Rio and Polly

Chapter 8: I'm Tired

The pharmacy had been crazy busy today, so I hadn't had a chance to check my phone until Frances  forced me to take my lunch.

"Even if it's just fifteen minutes, I want you to go sit in the break room and eat. There's no line for the first time all day, so go take advantage. Now."

There was no arguing with her when she got like that, so I did as I was told. I'd come back to work against her wishes after three weeks, but she'd cut my hours way back since Trina was still working for another week.

"If you want to go away for another, oh, six months or so, that'd be fine with me," Trina had told me, only half joking. "Love my husband but he was coming close to being killed. Constantly hovering over me, wanting to talk while I was trying to read. The man was lucky I didn't smack him upside against the head with my Kindle."

Having grabbed my lunch out of the fridge, I sat down at one of the round tables and got out my sandwich, chips and drink.

Then, I made the huge mistake of looking at my texts before I had a bite to eat...and promptly lost my appetite when I read the first text from an unknown number.

It's so cute you believed it was all for show and strictly platonic

The unknown number followed that first ominous text with a series of pictures of Rio, naked, and Danielle, also naked. 

In bed. 

Together. 

Danielle cuddled up close to him. She obviously had taken the selfies.

Just in case the pictures weren't enough to destroy me, there was a follow-on text:

Maybe we could form a support group for that monster dick of his. Rio's cock leaves me sore for days every single time. You think I'd be used to it after all these months! I can understand why you tried to hold onto him for so long, but it's time to let go. You're past tense. I'm present and future. You're the former muse. I'm his forever Muse.

Well, that text made it clear it was Danielle texting me. My stomach threatened to revolt as I realized how much deeper Rio's deception went. 

Why do men try so hard to keep the old when they're moving on to the new? For a species so fond of their balls, they sure can't seem to find them when it counts. Why couldn't he have just said, hey, it's been fun but I'm ready to move on? Why did he need to gaslight me, tell me lies, swear I was his one and only, throw every cliché in the book at me...all while knowing he was leading a double life?

It would have killed me, no doubt about that, but it wouldn't have hurt like this. This was a betrayal on an entirely different level. He'd worked so hard to keep me in his life when I'd tried to leave him so I wouldn't be holding him back...and all along Rio was with Danielle. Not just for show, not just to boost his career, but because he'd begun a real relationship with her. He'd actually had sex with this vile woman and had spent at least one night with her, naked. All while claiming to love me.

Even though I'd ended things with Rio, even though I'd just come off of three weeks of crazy adventures trying to start moving on, even though my head knew we were over, my heart had yet to end things with him. It was still intricately connected to Rio's, to our past, to our love, to our dreams. 

The fault was mine, though. I'd believed a liar's words and built a fantasy life on a foundation of sand. Our future together, which had once seemed so solid, was crumbling away. Walking down the aisle and seeing Rio waiting for me was never going to happen now. Waking up on the first day of our honeymoon to see him staring at me with happiness shining in his eyes was just not going to happen. Watching him pull a pair of baby booties out of a gift bag to let him know I was pregnant was never going to happen. Giving birth to Rio's baby would also never happen now. Watching him holding the tiny hands of our son and daughter was another dream that would never become a reality.