- MADDIE -

After a year-long internship with NBC, I finally did it. I got a coveted position as an on-air reporter. It’s meant long hours at the studio, missing meals, and having no social life, but I nailed it two weeks after I graduated from college.

I wish I could say NBC offered me the job, but my boss told me right off the bat he didn’t have any positions for newbs. So I got the next best thing—a gig with New England News Network, which boasts a reputation for hard-hitting stories. It also means that unlike most of my peers who are trekking off to report the news in bumble, I get to stay in my hometown.

And there’s only one person I want to celebrate with tonight.

Jacob is going to die when I tell him I nailed it.

Walking in to his apartment, I set my bag down in the entryway and kick off my heels. Jacob is probably napping. He always takes a snooze after practice. He’s a mixed martial artist and a gym rat. I’ve never dated a professional athlete before. Usually, I’ve gone for the quiet econ or history major, but I couldn’t resist Jacob’s allure. I was shooting footage for a friend who had to cover a local match last summer when we first met. After Jacob pummeled his opponent, he strutted up to me and asked me out.

Two weeks ago, he asked me to move in, but he’s training for a big fight, so we’re waiting until after his trip to Vegas next week to make it official.

Glancing at my watch, I know I’m a few hours early, but I can’t wait to tell him.

On the bar, next to a dozen roses, a bottle of wine chills in a cooler. Did he find out my secret? My tummy jumps with excitement.

I tiptoe down the hall, ready to strip out of my clothes to give him a proper wakeup call, when I hear the laughter. A woman’s laughter.

I jerk to a stop, my heart suddenly pounding.

“You like that, huh?” His voice cuts through the silence and sends goosebumps up my arms. “Suck it harder. That’s right. Show me how much you love my cock in your mouth.”

Oh my God.

Trembling, I don’t want to go any closer. I don’t want to see for myself, but my legs move of their own accord until I don’t have a choice but to witness this with my own eyes.

I see him through the crack in the door, sitting on the edge of the bed with his fingers threaded through her dark hair. Their faces are in shadow, but his head motions yes as she bobs up and down in his lap.

She pauses to look up at him. “Can we do it like we did yesterday?”

He moans. “Yeah, baby, just like yesterday.”

The skank crawls up the bed, and he follows, straddling her chest. She reaches up and grabs the metal headboard as Jacob directs himself into her mouth.

Nausea twists in my stomach.

Yesterday, my boyfriend and this girl had sex in his bed. Just before I had sex with him in his bed.

I cover my mouth, fighting hard not to vomit because, yesterday, we had unprotected sex. When I thought he was monogamous and the man I would marry, I let him put his dirty dick in me.

All at once, my life doesn’t make sense. Tonight should be about my future and planning a life with someone I thought loved me. I’m such a fool. Ignoring the rumors he was promiscuous, I let my guard down with him, let myself believe his lies about being with lots of girls simply because he hadn’t found the right one. And he let me believe I was it. His forever.

As I watch this woman deep-throat Jacob, the hurt and pain dissipate, and all I feel is rage. Blinding, white-hot, I-might-kill-someone rage. My hands move like I’m on autopilot, my training kicking in. I’m barely aware of my phone shaking in front of me as my finger slides across the screen to activate the camera.

I push the red button. A few seconds is all I get, but it’s exactly what I need to remind myself of my stupidity. Because I know he’ll lie. He’ll twist this around until I can’t see straight, and he’ll somehow get me to think this is my fault.

No, this is on him, and I want to remember every ounce of humiliation so I never repeat this mistake again.

The cocksucker pauses to ask where they’ll hook up once I move in, and he tells her they’ll do it in the locker room at the gym. Classy.

I turned down date after date so this jerkoff could cheat on me.

Tucking my phone back into my jacket, I stomp past them and dump the shit out of his gym bag before I yank open drawers and toss my clothes in.

“Shit. Shit. It’s Maddie,” he mumbles. “Baby, what are you doing?”

“Fuck you, asshole.” I storm into the bathroom and grab my makeup. When I emerge, Jacob is pushing the girl away, and I see her face for the first time.

“Oh my God. This just gets better.” Staring at Kimmy the cage girl, I can’t believe I got this whole thing so wrong.

“Baby, this isn’t what it looks like,” he stammers.

My knuckles turn white as I grip my bag. “Really? So your dick magically landed in her mouth? What an interesting phenomenon.”

I take the keychain he gave me with a miniature boxing glove and chuck it at his head.

“Kimmy, now you don’t have to blow him at the gym. He’s all yours.”

* * *