My husband, Ethan, had a "girl best friend." They were so close they slept in the same bed, shared ice cream cones, the whole nine yards. I asked them to keep some distance. He just got annoyed. "If something was going to happen between us, it would have happened a long time ago. Can't you just trust me?" Fine. So I went and got myself a "guy best friend." 1 The night Ethan, once again, didn't come home and stayed out with Hailey, I was surprisingly calm. He showed up around noon the next day, carrying takeout from my favorite brunch spot. He saw me and, for once, actually offered an explanation. "We haven't all hung out in a while," he said. "We had too much to drink, so we just crashed at a hotel. But we didn't share a bed this time. I slept on the floor." He made sure to emphasize that last part. The last time this happened, we'd had a massive fight. I accused him of having no boundaries for a married man and insisted on confronting Hailey. Hailey was a girl he'd grown up with, part of his tight-knit group of neighborhood friends. She was a "girl," but she acted like one of the guys—loud, boisterous, and overly familiar with everyone. I'd seen her, more than once, plop down on one of the guy's laps, laughing and joking, sharing drinks without a second thought. At first, Ethan had been patient, explaining their dynamic. But eventually, he got tired of it. "If something was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago, and you wouldn't be the one I married," he'd snapped, before slamming the door and leaving. The funny thing was, his friends all tried to reassure me. "That's just Hailey," they'd say. "We've known her forever. She's just like that. Ethan sees her as a little sister." A little sister? She was twenty-five. The whole thing made my skin crawl. I told him if he couldn't learn to keep his distance, I wanted a divorce. After that, Ethan did keep his distance from Hailey, for a while. But the result was that Hailey would take every opportunity to make passive-aggressive comments to me in public. "See, Amelia? I'm not sitting next to Ethan." "Ethan, you should probably skip the after-party. We wouldn't want to make Amelia mad." "He's not the old Ethan anymore, is he? Got a leash around his neck now. I wouldn't dare get too close." She always said these things when I was around, creating a tense, awkward atmosphere. Over time, I gained a reputation for being petty, jealous, and unreasonable. And that's when my relationship with Ethan started to turn cold and distant. I snapped back to the present, looking at the takeout containers in his hands. It used to be my favorite food. Now, it just looked bland. Ethan noticed my coolness. He put the food on the table and wrapped his arms around me, his voice a soft, placating murmur. "Honey, you've been wanting to see that new movie, right? I'm free today. Let's go. I heard it's really good." I had been looking forward to that movie for months. The day it came out, I'd asked Ethan to go with me. He'd said he was busy. A few days later, I saw Hailey's post on social media. A picture of two movie tickets. She wasn't in the photo, but the hand holding the tickets was unmistakable—long, elegant fingers, with Ethan's wedding ring on the fourth one. I could smell the faint scent of Hailey's floral perfume on him. I stiffened and pulled away. "No, thanks," I said, my voice flat. I went back to packing my suitcase. "Amelia." Ethan's voice was sharp with anger. He saw what I was doing and grabbed my arm. "Are you going to pull this 'running away from home' crap again? I already told you, there's nothing going on between me and Hailey." "I know," I said, calmly pulling my hand away. "You're just friends." He seemed taken aback by my response. His face was a mixture of frustration and awkwardness. He dropped his hand. "Then what's this all about?" "I'm going on a business trip," I explained. He looked even angrier. He stared at me for a long time, searching my face for any sign of a lie, of the usual hurt and anger. But there was nothing. My expression was completely neutral. Because I just didn't care anymore. Who he saw movies with, who he spent the night with, who he went on dates with… Whatever. 2 Seeing that I wasn't angry seemed to make Ethan even angrier. He was convinced I was just giving him the silent treatment, and in a misguided attempt to make things right, he pulled out his phone to buy movie tickets. I watched him frantically scroll through the app. