"Jenna..." I manage to make out before I see the second head that emerges from underneath the blankets, as if giving up on hiding as well.
It's Jake. My boyfriend.
"Oh my God," I say, not knowing what else to say in a moment like this. I've watched plenty of movies where the wife catches the husband cheating or the girlfriend realizes that her man has been unfaithful and they always have some great witty takedowns and one-liners. All I manage to do is sit down on a chair in Jenna’s room - my heart going a mile a minute.
"Alicia," Jake says, seeing my reaction. He whips off the blanket and I vaguely realize that he's naked.
I'm sorry, it's still taking me a moment to put everything together and I'm having trouble processing. Why is Jake, my boyfriend, naked in Jenna’s bed? Was I snoring? Did I hog the blankets? Was he maybe sleepwalking? Did he fall in?
"Alicia," Jake says again, picking up and putting on his tighty-whities with a snap and walking over to me. "I'm sorry you had to see that and find out this way."
Find out? That he was sleepwalking? This is all happening too fast for me. I look up at Jake as he comes over to where I’m sitting across the room. I see Jenna clasp her bra and put on her panties before getting out of bed.
"I'm just going to give you guys a few minutes," she says, as she climbs into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top.
I never really thought Jenna as pretty. She ends up looking really pretty with the clothes she wears and the makeup she puts on her face, but it always looked like more work than needed to me. But who am I to judge? I just saw her in bed naked with my boyfriend.
"Jake," I say, refusing to let tears come as I look at him. "What's going on?"
"Alicia," he says again. "I thought you were still asleep."
Wait, that's his excuse? That he thought I was still asleep?!
I make a face at him. "So what if I was?" I ask him, a bit pissed off. "That means you have open season to screw my roommate because I’m asleep?
Jake looks at me like I grew a second head. "Well, babe, it's just that I know you want to wait to bone or something, and I’m cool with that. I just thought..."
I look at Jake and can't help but feel a bit angry. "What?" I ask, a bit harshly. "Just because I’m not ready yet that it's okay to start hooking up with other girls? My roommate??"
"Well, no," he says, still in his tighty-whities. "She was just here."
What the hell! That’s his only criteria? That they have to be there?
"And since she’s here and I’m not putting out, you thought you could go bang her?"
Jake sighs. "Honestly, babe, I thought you were okay with this. This has been our arrangement all six months now, hasn't it?" he asks me, looking at me a bit annoyed, as if I'm the one that should feel sorry.
What arrangement has he been talking about? Why does he look perfectly okay? As if he’s done nothing wrong?
Oh God. Oh, no!
"Are you telling me..." I can't finish the sentence, the enormity of what I'm saying is just too much for me to get through my mouth.
Jake shrugs. "You know I need to have sex on a regular basis, babe," he says, walking over to where he put his shirt. "So until you’re ready to put out, I have to find it elsewhere. I thought you said you were okay with that."
That man never talked to me about something like this! How in the nine hells would I ever be okay with something like this. What kind of person does something like this?!
Jake casually walks to out Jenna’s room and through the living room to my room. I follow, glancing daggers at Jenna, who’s in the kitchen. She decides it’s probably a good time to go for a run.
Jake pulls on his polo shirt and then gets his jeans and puts them on, tucking in his shirt. I wince at myself. I've never really liked this look on him, but he doesn't listen.
"You've been cheating on me all for six months? The whole time we’ve been dating?” I ask, too horrified to think of anything else but him cheating on me and him tucking in his shirt.
He shrugs. "It's not cheating if we've never had sex, babe," he says coming back to the bed and sitting next to me.
"But, I…I went down on you! And I didn't hook up with anyone else, Jake," I say, partly embarrassed that I've been a fool for this long. That I’ve trusted him.
He shrugs and says with an affected macho vibe. "I think it's more for me, than for you, Alicia. You know I need to have sex pretty regularly." He holds my hands and looks me in the eyes, giving me the cues that he's going to say something profound. Jake's a corporate lawyer for Carter Jeffries. He lives for this kind of stuff. "Alicia, don't let it bother you, darling. It's just sex. You don't really like it. You don't want to have it. Besides, it won't feel good for you. And the stuff that we do, you're not too good at either. And sex is basically for guys. It helps me clear out my system so I can take care of you."