Amanda sat, soda in hand, as she watched her boyfriend load up his fishing gear and jump into the Jeep. He had only told her that morning of the planned trip. Distastefully, she turned away, a knot forming in her stomach as she read the texts off her phone.
At first, the trips had been sporadic, once, maybe twice, a month. Yet, it suddenly turned into a weekly thing, then biweekly if this trip proved it.
She remembered the first time he had asked her. Generally, he’d just tell her that he would be going out with friends, but this time, when he asked, she could sense something different. Of course, it was different. He wanted to hang out with a girl. Precisely, go fishing with her, something they had occasionally done in the past according to his friends.
He had been considerate enough to make sure she was okay with it, but now, he’d let her know at the drop of a hat. A part of her didn’t want to just say he couldn’t hang with his friends based on gender. Amanda didn’t want to be suffocating or controlling. He didn’t make a peep when she hanged with any guy friends of hers.
She didn’t want to be nosy either, but every time she watched him leave and see him jump in that car with that girl, her stomach knotted to the point she couldn’t breathe. Her friends had assured her on several occasions she wouldn’t be crossing the line they had set in stone upon entering the relationship. Even a few of his own friends had chimed in, letting her know that this hadn’t happened before.
He wouldn’t be home until late that night. Amanda had hours to pace the apartment, trying to distract herself sick from the situation she felt spinning out of control in her head. Constantly, messages flew to and from her. Ideas stirred and died at the snap of her fingers.
When he came in, Amanda gave him the usual hug and kiss, but she smelt something this time. Beyond the fish and sweat, lingered gentle perfume. Most certainly not the type she wore.
Stepping away, she retreated into the bedroom, not bothering to explain herself. Getting ready for bed, Amanda kept her phone close by, quickly reading the texts that suddenly poured through.
A dear friend of hers told her to confront him and if nothing changed, walk. Never before in her life had she felt so jumpy in her own home, so tense around the one person she wanted to wear white for.
In the middle of the night, Amanda slipped away, fully aware she still had work in the morning. Anxiety radiated from her as she paced their kitchen floor, acutely aware of each creak the building would make. She, eventually, fell asleep on the couch.
The next morning, she woke to the sun pouring brightly into the living room. It was barely seven o’clock, a good thing since her alarm would go off in the next few minutes.
Quietly, she shut off her alarm, acting as if she had just got up, like she never slept on the couch, as she headed back into kitchen to make coffee. By the smell alone, she knew it would jolt him awake and he’d join her within the next few minutes.
Anxiety welling inside her again, she dashed into the bathroom, not forgetting her phone to text as she got ready for work. As predicted, she heard the bed squeak from the shift in weight as he got up.
He didn’t bother her, just waited for her to finish showering so he could hop in next. She barely made a peep as they passed one another. Shooting him a small smile when he kissed her good morning on the cheek, she grabbed her coffee to go as she shouted him a quick goodbye and left.
Amanda knew she was being stupid, she cursed herself for it as she drove, knowing fully well she was just blowing most of it out of proportion. He would listen. He promised that when they got back together last year. They would listen to one another.
Still, nothing left her more nervous. Books and movies all weren’t based off of crazy imaginations. They came from the real life experiences of their creators. Things she had seen play out before her eyes as people drifted apart from one another, or crashed and burned as they tore at one another.
For the next fews days, Amanda sat on the ideas that turned in her head. She didn’t believe he would cheat. That perfume could have come from a hug, but what girl wears perfume to go fishing? She had never smelled it before hand, either.
When Thursday rolled around, she woke to find him gone. Amanda rolled out of bed, tiptoeing to the door to see him quietly packing a few things. He had his fishing gear by the door.
“Fishing? Again?”
“Yeah.” Indecisive, she stood in the bedroom door way, her mouth opening and closing like fish.
“Tyler?” Gathering the little courage she had, she came to sit on the couch, wrapping her arms around a pillow. “We need to talk.”
“Okay, sure. Whatcha want to talk about?” Most guys would freeze in terror over those words, but Tyler didn’t. He shot her a charming smile before he returned his attention back to the task at hand.
“I don’t know how to say it so… I’m just going to blurt it all out.” She stood from the couch, rounding the corner to stand in front of him, catching his attention.
“What’s wrong, baby?” He dropped it on the counter, taking her hand to pull her in close, that charming smile still in place.
