Shelby was about two hours into her morning writing stretch when her phone buzzed with an email notification. She normally turned her cell phone off during the blocks of time she had marked off for writing. She had to immerse herself in a bubble of total silence before she could really focus on the work she had to do. She wasn’t even able to have any music playing at that time. She had tried music because she had read it helped some artists and writers get into the creative spirit, but it made her want to get out of her chair and sing along with her favorite songs. She had decided very quickly that she would have to have total silence and no distractions to do her work effectively.

She was stunned out of her writing mode by the sound of the phone and she instantly scolded herself. She had been right in the middle of a great scene and being interrupted was the most annoying thing she could possibly think up right at that moment. She wanted to punch a wall for a brief second. But she needed her hands to write, so she just gritted her teeth—that damage was already probably done—and checked the message.

It was an email from someone she didn’t recognize. Normally she would just chalk it up to spam and delete it, but the subject line read: Aaron Davis Sex Tape. Her heart caught in her chest. What the hell was this? It had to be some sort of a sick joke. Who would do this?

She realized that she still hadn’t opened up the video yet. Was she that afraid of what she would find? Was Aaron cheating on her? Could she even call it cheating yet? After the sweet day in the park they had gone on several other dates, including last week when they had visited the Grand Canyon and then hopped over to see the Hoover Dam. After that they spent a day and a night in Vegas.

Aaron had been a perfect gentleman, even suggesting they get separate rooms, but Shelby wasn’t having that. You don’t take a girl to Vegas after a romantic couple of days and expect to get separate rooms. Aaron had been quite surprised that she had suggested it.

They had made love for the first time together in that Vegas hotel room. It had been sweet and romantic. The way their bodies moved together creating a perfect poetry of expressive lust that was the thing Hollywood romance movies tried to capture. It had been the most intense night of her life. Aaron just knew where to touch her and how to touch her, as if he had read a book on everything she liked. He had even done some things to her that she had never known she liked.

Shelby had not thought about it that much, but she realized right then and there that she was falling in love with Aaron Davis and if this video showed him cheating on her, then she might have fallen apart right then.

She took a deep breath and just pushed play.

The video began. It was worse than she had expected. It showed Aaron and some hot girl in the midst of a passionate sexual encounter. Aaron was on top of the girl and he was riding her doggy style.

In the lower left hand corner of the video it showed the date. It was the night after they had returned from Vegas.

Shelby turned it off and allowed the tears to well up in her eyes. She felt a piercing, stabbing pain deep in her chest, right over her heart. It felt like she couldn’t breathe and she thought she might be having a heart attack, or at the very least an intense panic attack.

She stumbled to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. She chugged it hard and sat down at the table to allow the pain to pass by. It slowly started to and she felt her breathing return to normal. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing, just allowing the hyperventilation to go away.

It was over with Aaron. He had betrayed her just when she was starting to feel close to him. She had opened herself up and let him into her heart despite all of her misgivings and hesitations, and the worst had happened.

He was supposed to pick her up for their dinner date that night. She knew what she had to do.

Shelby picked up the phone and forwarded the email to him. She added a text line to the body.

Hope you had fun with your whore. We are done.

Shelby walked into her living room, sat down on her couch, and cried until she passed out.

* * *

The knock at her door woke her up. Darkness consumed her as she tried to get her eyes to focus. The only light she could make out was the glow of the digital clock on the front display of her cable box.

She moaned as her body moved, feeling the bones in her back crack and pop as the joints came to life. She had not slept that good in a long time.

“Shelby! Open up, we have to talk.”

Shelby turned on the light in the living room, and winced as her eyes adjusted.

“Go away. There is nothing to talk about.”

“Shelby. This is a lie. I did not cheat on you.”

Shelby opened the door so she could look Aaron in the face.

“Really? You are going to stand there and lie to me. I saw the video. It’s right there plain as day.”

“This woman is my ex- girlfriend. She is unbalanced. She cheated on me and I broke up with her, but she won’t take no for an answer. This video is fake.”

“Give me a break. That is clearly you and her in the video.”

“Yes. It is me and it is her, but the date is completely wrong. It is from six months ago.”

“How can I know that? I want to believe you, but I just can’t. How can you expect me to believe that story?”

“I can prove it.”

Shelby looked at him incredulously.

“How?”

Aaron pointed to his ankle. It was bare except for a barbed wire tattoo.

“So? What about your ankle?”

“I didn’t have the tattoo in this video. This is my newest tat. I got it two months ago. Apparently, Chelsea doesn’t pay attention to detail. She is just trying to break us up. She still thinks I’ll take her back.”

Aaron held up his phone. It showed the paused video of him and Chelsea having sex where his ankle is clearly visible, with no tattoo. He was telling the truth.

Shelby burst into tears, lurched forward, and wrapped her arms around Aaron’s neck, pulling him close.

“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok, baby. You had every right to think that, but I promise you that I am not a cheater and I would never do anything to hurt you or betray your trust. I love you Shelby Wilkes.”

Shelby pulled back a second and looked him dead in the eyes. She could see that he really meant every word of what he said. There was nothing hiding behind those perfect eyes of his.

“I love you, too.”

The words echoed in the calm air of the dark night and hung there, repeating in her ears. She had heard those words spoken before, but she had never believed that they were true until just now. The cadence and timing in his voice, and the emotion behind the words, as well as the truth gleaming from his eyes told her all she needed to know. He really meant those words when he said them.

She leaned against him and let her tears continue to fall as the emotional outburst slowly started to subside, returning her to a normal state of being.