Tender Hearts

Broken

"Evie, wait!" his voice echoed in her mind. She didn't wait. She didn't want to see him again, ever. The sight of him, buried balls deep between the legs of his secretary, Selena, was burned into the backs of her eyelids.

Evangelina had arrived home early, with the intent of surprising Chas on the anniversary of their first date. She'd arranged to have dinner delivered from his favorite restaurant, had bought some new, sexy lingerie and was home just in time to clean the place up, take a shower to freshen herself up, and get dressed in the newest dress he'd bought her. Her intention was for it to be perfect because he was perfect, they were perfect. When he'd asked her to marry him, she said, "Yes," instantly. She knew their life together was meant to be perfect.

She hid in the bathroom, clutching her chest and gasping for air. "I don't want to talk to you!" she screamed as loud as her voice would allow her. "Just... get out!" Evie shook, but she wasn't sure if it was from shock, disappointment, anger, a combination of the three. She only knew that it felt like her heart had been sucked out of her chest through a straw and that she could barely breathe. Her cheeks were wet, the front of her white blouse soaked, but she didn't remember crying.

Chas knocked on the door. "You can't stay in there forever," he said, his voice barely muffled by the hollow door.

"Watch me," she spat, tasting the bitter venom of betrayal grow in her stomach.

He tried to push the door open. "Evie, I'm sorry. She means nothing to me."

Evie could hear Selena's voice, the soft cadence of Spanish that wafted through the townhouse would have been musical, if not for the fact that Evie hated her. Chas said something to her, there was a moment of quiet before the sound of feet pattering down the stairs and then the slam of the front door shutting a few minutes later. "You kissed her, didn't you?" Evie accused, knowing full well that Chas would deny it.

To her surprise, he didn't. "Yes," he admitted, "I kissed her goodbye." He didn't sound remorseful at all.

She threw her head against the back of the door, hard enough to feel the pain of it, to feel something other than the heartbreak, but not enough to damage anything. "How long has it been going on, Chas?" she asked, her voice breaking.

"Six months," he answered. "I've been fucking her for six months."

Doing the math in her head, she sobbed, "Six months? You've been fucking her since before you proposed to me?" She stood up and willed herself to open the door. Grasping the handle, she threw it against the wall, leaving a decided dent in the wall behind it. "Why the fuck did you even ask me to marry you if you were fucking that... tramp... all along?"

Chas shrugged. "My parents, hell, you, even your parents, expected it." He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall opposite her. He didn't even attempt to charm her like he usually did when they argued- flashing his megawatt white smile, running his hands through his dirty blond hair, winking at her with his grass green eyes, smiling so she could see the deep dimples in his cheeks. He was a man who normally tried to get through everything by looks alone."I don't love you, Evie," he admitted, words that felt like a butcher knife to the heart. "I never did." The knife dug in deeper. "I was attracted to you, yes. We had great sex. But I don't love you." His words twisted in her gut, rendering her.