pull me from the nightmares I’ve known, that changed my mind. Maybe if Corey did know part of what I went through then he might run away or stop asking. Both I suppose could be good things, especially if Corey was ready for something real. He deserved so much more than I could give him.
I let out a deep pent up breath and gave him a single name. “Vince.”
Corey waited a beat before asking, “Who’s Vince?”
“He was one of the men I thought was different. Vince lives in New York and after getting out of a bad relationship, I was a bit broken and vulnerable. Vince opened up to me and seemed genuine in all he said and did. He proceeded to take me out on some great dates and even hung out at my house without trying to sleep with me. Well, after a month of that we’d started hooking up and, slowly but surely, we became a couple. When things were good—they were great. We had the same circle of friends, had the same demanding lifestyle, so it was easy to understand when something suddenly came up. The one thing I thought I liked most about him was he never asked about my life before New York. We lived for the moment and that was it.
“Except not everything between us was hearts and roses. I mean, there were days where I’d hear absolutely nothing from him. I’d leave voicemails, send texts and emails but wouldn’t hear a word back. When he’d decide to call again he knew just what to say to make me go weak at the knees for him and forget his shitty ways. I was an absolute fool of course, and didn’t even bother to wonder why he ignored me or more importantly where he was. We’d stayed mostly at my place; in the 10 months I dated him I’m pretty sure I stayed at his place only about a dozen times. In my mind I rationalized it—it never occurred to me to question why we were hardly ever there.
“One night we did end up staying at his place and it was fantastic. He worked hard and had the money to spend on a nicer place with a great view. The next morning he woke me up to say goodbye before going into work. I had the day off and wanted to do something to prove that we could take that next step and live together. I was convinced his friends were persuading him to not move in with me and I was damned determined to prove that we were ready for more. I truly believed that he was the right person for me—not necessarily because of some intense connection but because we just meshed well.
“So, that day I did the dishes, vacuumed, swept and started his laundry. Around lunchtime, I was down the hall in the laundry room, changing over the loads. I’d placed all of the dried items into the basket and hauled it back down the long hallway to his apartment. I went in and heard voices. Confused, I followed them into the bedroom—where I found him already half naked with some bimbo from work. The basket crashed to the floor and that is what alerted him they weren’t alone. He immediately started questioning me about why I was still there. Apparently, I was supposed to leave when he woke me up.”
I had to stop. My voice was cracking and my body was shaking. If not for Corey’s soothing hands rubbing my knee—I’d be a wreck.
“At first, I thought maybe it was just that one girl and it was purely a coincidence that it happened on the day I was there. Yeah, right. Turns out the bastard had ongoing affairs with a few other women, not to mention random sex with any slut willing to spread her legs whenever opportunity presented itself. Better yet—I was the only one that was clueless to the other women. The others knew how he rolled and I was the only naive one, truly believing we were in love. Hell, I was ready to take the next step in our relationship! The first week after the breakup was excruciating and it didn’t get any better when one of the other women approached me. She told me she felt sorry for me.” The disgust wasn’t hidden from my tone. “That’s when she told me about all I had been oblivious to.”