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "That movie's not in theaters anymore," I said softly. His fingers froze on the screen. For a second, I saw a flash of different emotions cross his face—shock, regret, frustration. The silence in the room was heavy and suffocating. The food on the table was getting cold. I bent down, placed the last item in my suitcase, and zipped it shut. ... After that day, Ethan's attitude toward me did a complete 180. He was suddenly incredibly attentive. During my trip, he called me every morning and every night, asking when I'd be back. I told him. The day I flew home, I saw his car as I walked out of the airport. A sleek, black Bugatti, parked at the curb. He got out as soon as he saw me and walked over, taking my suitcase from me as if it was the most natural thing in the world. But when we got to the car, I saw Hailey in the passenger seat. She had her legs propped up on the dashboard, her arm hanging out the window. She saw me and gave me a sickeningly sweet smile. "Hey, Amelia! Just hitching a ride. I'll give you your seat back in a minute..." She said it with a playful grin, but she didn't move an inch. Ethan put my suitcase in the trunk and came back around. He saw me just standing there, and his voice was a little strained. "She was just in the area, so I'm giving her a lift. She gets carsick, so I let her have the front seat for this part of the ride." During one of our previous fights, I had brought up the fact that Hailey always hogged the front seat whenever she was with us. Before I could say anything, Hailey leaned her head out the window, her eyes crinkling in a smile. "Thank god Ethan was nearby. I was in the middle of nowhere, couldn't even get an Uber. You can check our group chat if you don't believe me..." The group chat. Their little neighborhood clique. I wasn't in it. "And of course," Hailey continued, "if he'd left me stranded, I would have just told on him to my godparents!" She playfully punched Ethan in the chest, then seemed to remember I was there and pulled her hand back, winking at me. "Sorry, Amelia, it's just a habit. I don't mean anything by it..." Since my last blow-up with Ethan, Hailey had transitioned from being openly touchy-feely with him to being performatively touchy-feely, always with a little show of "holding back" for my benefit. As if it was my petty jealousy that was forcing her to keep her distance. But if she was really trying to keep her distance, why was she still spending the night with him, going on solo "dates"? And I could see the challenge glinting in her eyes. This little performance would have infuriated the old me. But now… I couldn't be bothered. When Ethan told Hailey to get out of the car, I just waved my hand dismissively and opened the back door. "It's fine. I've got a friend with me anyway. We can just sit in the back." "A friend? Where?" Before Ethan could react, someone called my name. I turned and saw a tall, handsome guy with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, dressed in a flamboyant, colorful outfit, jogging toward us with a suitcase. "Amelia!" he whined, catching his breath. "That's not cool. I just went to grab my bag, and when I turned around, you were gone." He latched onto my arm, pouting. "I don't know anyone here. You have to take care of me." 3 Both Ethan and Hailey stared at the scene, stunned. Ethan recovered first. He pulled me away from the guy. "This is your 'friend'?" he asked, his voice laced with displeasure, his brows furrowed so deep you could lose a coin in them. "That's right," the guy said, cheerfully extending his hand to Ethan. "I'm Amelia's bestie, Leo." He shook Ethan's hand, then casually put his suitcase in the trunk and hopped into the back seat. "Come on, Amelia!" he called, waving me over. I started to get in, but Ethan stopped me. "Honey," he said, his voice low and tight, "it's not appropriate for you to be sitting so close to another man." I could almost hear his teeth grinding. "We're just besties," I said, confused. I glanced at Hailey, still firmly planted in the passenger seat. Ethan was speechless. ... Leo and I chatted the entire way home, which made the front of the car feel unusually quiet. It wasn't that Hailey wasn't talking. She was usually a chatterbox, always filling the car with stories from their childhood, the latest neighborhood gossip, a constant stream of inside jokes that I could never be a part of. But today, no matter what she tried to talk about, Ethan's responses were short and clipped. The thirty-minute drive was over in fifteen. After dropping them both off, Ethan opened the passenger door for me. "You can sit up front now." I just looked at him, then settled back into my seat. "I'm fine back here," I said coolly. "I'm tired. Let's just go home." I closed my eyes. The sound of the car door slamming was much louder than usual. 