Why Do People Cheat?

He gritted his teeth as he followed her movements on the map.

It was the third time this week she’d taken the same route.

Does she really not remember that we’re synced on Tracker? he thought. Or does she not care anymore?

He shook off that question immediately. It wasn’t true. He knew she cared. It was just that she didn’t care enough anymore; if she had, she would have remembered that they’d synced each other’s phones to the Tracker app last winter, the night her car had broken down on the state highway in the middle of the night with a snowstorm brewing.

It was the last time he’d allowed her to come and visit him. After six hours of wild emotions and grappling with the very real possibility of her death, the risk just didn’t seem worth it.

She’d argued, of course, but he hadn’t budged.

When had it all changed? How had she gone from the woman who drove hours to be with him just for one night to the woman who was now visiting her ex-lover three times in one week?

Maybe they were just catching up.

He scoffed aloud. Right. Nothing shady at all about catching up with an ex-lover while keeping your current lover in the dark.

Why do people lie?

He wouldn’t even have known Sebastien was back in town had he not noticed the notification on her phone when a message popped up.

She was in the shower. He’d casually glanced over in the midst of his crossword and just for an instant, his world froze. Revolving around four tiny words that threatened to shake up his entire life.

We on for tonight?

And blinking above the message, his name.

Seb 😊<3

Why the heart? Why the smiley? His heart pounded.

We have harmless nicknames for loved ones all the time but the gut knows when something is off.

He stayed quiet as she came out of the shower, a tune on her lips and a towel wrapped around her head. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she came towards the bed and picked up her phone. A quick smile flashed before she wiped it clean.

His heart pounded harder. This was not good.

“Who’s that, honey?” He tried to keep his voice casual even though it trembled a little.

She gave a slight start. “Nobody,” she said quickly. Much too quickly. “Just Hannah. We’re getting dinner tomorrow.”

I nodded and went back to my crossword. The words blurred, the lines zig-zagged in front of my eyes.

My world, as I’d known it, had just tilted on its axis.

Why do people cheat in relationships?

He watched the tracker as she continued to move south down the Bronx, into an area that he absolutely knew wasn’t safe, into an area that he would have never thought to look for her in a million years.

Which is perhaps exactly why she’d chosen the spot.

He knew if there ever was a moment to question his worth, his identity, his value, this was it.

But he felt nothing. All he knew, bone-deep, was that what was happening was not because of him.

He had been enough.

But Sebastien was much, much more.

And there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

He tracked her until she reached the end of the street, turning into the last apartment on the left. And then, he exited the app.

He knew what happened next – like all clichéd cheating scenarios, he’d been bested by the ex.

As he allowed the numbness to seep into his body and brain, he also acknowledged that his relationship was on the verge of ending; he was about to let go of the love of his life.

The woman who’d brought him home to himself.

When someone’s current truth has no space for the things that make them feel alive, there is only one way.

This is why people lie.