Chapter 48. People glorify cheating. Yes people

Chapter 48: 48. People glorify cheating. Yes people

After two months, Remmy started university and we moved into a new place. New apartment, two new jobs, one new life. Our routine was packed, work and work.

Every morning, we’d wake up, Remmy getting ready for university, and after breakfast and a kiss goodbye to Remmy, I’d run off to my job at the local bakery near our apartment.

My shift was 7 to 3 in the afternoon, and it wasn’t close to easy, the heat, the constant, concentrated sweet smell, combined with bad customers and rat-hunting.

It was tiring, but I’m pretty sure Remmy was going through her own troubles too, difficult and long, boring lectures, a mean lecturer with no reason to be mean, practicals and assignments, exams. That’s the reason I quit college, I didn’t want to stare at words 18 hours a day.

I was fine with my job. After 3, I’d come home, a home you could call one a healthy couple lives in, everything clean and aesthetic. Random useless things your girlfriend sees online and decides she needs. Keychains, boots, too many towels, fake plants, figures, and a lot of plushies.

Plushies on the table, shelves, the couch, on top of the refrigerator, and the bathroom counter for some reason, definitely not so they could stare at me while I showered or used the toilet, and Remmy had to pick dolphins of all things. And if that wasn’t enough, we had a whole bed just for plushies, a separate bed, by the way.

But I’d grown used to it, used to feeling those soft plushie eyes on me. So when I got home after my shift, I’d grab a snack and a drink to wash it down, then write Chapters for 3 hours straight, about 1700 words. I’m afraid that’s my limit, I couldn’t write for longer. Laziest writer ever.

"I missed you!!"

At 6 in the evening, Remmy would come home after hours at university and a small part-time job at a cafe. I’d welcome her with a hug, already starting dinner prep. And I was still always surprised she had the energy to jump on me and cling like a koala.

"You know what happened today? I was trying to explain how stressful student life can get to a professor, and she had the audacity to laugh at me. Talk about being mean."

"Is it the same professor as before? Why were you trying to explain something like that to her?"

I did my best to follow her arguments while carrying her like a baby from the front door to the living room, leaving her bag by the entrance because it was heavy enough on its own.

"It’s complicated. I thought if I worded my sentences right, I could get her to understand..."

"That’s dumb..."

Exhaustion caught up with Remmy, her body warming against mine, right on the edge of falling asleep, but since I was carrying her, she didn’t quite drop off.

I noticed and dropped onto the couch with Remmy on top of me, plushies crushed beneath us. She got comfortable and drifted off on my chest, humming about something.

Our heat mixed so well I couldn’t help but take a short nap myself, exhausted too. I stayed aware of my surroundings, though, that’s the best kind of nap for me.

A quiet state where I’m awake and asleep at the same time, just observing. Remmy shifted in her sleep, her hands searching for me, and once they found me, they held on. My hands did the same.

"Your hand is always on my ass."

"Cuddling works that way."

"Pervert."

Remmy pulled in closer, nuzzling into my shoulder while I kissed her gently there, moving slowly up her neck. She twitched at every kiss.

"If you want to do it, we’d better move to the bedroom, after we eat the food we ordered."

"But we didn’t order anything...."

Remmy didn’t answer, just turned to the other side, hugging a plushie aggressively, pretending to be mad the way every girlfriend does, and now I had to play romantic to win her back.

"Alright, princess. As you said, we ordered food, and I’ll take a break from cooking. Happy!?"

"Yeyyyyy."

Remmy turned back faster and wilder than I expected, and we both ended up falling off the couch. Didn’t bother us, we cuddled and kissed on the floor anyway.

Those were the happy days. Even though I usually hate when days feel like a loop, this one was fine, and it continued for 3 years.

We’d saved a lot of money from our two jobs, and we had plans to travel once Remmy finished her final year at university.

And I had more good news to share, on one fateful Saturday, I could officially call myself a writer. After 3 years of hard work, one of my stories caught a publisher’s eye, and they offered me a contract.

I was excited. I’d kept it from Remmy and signed the contract that same day. That was also the day I quit my job at the bakery. I even stopped by a cake shop to buy a butterscotch cake, because this was, by far, the happiest day of my life, or so I thought.

I was excited to share one more vulnerable part of my life with Remmy. I found the front door unlocked and laughed, figuring she’d forgotten again, so I snuck in, she didn’t know I’d quit my job, and I’d planned to come home early with a surprise.

"Your boyfriend won’t show up randomly, right?"

"No, he won’t. It’s not even afternoon yet. You two have at least 4 hours, and then you have to leave, strictly by 2 pm."

"That’s more than enough. Let’s just start round three already."

Not only did my jaw drop, the cake I was holding dropped too, or more truthfully, my skin, eyes, tongue, lungs, and every other part of me wanted to drop to the floor as separate pieces.

I knew it wasn’t a nightmare, because Remmy was always smart enough to wake me up whenever I had one. That same smart Remmy, busy spreading her legs for other men?

I moved further inside, my hands refusing to follow my footsteps, torn between two different emotions. One wanted to see the truth, the other already knew it and wanted to protect me from having to witness it.

My footsteps gave away that someone was in the house, too bad, I was already in the living room. Remmy was, obviously, nude, in the lap of some guy with bigger muscles than me, another guy standing behind her.

Do I need to say what they were doing? All three of them looked at me in absolute horror, a guy with huge dark circles and wide eyes is a horrifying sight, for sure. Of the three, one looked scared to death.

"Mark.. I....I..."

"I, I what? I’m busy being a slut!? Oh, you are NOT getting out of this one, Remmy!"

I shouted so hard one of the guys standing nearby stepped back for safety, already pulling his clothes back on. The other guy, the one still holding Remmy in his lap, didn’t care, just annoyed he now had to deal with this, deal with me.

"Do you really think I’m the kind of person who’d blame you two!? Wrong. All three of you can go to HELL!!"

I was practically screaming at the top of my lungs, the hair on my body standing up in pure anger. I wasn’t planning to just keep shouting, no, it felt too good letting my real feelings out. I wanted more, I wanted to keep escalating.

"Ah!! Mark, stop!"

So I did. I grabbed Remmy’s hair, pulled her off that man’s lap, and dragged her by it to show her the truth, our own living room.

"You want this? This is our house, god damn it. The one we built together for YEARS. HOW MANY YEARS? THREE!! Everything, every single thing in this room, is here because of your liking. You know why? Because I loved you. Used to love you."

Remmy couldn’t support her own weight and had to hold onto my hand, this would be the last time I’d let her hold me. Not just her, but the other two guys in the room were looking at me like I was some sick person.

What they didn’t understand, they made me this way. And I wasn’t even close to being done. I made her stand properly and pointed to what sat on our shelf. A camera.

"You see this? We saved up for this expensive camera so we could take pictures while we traveled. You said you wanted to capture every moment of our life, right? Why don’t you capture this part? Huh, THE PART WHERE YOU CHEATED."

Remmy couldn’t take her eyes off the camera, and somehow, impossibly, she was still thinking about the future. What future? I don’t see one. After all this, all she could do was cry?

"What are you crying for? Wasn’t your entire reason for being with me that you hated cheaters? Oh, oh, I forgot..."

I swallowed and had to catch my breath, this was the first time I’d pushed myself this far emotionally. While I paused, the guy who’d been on the couch was slowly inching toward his clothes, which happened to be near me. So I stepped in his way, no, he wasn’t leaving without my permission.