He was behind Bella, fucking her roughly, hands grabbing her skinny hips. His back was to me, but in the dressing table mirror, I could see his face. It looked so red and contorted it was hard to tell whether it was pleasure or pain he was experiencing. Neither could see me and oblivious to my presence they carried on groaning, grunting, and emitting guttural cries of encouragement to each other. You know, stuff like, faster, harder, yeah baby, so good, etc.

I knew I should shout, or draw attention to myself and let them know I had caught them in the act. Here was my fiancé, balls-deep in one of our friends, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the apartment that I paid half for. It should have made me incredulous, but in fact, it made perfect sense. Now that I really looked back on it, it seemed so obvious.

Bella, who always said, I should ditch Mark, because he was such a dork. Mark who always said, Bella was so sexless, if she were a man she would have been a eunuch. Eunuch, my ass. She was wriggling her sweat-soaked body like a damn snake in an effort to get more of him inside her. Granted, there wasn’t that much to get inside, but even so. What a slut! I tilted my head slightly and looked at his dick. Thank God, for small mercies. He was wearing a condom.

I stood there for what seemed like a lifetime, blankly watching them go at it and thinking of my next move. I thought about saying something. Well, okay, screaming something, but it seemed undignified. I would have to yell louder than them. No, I wouldn’t do that. I should let them get on with it. I was better off without them.

I turned and headed back out to the front door. I could still see them in the act, an image that was going to be burned onto my brain for the rest of my life, but that was okay. I could live with it. I’d seen worse on TV, on Animal Planet.

As I was passing through the living room I glanced at the cake on the table, and felt the sudden urge to slam my hand down on it, to send the frosting and the perfectly-defined layers squishing messily out all over the table, but I restrained myself. No, I had put a lot of effort into getting it and I wasn’t wasting it. I picked up the cake and went back to the bedroom.

They were still going at it.

Unbelievable! Pigs!

I walked right up to Mark. The bastard never broke the stride of his thrusts or noticed me. With all my strength, I smashed the dream cake over his head.

His reaction was freaking priceless. He was so startled, he fell forward with a girlish scream. Right on top of Bella, the slut, trapping her underneath him. Her thin limbs flailed around like those of a giant insect.

I looked down at my handiwork with satisfaction.

The cake didn’t just break into a few pieces, there was cake and cream everywhere. On their naked bodies, the bed, the carpet. The mess was incredible. Both were still reeling with shock and had no idea what had hit them when I turned around smartly and walked out of the bedroom. I could hear him swearing and her shouting as I marched out of the apartment. I didn’t even bother to close the front door.

A smile cracked out over my face. To my surprise, it turned into a mad little giggle. I guess, because:

1. They looked absolutely ridiculous.
2. There would be consequences, but for now, I was glad I broke up their sex session in such a spectacular fashion.
3. Mark had just handed me my Get Out Of Jail Free card.

Still giggling to myself, I made my way back to my car. I had almost reached my car when the bedroom window of our apartment was thrown open and Mark called out to me. At first, he sounded quite desperate as he begged me to come back up and talk to him. Then to my disbelief and fury, he had the nerve to shout down that it was not what I thought it was. It was all a big misunderstanding.

Un-freaking-believable. I couldn’t help feeling a bit curious about how he planned to spin the fact that I had seen his dick inside her. But was I going back up there and let him lie to my face? No chance. No way. I didn’t want to see either of them ever again.

Quite frankly, Bella was more than welcome to him. Let her put up with his prissy ways. Instead of feeling hurt, like I knew I should, I experienced only a sense of relief. It was weird, but I felt as though a weight I’d been carrying since the day he popped the question had been lifted at last. Gratitude to the universe for showing me the truth bloomed, like fragrant petals, inside my heart. Sunshine beamed down at me.

I gazed up at bright blue sky and felt good.

I didn’t have to feel bad about walking away from such a ‘great catch’ or defend my decision to anyone. There wasn’t a thing anyone could say. Not a damn thing. Anyway, there wasn’t a person alive who could have argued that I should stick by him. Not even my mother would be able to act as if this was my fault for being too fussy, or choosy.

I had escaped him—that fucker, the man who came so close to being my husband. I realized now it would have been a fate worse than death. The only real quality I appreciated and valued in him was his loyalty and he had just flushed that down a toilet called Bella.

A flash of burning fury sped through my body as I thought of all the trouble I had taken to set up his party.

Bastard.

Asshole.

Piece of shit.

I climbed into the driver’s seat. Yes, he was a jerk, yes, I wasted a year of my life, but hey, I was free now! I was finally FREE! For the first time in years, I felt completely and utterly liberated. I clamped my hands over the wheel, and turned my head to look in his direction. He was still hanging out of the window covered in his cake and begging me to come back. My anger disappeared and a bubble of laughter burst out of my mouth.

He stopped begging and stared at me with open-mouthed astonishment.

Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I pulled out of the parking lot as I left him, her, and our life together behind. This was it for me. I drove around for a little while, not quite sure where precisely I was going, but without meaning to, I found myself heading toward the outskirts of the city.

Julie’s wedding. Back in Cold Creek.

I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow after work with Mark, but slight change of plans. That’s where I was headed now on my own. Only a couple of hours away, back home, and far removed from this entire mess and everything that came with it.

All I had in the back was my purse, one packed bag for the trip, and a dry-cleaning token, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was: I was free again to restart my life and this time, I wasn’t settling for second best.

Never again!