Second Chance Love Story

“No…” I breathe in shock as I stare at my computer screen and reread the article headline.

“Serves him right…”

I grin and lean back, taking a sip of my freshly made coffee.

Tad Wilson got dumped.

I pull the laptop closer to me and place my fingers on the screen to zoom back in on the photo of Tad, standing outside some fancy looking hotel in the city. It’s nighttime and he is wearing a dark tux and an even darker expression as the woman slightly in front of him wears a long, fur coat and a disgusted snarl as she seems to be saying something spiteful to him over her shoulder.

Really, after all these years, I should not be getting as much pleasure from his humiliation and heartbreak that I am right now while I feel like jumping up and wiggling my still pajama-clad booty in joy.

Haha!

I compromise with a little shoulder bounce and set my coffee down to lean forward and continue reading all the gritty and very public details.

Rumors of infidelity…I roll my eyes. Of course.

Selene throws drink in his face at the club…

Oh. My. God.

I giggle and then quickly cover my mouth and look around me guiltily, even though I live alone.

Screw it, this totally calls for a celebration dance.

Standing up, I wave my arms in the air and shake my booty as I let out a squeal of justice.

Yes!

After all this time, payback is a total bitch, Tad freaking Wilson!

With a huge sigh of contentment, I fall back in my chair just as my phone pings with a new message.

Gretta: OMG!! Did you see that Tad and Selene broke up???

I grin as I quickly type a response.

I know!! Isn’t it amazing??

My finger hesitates over the send button and I make a face…actually…maybe I should play it a wee bit cooler than that. I quickly delete the message and retype a new one, shrugging my shoulders casually as I reread it to myself.

Oh, they did? Such a shame.

Much better.

I send the message and circle my fists in the air in front of me.

My phone pings again.

This time it’s from my mom.

Mom: Have you been on the internet today? I read an interesting article about your old roommate and Tad Wilson.

Wrinkling up my nose, I nearly hiss as I read ‘old roommate’.

More like, ‘old-backstabbing-bitch-who-stole-your-perfect, and oh-my-god so hunky, boyfriend-while-you-were-on-a-family-vacation-roommate.’

Rumors of infidelity…so it seems like what goes around, comes around.

Ha!

He cheated on me with Selene, then he turned around and cheated on her with some other girl.

Justice.

I quickly type back a message as my phone pings with more incoming messages.

Really?

I mean, why are so many people texting me over this?

Scrolling through all my new messages, I start to feel a bit offended.

As if I really care that much about Selene and Tad after all this time…

Clearly, people seem to think that I do.

Putting down my phone, I glance at the laptop screen before, more forcefully than I intended to, I slam it shut and stand up.

Seems like a good time to go for my daily run.

Skipping, I make my way to my room and get dressed in a sports bra and running shorts, cranking the music up on my headphones as I shake my hips while I look for matching socks in my laundry basket.

Once I finally find two that are close enough alike, I make my way to the back of the house’s sliding glass door and step out, bending over to grab my shoes before standing and smiling at my surroundings.

Taking a deep breath, I temporarily pause my music and remove my headphones so that I can hear the soothing sound of the crashing waves against the deserted white sand beach in front of me.

Had Selene and Tad not hooked up, in my apartment, on my own freaking couch (which totally does not bother me anymore-just so over it), then my life would have been completely different.

Instead of working as a freelance writer and editor who gets to live in her adorable, even if it is kind of tiny, house on the beach, I would have been in the corporate world, in the hustle and bustle of the city.

With all my social activities photographed and put online so everyone could see.

It could have been me in the photo arguing with Tad.

I give a shiver at the thought of the constant invasion of privacy.

But I would still be with Tad…

Forcing myself to shake off that unwanted and rather unhelpful thought, I replace my headphones over my ear determinedly, and start to play my music again.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I start my morning jog with an extra pep in my step, but I can’t prevent my mind from wandering back to the past.

I was never one for all that attention.

Even on my work video calls, I never show my face.

That was always a sore spot between not only Tad and me when we dated, but also between that evil bitch that violated the roommate trust and me.

I liked staying in and cuddling on the couch, while Tad always said he had a social responsibility to make an appearance at all the rich people events in the city, since he was a rich person, which Selene always managed to wrangle an invite to as well, even though she was not rich.

Tad always had an opinion on what I wore too, constantly buying new designer gowns and handbags for me, that Selene would promptly drool over in jealousy, while I had no interest in them at all.

They really were more suited to each other, I suppose.

Even though…the moments when Tad disconnected from his social obligations, or his family duties, we were so good together.

It was almost as if he had to turn a switch off in his brain to disconnect from them all, but when he did, he was considerate and goofy, with his big laugh and even bigger heart.

It had always felt right…like we had been made for each other and I hadn’t known what was missing in my life until I met him, and he made everything better.

Just looking at him gave me butterflies. And his touch…

My feet falter slightly as my stomach clenches when I remember the lightning like sensations of pleasure that would spread through me…almost unreal, and definitely never experienced since.