4 Ethan was still fuming when we got home. I had just taken off my shoes when I saw him sitting in the living room, smoking. The red glow of the cigarette illuminated his face, casting it in shifting shadows. "What's the deal with that guy?" he asked, taking a long drag and then stubbing the cigarette out in the ashtray. I looked at him, my voice calm. "He's my bestie." "A six-foot-tall guy is your 'bestie'? Amelia, you were with him on this trip, weren't you? For days, alone with him..." He was getting more and more worked up. He kicked my suitcase. That's when I lost my temper. I unzipped the suitcase and glared at him. "My business partner was either going to be a man or a woman. He's a great guy, easy to get along with. What's wrong with being besties?" "Everything is wrong with it! He's a guy! Guys can't be 'besties'!" "Oh really? So you can have a 'girl best friend,' but I can't have a 'guy bestie'?" My words left him sputtering. I had never seen so many different expressions on his face at once—shock, annoyance, frustration. Finally, he managed to grind out, "Hailey is different. We grew up together. If something was going to happen..." "And Leo and I are different too," I cut him off, my voice firm. "Can't you just trust me?" 5 Ethan was sulking. He gave me the silent treatment for days. A few days later, his parents invited us over for dinner. At the table, they could sense the tension between us. "Ethan," his mom said, her tone gentle but firm, "Amelia moved all the way here for you. You have to treat her right." Ethan and I had met in college. I was an only child, and the plan had always been for me to move back home after graduation. But for him, I had stayed. Hearing his mother's words, Ethan's expression softened. As we were leaving, he reached for my hand. "Amelia, I..." Before he could finish, an arm was thrown around his neck. "Ethan! It's been too long. Let's all hang out!" It was Hailey. Once again, shamelessly draped all over him. But this time, instead of smiling back at her, Ethan pried her arm off and glanced nervously at me. Hailey noticed, too. She clicked her tongue. "Oh, is Amelia here?" she said, her voice dripping with mock surprise. She took a dramatic step back, right into the arms of a group of their friends who had just arrived. "Ethan, you're back and you didn't even say anything in the group chat! If Hailey hadn't seen you, you would have gotten away with it!" "Yeah, man, everyone's here. Come out with us!" They all started trying to convince him. I could see he wanted to go. But unlike before, he didn't just agree. He looked at me, asking for my permission. Everyone noticed. Even though we were married, his friends had always treated me like an outsider. Partly because I wasn't from their world, and partly because of Hailey… When I was around, they couldn't fully relax. "You want to go with them?" Ethan asked tentatively. The air grew thick with unspoken expectations. Hailey was practically pouting, shooting looks at her friends. Everyone was waiting for my answer. They didn't want me to come, but they wanted me to let him go. So I gave them what they wanted. I pulled my hand from his, my voice calm and gentle. "I'll just get a cab home, then." No one said a word. The silence was deafening. Finally, Ethan spoke, a mixture of relief and guilt in his voice. "Okay. I'll… I'll be home early." He gave me a reassuring look. I just smiled and walked out of the yard. As I walked away, I heard someone say, "Dude, what's up with Amelia? She's not jealous of Hailey anymore? She's actually letting you hang out with us?" 6 It was 11 PM. Ethan wasn't home. I hadn't called. Because I was out with Leo. We were at the city's hottest nightclub with a group of friends. The pounding music was a welcome distraction. We found a big booth and the drinks started flowing. After a few rounds, the person next to me pointed across the room. "Whoa, check out what's happening over there." Everyone turned to look, me included. And I saw them. Ethan and his little clique. Seven guys, one girl, their table littered with empty bottles. Ethan was in the middle, looking down at his phone. Then, Hailey snatched the phone out of his hand, swung her leg over his lap, and straddled him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held up a bottle of tequila. No one else seemed to think this was weird. In fact, they all stood up and started cheering. "I think they're playing 'Never Have I Ever.' She has to feed him a shot, mouth-to-mouth." "That girl is wild! A minute ago, they dared her to take off her bra, and she just whipped it out and hung it on some guy's neck." "I've seen one girl with seven guys before, but not like this." Everyone was laughing. Except me. Because I watched as Ethan put his phone down. And as everyone cheered, he let Hailey, her mouth full of tequila, lean down and press her lips to his...
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "385222", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel