Other Half

Jun 30

I betrayed Lori, my wife of two years, with Mary, her best friend. None of this was supposed to happen, but Mary snuck through the back door before Lori dashed through the windfall of another season, taking with her most of what I owned. What I didn't own, I owed the bank. So yeah, I'm pretty much fucked. I lost the girl but paid more attention to the insurance cash I'd gain by burning this place to simmering ashes. Maybe I should shed a few tears when the fire department arrived, making them pity me. But I, alone among everyone I knew, sucked pity out of the room. Mary gifted me her comfort for a week or two, and then it fizzled out to a few texts.
If nothing fell through, everything hit the ground, running around me, but God must have ignored me until I realized, after months, Lori's presence above me, crying like an early Seattle autumn afternoon. The remainder of my cup embraced herself; her hair was tucked in a ponytail.
"I'm the rest of your glass," Lori cried.
"What I did was…"
"Stupid, I know."
"I can't say I'm innocent."
"You what?" I said, almost offended.