And oh my god he was such a generous lover…ughh.

No.

I cannot think about that.

Obviously, he was a little too generous…so generous that he felt the need to share himself with someone other than his girlfriend.

Shaking my head to clear the thought, I think back to the pictures that I may or may not look at of him online occasionally, or, you know, every day because I might just be the most pathetic person to ever exist.

But Tad somehow looks like a completely different person now.

His big smile seems to have vanished, replaced by a constant somber expression where he pulls his lips tight, just like he used to do when I told him that I did not care if I missed going to the annual Vanderwinkle or whoever’s fundraising event that cost a bajillion dollars to buy a table so you can pledge to give them even more money once you get there.

I always thought it was weird that the wealthier you are, the more you try to have people give you money.

Why don’t they just give the money themselves instead of spending thousands on expensive dinners where everyone wears designer gowns and drinks expensive champagne while conversing about what European country they will summer in on their personal yacht?

Tad did not share my opinion on that matter.

He said we grew up in different worlds and I just did not understand.

I give an annoyed snort.

As if Selene understood.

All she understood was the billions in his bank account.

Total gold-digger.

My family had money too, we just didn’t feel the need to flaunt it or participate in the high society la-tee-da.

Well, we aren’t billionaires…but we did just fine.

That’s it, enough thinking about Ta...I mean, that one guy. I forgot his name already.

Half an hour later, I go back inside and straight to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, grabbing my phone off the desk as I go by it.

Holy crap!

Has everyone in my contacts messaged me about Tad?

Well, now I am officially offended and just feel like a huge ass loser.

It isn’t as if I clung to the past and talked about him all the time…

In fact, I never mentioned him again after we broke up.

I mean, when I caught him with Selene, something inside of me just kinda…broke. And I just…left…and never went back.

I blocked every form of communication from him and Selene, switched my college classes to online, and hoped on a flight to London. I traveled Europe for a couple of years and then came back to the states and got this cute little house in the Florida Keys, super far away from Tad and Selene…and all of my family and friends.

New York is totally overrated, and Tad hated hot weather, so I went where he didn’t like to go.

I wanted peace and quiet.

And solitude.

Although, occasionally, I do miss the cold weather or the changing of the leaves during fall.

And being close to my family…

And the man I had thought was my soulmate and my betraying body still longs for…

Ignoring the new messages, I shake my head and chug the cold water as I look out at the increasingly choppy waves.

Back home, it would be fall weather. My family would be in their Vermont house right now.

I haven’t been back since I left school in the city, which has been nearly five years now.

That was my favorite childhood place to visit, with the trees everywhere full of bright yellow, orange, and red leaves…the giant stone fireplace…the hot tub…if only I hadn’t taken Tad there and tainted the memory of that place forever.

Leaning over, I put my elbow on the countertop and drop my chin into my palm as the unwelcome memories flood back again.

There was that one night when we were roasting marshmallows inside and had a little too much spiked hot apple cider and did it right there on the rug in front of the fireplace…I can remember like it was yesterday, running my hand down his hard, bumpy abs…

Nope!

Not thinking about that either!

I stand up straight, shaking my head even harder, and put my empty glass into the sink.

Time to shower.

Walking towards the bathroom, the laptop catches my eye and I decide to check it just one more time…

I didn’t really read the entire article earlier and it isn’t like anyone will know that I am reading it again or just how truly pathetic I am.

The picture pops up when I open the laptop and then quickly disappears under new articles as it refreshes.

Scrolling down, it’s almost like a fresh jolt seeing the headline again.

Staring at Tad’s face, I can’t help wondering for the millionth time why I wasn’t enough for him…how I couldn’t have seen it coming.

I thought that we were great, just a minor tiff now and then…but, man, did I love that guy.

I had never felt that way before, and I haven’t since.

When I saw Selene on top of him, it was like a piece of me was ripped from my body, the pain so unbearable, that I thought I was going to literally die.

Sniffing slightly, I shake the thoughts away.

They say time heals all wounds, but I am still waiting for that to be true.

Even now, the ache might be less, but it is most definitely, still there, despite my many efforts to lessen it.

When I first escaped to Europe, I tried every distraction possible to get him off my mind and out of my heart.

The amount of alcohol and one-night stands that I had over that continent is kind of shameful…especially since I came home and saw a picture online of the two of them together and realized that it didn’t numb the pain at all.

Well, at least now Selene knows what it is like to be cheated on.

Even though that thought isn’t giving me as much joy as it had this morning.

Actually, as I look at the picture of the unhappy couple that I used to know so well, I feel nothing but the familiar emptiness that their betrayal seemed to have carved out of me.

And maybe even a tiny bit of sadness for the pain that Tad is clearly trying to hide.

Ridiculous.

He deserves it.

With a sigh, I drag myself off to the shower, wishing now that I had never even seen the stupid article.