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Please do not read this story if you do not like the theme of cheating partners. If you read this story regardless and then tell me to burn in hell, I'll assume that you secretly enjoyed it and are ashamed of yourself. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Read chapter one if you want this to make more sense...
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It was Monday dinnertime and Claire had agreed to meet Chloe, her best friend, at the Cafemet during her lunch hour. It had been two days since she'd cheated for the first time on her boyfriend, James. Chloe knew all about it, and in fact, had encouraged it.
"So when are you going to tell him its over?" asked Chloe surprising Claire as she sat clutching many assorted bags of shopping. She peeked over her dark sunglasses at her childhood friend waiting for a response.
Claire winced at the masses of Selfridges bags, "I see you've been hard at work!"
"You haven't told him, have you?" asserted Chloe incisively.
"No." Claire wistfully looked down at her latte, stirring the last dregs in the bottom with the plastic spoon. Chloe took breath to speak but Claire interrupted, "I'm not going to. I, I care about him." She sounded like she was still persuading herself.
"So why did you cheat on him, then?" retorted Chloe. She'd never really had any patience when it came to James and his cerebral way of life and she'd be damned if Claire was going to throw her life away with him.
"Because," Claire paused. "Well, I just, I didn't meant to, it was just..." She faltered again looking up at the pale ceiling, eyes transfixing on a darkened stain around one of the chrome lights.
Chloe decided to lay the law down to her stumbling friend, "Every week it's the same thing; you get drunk, you go out and you dance all night with some guy who is not your boyfriend. Each week you've got more and more daring until finally you had sex with one of them!"
Claire was struck like a deer in the headlights as Chloe continued, "It's plain to me that you want to have some fun; you don't want the commitment of a boyfriend. You want to go out every week and pick up a different guy and have a wild time. You're 23, there's plenty of time to settle down!"
Chloe removed her designer sunglasses, replacing them in their leather pouch, as Claire again searched the room for something to look at trying to mask her rising emotion.
"I know you care about James and live with him, but you can't stay and cheat on him." At this last statement Claire found her eyes meeting Chloe's. Silence.
"What? Are you going to stay with him and cheat on him?" Chloe choked. Claire exhaled heavily but didn't answer, eyes searching the room again.
She began to wonder about James, whether she did actually care for him. Too many times during social occasions James remained the silent party. In fact, that's what initially attracted her to him. Every other guy gave her all she needed to know within the first five minutes of meeting her. But James wouldn't give anything away; it was like he was on the other side of a soundproof pane of glass, mainly because he refused to get drunk.
Claire remembered the months just after they'd met, how she had showered him with letters and phone calls to get him to open up. He didn't reciprocate at first, but he did give her the time to express herself to him like a friend. "I do love him," she whimpered, staring glazed beyond the table. That sounded like the first genuine comment.