He parked half a block down the street from their house and turned off the engine. Staring at their dark windows and brick walls, he wondered what they were doing that very second. It was early; they would still be in bed together. The weather was cold but they could be lying naked under the blankets. David would roll over and gently touch her nipples. She would stir and smile and lower her hand to his crotch and the ordeal would start all over. For him …

It was a cliché to say it was a nightmare but so it was. He could not wake up from the horror he had fallen into seven months ago when he had caught them together. Kissing on a side street in Westwood after a late movie. He had been out for a snack; he never had food at his apartment. She had said she would be out of town that weekend but she had only gone a few miles from home. To fuck another guy when she wouldn’t even fuck him. Not even after a year and a half of dating. Not even after she had performed oral sex on him a hundred times and promised him that soon they would be together forever. His Amy, in the arms of her old boyfriend, a guy she had sworn she hated.

His Amy, not really his at all.

He had cracked then. All that was joyful and worthwhile in life evaporated. He continued to breathe but the air was filled with vapors. Everything hurt, even his hair, and the weird thing was that it had not gotten better with time. He wondered if it was because she was his soul mate. If he hurt her, did he harm his own soul? Whatever—fuck that and fuck her. He hoped when he died it was forever because the thought of seeing her again—even in another body—made him want to vomit.

Yet he still missed her terribly.

He was about to leave when the door opened and out stepped Amy, many months pregnant, in a white bathrobe. The size of her belly startled him. He had known she was expecting but had not seen her in eight weeks. Staking out their house was a habit he was desperately trying to break. Neighbors had eyes and ears. The stalking could destroy his plans. He was not sure how many months she was along. He only knew it could not be his baby because they had never had intercourse. When they had finally talked—after he had caught her with David—she had sworn she had only started to see her ex a month before. But she had lied about so much. What did it matter what she swore?