Woke Up Married to the Handsome Stranger

My chest bubbled with excitement as I ran up the steps to the apartment Mike and I shared. I had gotten a promotion, and I was more than excited to share the good news with him. I planned to cook him a nice, fancy meal before he got back from work. Maybe, just maybe, I would lose my virginity to him tonight. I was waiting for the perfect time, and this seemed like it. But as I got closer to my destination, I started feeling like there was something terribly wrong. I heard the laughter first before I saw anything else. It threaded through the hallway, soft and breathy, the kind that curls into the air and settles like smoke. I couldn’t mistake that laughter even in my sleep. For a second, I tell myself I misheard it. Why would Mike be home this early? Why would Cassie be stopping by when I’m not home? I tried to keep my cool, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind. Maybe is nothing. Calm down Diora, calm down. My keys tremble in my fingers as I fumble for the lock. The door gives with a soft click, and the apartment greets me with a slice of afternoon sun and the unmistakable smell of her perfume. Vanilla with a tinge of citrus. The laughter comes again, closer, and my stomach drops. My feet carry me down the hall on autopilot until I stand in front of our bedroom door, hand on the knob. I should go. I tell myself to turn around, walk out, catch a bus, sit on a bench, and breathe. Instead, my hand twists, and the door opens. The sight is a hot needle to the chest. The sheets knotted around her waist, and the olive skin on her back caught the sunlight as she bounced up and down on Mike. “Oh my, this feels so good.” My best friend exclaimed as she f****d my boyfriend. Mike finally noticed me standing there as he looked over Cassie’s shoulder. But instead of the remorseful look one would expect, he looked inconvenienced, like I had interrupted something important. "You should have knocked," he says. Cassie freezes in place and slowly coked her head to the side, cheeks flushed, breath shaking. For a moment, she looks like the scared girl who used to borrow my sweaters and cry on my couch. Then her gaze drops, and she hurriedly scrambled off Mike. "Dior, I-" I do not let her finish. How could you, Cassie? Even if Mike did, but how could you? Cassie and I had been friends since we were four years old. That’s twenty f*****g years of friendship. “It's not what it looks like……” “Oh, please.” I hold a hand up in the air. “Don’t give me that bullshit. You accidentally tripped and fell on his d**k, right? Save me the bullshit.” Cassie looked away in shame while Mike looked severely unbothered. Just then, something on the nightstand catches my eye, a small white stick with an oval window. Don’t tell me it’s what I think it is. I pick it up, and my fingers close around the plastic like they have their own brain. Two lines. Two bright, impossible lines that meant the end of my whole life. "No," I say to the stick, because saying it to anything helps. My voice comes out thin, and I feel ridiculous clutching a pregnancy test like it will explain everything. “No no no no no no no. This can’t be happening to me. Not me.” Cassie presses her palms to her face. "Diora, I am so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Mike swings his legs over the side of the bed and pulls on his jeans as if dressing can fix his manners. "Why are you home? You didn’t have to find out this way," he says casually, as if he hadn’t just pulled the ground from under my feet and left me falling into a deep abyss. For three years, that man made me coffee, warmed my hands in winter, and laughed at my stupid jokes. For three years, he let me think we were building something. "How could you do this to me, Mike? After all we’ve been through together. But we were good, what happened? What went wrong?" I say, because I'm trying to sound reasonable. After all, if I sound reasonable, maybe this would be just a bad dream and not my reality. Maybe the tears streaming down my face were tears of joy, and not tears from the pain of a double betrayal. Mike laughs softly. "You think too much of us, Dior. You always did. You're sweet, but you're boring. I want more. Cassie is exciting. She is amazing in ways you can never be." Heat climbs my neck, and my mouth tastes like sand. The floor seems to drop away, and everything becomes a series of small motions I can watch happen to someone else. Cassie sobs, tiny, helpless sounds. She whispers my name like a confession. "Diora, please. I tried to tell you." "Tell me what? That you’re f*****g my boyfriend and carrying his goddamn baby?" I asked, half yelling as I felt my blood boil. Then a thought crossed my mind. “How long?” The two of them looked away like they were not just caught red-handed. “Answer the f*****g question, how long?” Cassie flinched at the tone of my voice. I had never raised my voice at her; I had never even raised my voice at anyone before. But I couldn’t help it. Cassie looks down at her hands. "It just happened," she says. "We didn't plan it. Mike-" Mike cuts her short like it was nothing. "Two and a half years." I do not have the energy to be furious in the clever, sharp way people in novels are furious. My anger feels exhausted, like an old coat. I reach out and set the pregnancy test back on the nightstand. Mike shrugs as if the answer is the weather report. "You were always busy. You always had work or sleep or some project. And you refused to have s*x with me, always claiming you were waiting for the right time. Cassie actually lives. She's fun. And she is terrific in bed." "I can’t take this anymore." I turn to walk out, but his next words stop me in my tracks. “Pack up your stuff and leave. Cassie is moving in, so I can take care of her and the baby.” If I felt heartbroken before, it was nothing compared to how I felt right now. "This is my place," he says plainly. "My name's on the lease. My salary pays for it. Pack your things, Diora. Save us the drama." I just stared. I had no words, no thoughts, no tricks in my sleeve. I had nowhere to go, no family, no other friends, no home. Cassie presses both hands to her stomach like she can feel the life inside already. "Diora, I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I know how it looks but…..." "It looks like I was a fool." My voice breaks on the last word. I try to steady it and fail. "I gave you everything." Mike's smile cracks my heart open. "No, you gave me a routine. That was never enough. I wanted…colors. People who set my skin on fire. You wanted safe. Safe is for someone else's life." Cassie crawls out of bed and moves toward me like she wants to fold me in. "Please. Let me explain. I didn't-" "Don't," Mike says. His tone is flat and final. "Just leave." I turned back and left without a fight. Only one word could describe how I felt.....broken