So when I saw the pictures hanging up on the tenth floor, I knew. I knew it deep, deep down.

I wandered a little closer, ignoring the crowd of people gathered and whispering about the pictures. I raised a hand, tracing the pattern of dots on the underside of the woman’s ass, which was flattened and plastered to the glass top of a copy machine. I’d called that constellation of freckles on her left asscheek “the horny runner.” If you tilted your head a little, it kind of looked like a man running toward her ass crack, which had been greatly amusing at the time.

Right now? Not so much. Because in all my attention to detail, I’d never noticed a pair of balls between her legs.

Conclusion? Those balls belonged to another. Another man’s balls between the legs of my girlfriend. I wasn’t great with math, but if my numbers checked out, that meant I was officially single.

A few emotions considered taking hold in my brain. Jealousy. Anger. Despair. But they all flitted right on through, not doing much more than glancing through the windows and passing by. Instead, the emotion that finally sank in was just disappointment, and not even in Annabelle and her freckles or the balls between her legs–and for the record, a smaller pair than mine. Yes, that matters.

I was mostly just disappointed that it had happened again. Sure, it wasn’t always cheating, but it was always something. Something always came along and led to the untimely detonation of my romantic relationships. More and more, I was starting to wonder if that something was me. After all, I was the only common variable, wasn’t I?

I sighed, looked at the flowers in my hand, and chucked them in the trash. Too little, too late.

I made my way through the crowd, vaguely wondering if Annabelle was even at the office today. Chances were, she’d booked it for home when she saw the pictures on the corkboard. I supposed that meant she was canceling our breakfast in her office plans.

I found a pair of benches in the corner and saw a woman sitting on them, staring ahead with a blank, haunted look in her eyes.

A little voice in the corner of my mind advised me to leave it alone. I was like a dog who just had his bone taken away, but there was another interesting, shapely bone sitting right there. Except my bones were always being taken away. What was the point in even trying to replace them? Maybe I’d be a happier dog if I just stopped eating bones all together.

But I told that little voice I wasn’t a dog, and I could talk to a bone without wanting to put my mouth on it. Probably, at least. Besides, this bone looked like it needed some comforting, and what better way was there to comfort myself than comforting someone else?

I plopped down on the bench beside her, tilting my head her way and drawing my brows together. “Let me guess. You tried the food in the cafeteria? Don’t tell me it was the sushi.”