“I don’t want you to go fishing with her anymore.” An indifference fell over her face as she bluntly said the words. His smile dropped, replaced with a frown.
“Why not?” No suspicion haunted his gaze, no scrutiny either.
“I’m not comfortable with you going anymore. I know I said I was cool with it, but that was before it became a weekly thing.” She licked her lips, emotions flashing across her face in rapid succession. “I wasn’t being nosy, but when I asked some of your friends, they never remembered you making weekly or biweekly trips to the lake with a girl I had never actually met. Hell! I don’t even know her name!”
“Andrea. Her name’s Andrea. I’m pretty sure I told you and you met her once when she came to pick me up for fishing that one time.” His frown deepened.
“Tyler, you can go fishing with her. I didn’t mind when it was a once a month thing. I didn’t mind you two hanging out. I did mind when you stopped telling me. You’d leave at a drop of a hat and we hadn’t been on a date in an entire month. We aren’t married Tyler. If we were, I wouldn’t expect date nights once a week. I am, however, your girlfriend who doesn’t appreciate smelling another woman’s perfume on you.” She gestured to his packed gear. “Were you even going to tell me?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.” Pointing over his shoulder to a note hung on the fridge, he continued, “I left a note.” When his gaze returned to her, his brows furrowed. “She gives me a hug when she drops me off. I don’t see-”
“What kind of girl wears perfume to go fishing, Tyler? I sure as hell don’t. Granted, I don’t go fishing, but that doesn’t seem like a normal thing, especially when it’s only this past trip that I’ve smelt it on you. I’m not trying to say your cheating or she’s coming onto you when I’m obviously not there to witness it, but I don’t like this anymore.” Licking her lips once again, she pulled away and headed to their room. “You can go Tyler. But if you do, expect this relationship to be in jeopardy. We broke up once, we can do it again.”
She headed for the bathroom, closing and locking the door.
Tyler stood there, hearing the Jeep’s horn just outside. He could hear the shower running and her phone buzzing on the kitchen table behind him. Yet, he couldn’t quite breathe correctly as her final words rang in his brain. It rattled him to the core.
Generally, he wasn’t one to go peeking, but, at the constant buzzing, he walked over to just look at her notification. An old high school friend of his had texted. He was trying to get her to confront him on the matter of Andrea. Pleading almost, as his sentence cut off about Tyler’s devotion to her.
Tyler left it alone, fully aware of her password. He headed out the door and down to the awaiting Jeep, where Andrea stuck her head out and waved at him to hurry up. At the absence of his usual bag, she frowned.
“I can’t.” He stopped by her door, shoving his hands into his pant pockets.
“Oh, I thought you said you were off today and Sundays? Maybe Sunday or next week then?” Andrea laid her head down on the car door, looking up at him.
Before he could speak, he smelled the light scent of perfume. He hadn’t noticed before, but now that he was standing there…
“Andrea, it was fun, but I shouldn’t be hanging with you every week. It was wrong from the beginning.” Fury flushed her cheeks as she straightened herself up.
“Why not?”
“Because I have a girlfriend.”
“She said she was cool with it if we go fishing.” She snorted, her eyes narrowing on him. “We use to go fishing every week as kids.”
“We aren’t kids anymore. I gotta go take care of my girl.” Tyler backed away, smiling apologetically before dashing back up to the second story.
His girlfriend sat on the barstool, pulling on her shoes and rolling the bottom of her jeans like she was so fond of doing.
“I’m sorry.” Amanda’s head snapped up at his words, as if just noticing his approach. “We use to go fishing all the time as kids so when she asked this year to go with her, I just was feeling nostalgic. The guys rather go out to the bar, but fishing was just kind of something our dads would make us do, and I didn’t want to drag you out there when I knew you didn’t want to go.”
“I would have gone, if you asked.”
“You never make me go shopping with you, though.” He scratched the back of his head, as if the excuse hadn’t come out right. “I love you. I’ve always had and always will. I didn’t think for even a second of leaving you anytime I was with her. I just thought back on all the times we were kids. She never came onto me or anything. We only touched when she wanted to hug me.”
“I never questioned your faithfulness, Tyler. I questioned whether or not, if you had the opportunity, would you go with her just because I didn’t have the nerve to start asserting myself a bit more.”
He walked forward until his leg bumped her bar stool. It shook slightly, but didn’t fall as he pulled her straight into his arms.
“You never have to.”
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