Chapter 1
ISOBEL
VANESSA TO JASON: Did you break up with her yet?
VANESSA TO JASON: I know her dad just died but thats not yr fault. We deserve to be :)
Jason’s cum was still inside Isobel when she read the messages on his phone. He was showering after they’d had sex.
They’d been dating for three years. Long distance for the past year since Isobel had come back to the city to be close to her dad after he got the diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer. The doctor gave him six months to live. He made it eleven, only passing away early last week.
Jason had come for the funeral. They hadn’t been intimate for almost two months before that, but Isobel had wanted the comfort of being in his arms tonight. After everything with her father, and God, her stepmom, it had all been just too much.
So Isobel went to the guest bedroom and slipped into Jason’s bed without turning on the lights. It seemed like the one thing that might make her feel like a whole, sane person again.
Jason had been hesitant to touch her at first. Which only stoked all her worst fears. She’d gotten fat. She knew she had. He wasn’t attracted to her anymore.
So she’d redoubled her efforts. Touching him the way she remembered he liked best. Going down on him until he was hard and thrusting in her throat. Then crawling up the bed and going on her hands and knees so he could push into her from behind. He liked to grab her hips and pump her hard. She also suspected he liked to watch his big cock disappear between her ass cheeks.
But she wouldn’t let him turn on the light when he tried. She could only handle so much. He had no idea what bravery it took for her to let him touch her naked body at all. With no clothes to obscure her problem areas, he could feel all her flaws if he brushed down her thigh, or even worse, if he moved his hands up from her hips to her waist.
In the end, though, it barely mattered. It was over so quickly. And the part she’d been looking forward to the most—the cuddling afterwards—was nonexistent. Almost the second he grunted and spilled in her, he started muttering about needing to get cleaned up. Then he was climbing off the bed and heading for the shower.
His cum was still dripping down the inside of her leg when the ensuite bathroom door closed and his phone on the nightstand buzzed with an incoming text.
Which was when she read Vanessa’s words.
Vanessa, her best friend back at Cornell.
Vanessa.
With Jason.
Vanessa and Jason.
Isobel blinked in the dark. Her mind tried to reject the idea even as the evidence glowed on the screen right in front of her.
The screen went dark but then buzzed in her hand again, lighting up with another text alert.
VANESSA TO JASON: to get you thru the lonely nite til you come home
The phone buzzed again with a shirtless selfie of Vanessa squeezing one of her bared breasts and making a sexy face at the camera.
Isobel didn’t look at Vanessa’s breast, though. She just saw Vanessa’s tiny, flat waist below it.
Of course Jason was banging her skinnier, prettier best friend. Isobel threw his phone against the wall, only feeling marginally better when she heard the screen crack.
And then she yanked the bedsheet around her and stormed into the bathroom. Because enough. She’d had enough. Hadn’t life thrown enough shit-bombs her way lately?
“You cheating bastard!” She jerked the shower curtain back, revealing a startled Jason, foamy shampoo thick in his hair.
“Baby,” he looked at her, his hands going up in a defensive posture. “What are you—”
Baby? Fury like she’d never felt before lit her up inside.
“Get out!” She leaned down and slammed the shower knob, shutting off the water. God, she couldn’t even stand looking at him. He’d just had sex with her and all she could think about was how he must have been comparing her to Vanessa the whole time. It made her want to scream. So she did. “Get out. Now!”
“Stop. Isobel, I don’t even know what you’re talking ab—”
“What, you tripped and your dick just accidently fell into Vanessa? I saw your fucking texts, asshole.”
Jason pulled back, finally dropping silent.
“Get the fuck out of my fucking house!” she screamed right in his face.
“Okay, okay,” he said. He reached for the shower knob. “Just let me finish washing my hair and I’ll be—”
“Did you not hear me? I said get the fuck out now!” She grabbed his bicep and jerked him toward the tub’s edge.
He slipped and fell, landing ha
rd on his ass.
“Christ! What the fuck, Iz?” he cried as he scrambled to his feet, slipping one more time before he finally managed to get out of the tub, his hands moving to cover his crotch. Was he afraid she’d want to get a kick in? Not a bad idea.
But he was already backing out of the bathroom and hurrying toward his suitcase. He dressed faster than she would have thought possible. When he sat on the bed to put on his tennis shoes, she just shouted, “Out!” again. He obviously got the picture because he grabbed the shoes, his suitcase, and his phone from the floor and then he ran out of the room.
In another few seconds, she heard the front door slam. Good fucking riddance. She hoped more than just his screen was broken so he couldn’t call an Uber.
She walked back to her bedroom, almost in a daze.
But after several more seconds, everything that had just happened sank in.
Jason had cheated on her.
Jason didn’t love her anymore.