fell off the bed. “Ava.” I looked at the man I had planned to marry and the woman who had helped me choose my wedding dress three months ago. Neither of them looked sorry. They looked caught. Ethan grabbed his trousers from the floor. “Baby, this isn’t—” “If you say this isn’t what it looks like, I will throw something at your head.” He stopped. Brianna’s face had gone pale. “Ava, please. Let us explain.” “Us?” I asked, a bitter laugh escaping before I could stop it. “You two have an explanation together now?” Ethan pulled on his trousers. “It was a mistake.” I looked at the bed. “A mistake that required both of you to take your clothes off?” “Ava—” “How long?” Neither answered. That silence told me more than I wanted to know. I turned toward Brianna. “How long?” Her eyes filled with tears. Under different circumstances, I might have felt sorry for her. “Three months.” The answer hit harder than I expected. For three months, she had sat across from me at lunch while I complained that Ethan had been distant. She had helped me talk through wedding plans and listened while I defended him whenever someone said I was doing too much for the relationship. For three months, Ethan had kissed me goodnight after coming home late because work was supposedly keeping him busy. I looked down at my engagement ring and suddenly felt stupid for wearing it. Ethan stepped toward me. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” I pulled the ring from my finger. “Was it supposed to happen after the wedding instead?” “No. Ava, listen to me.” He reached for me, but I stepped back. “Don’t touch me.” His hand dropped. Brianna climbed out of the bed with the sheet wrapped around her body. “I’m sorry.” I looked at her. “No, you’re sorry I came home early.” She flinched. I placed the ring on the dresser, and Ethan stared at it. “What are you doing?” “What does it look like?” “Ava, don’t make a decision while you’re angry.” I looked at him properly then and could not believe I had spent four years loving someone capable of saying something that stupid. “I just caught you having s*x with my best friend in our bed. What emotion would you prefer I make the decision with?” He dragged a hand through his hair. “We can fix this.” “We?” “Yes. We can go to counseling. I’ll do whatever you want.” The fact that he sounded almost sincere made me angrier. I walked toward the wardrobe and pulled down the small suitcase I kept on the top shelf. Ethan followed while I started throwing clothes into it. “Where are you going?” he asked. “I don’t know yet.” “This is your home too.” “Not tonight.” “Ava, please.” I ignored him. Behind us, Brianna gathered her clothes quietly. When she reached the door, she hesitated as though she expected me to say something. “I really am sorry.” “Leave.” She left. Ethan waited until the front door closed before trying again. “She means nothing to me.” I stopped packing. “That is supposed to make me feel better?” “I love you.” “You have a strange way of showing it.” “We’ve been together for years. You can’t throw everything away because I messed up.” “You did not ‘mess up,’ Ethan. You cheated on me for three months with someone I trusted.” His eyes dropped. I zipped the suitcase and reached for my laptop bag. Then my phone buzzed. It was a bank notification. PAYMENT DECLINED — INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. I frowned. The payment was for my tuition installment, and that did not make sense. I had transferred money into our shared account the previous week specifically because the university payment was due. I opened the banking app. The balance was almost empty. I refreshed the page because I genuinely thought there had to be some mistake, but nothing changed. “Ethan.” Something in my voice made him stop talking. “Where’s the money?” His face changed, and that frightened me more than the balance. “What money?” “The joint account.” “Ava—” “Where is it?” He looked away. I opened the transaction history and started scrolling. There were withdrawals I did not recognize, transfers I had never approved and payments large enough to make my hands shake. “What did you do?” “I was going to put it back.” I stared at him. “You took my tuition money?” “It wasn’t only your money.” “The part I put there for school was.” “I had things to deal with.” “What things?” He did not answer. I kept scrolling and found more withdrawals stretching back months. The anger in my chest changed into something colder. “How long have you been taking money from the account?” I asked. “Ava, calm down.” “Do not tell me to calm down.” “I was going to replace it before you noticed.” I laughed, but there was nothing funny about any of this. “So while you were cheating on me, you were also taking money I needed for school?” “I didn’t steal anything.” “You took money without asking me.” “I said I’ll replace it.” “When?” He rubbed his face. “Soon.” My hands were trembling, but I refused to cry in front of him. I picked up my suitcase and headed for the door. “Ava, where are you supposed to go?” “I’ll figure it out.” “You can’t afford another place right now.” I stopped near the bedroom door. That was the worst part. He knew exactly how stretched my finances were. He knew I had reduced my work hours because of final-year clinical requirements. He knew I trusted the shared account because we were supposed to be building a life together. And he had used that trust against me. “I’d rather sleep in my car than stay here.” His face hardened. “You’re being dramatic.” That made leaving easier. I walked out without looking back. By the time I reached the parking lot, anger was the only thing keeping me upright. I put the suitcase in the trunk, climbed into the driver’s seat and finally allowed myself to breathe. My phone buzzed again. This time it was an email from the university. FINAL PAYMENT REMINDER. I opened it and read the message twice before the words properly settled. My outstanding tuition had to be cleared before the next placement period. If payment was not received by the deadline, my clinical placement would be suspended. The deadline was in ten days. I looked at the nearly empty balance in my account, then at the apartment window where the life I had trusted was still waiting upstairs. In less than an hour, I had lost my fiancé, my best friend and most of the money I needed to finish school. Now I had ten days to save the only future I had left.