The Other Woman

Genevieve was known for her paranoid personality finding coincidences in her everyday life and the majority of them were not very logical. She had a problem with overthinking and jumping to conclusions so when she approached and began confronting her fiance Silas of being unfaithful he was quick to use this to his advantage. “I know,” she said to him confidently yet calmly, “Gen, what are you going on about now?” he replied in his well-practiced condescending tone. She looked patiently at him. She remembers reading somewhere that holding eye contact for a long period of time would force the truth out of anyone. True or not, in this instance it did not. “I know you are cheating on me, I don't know who with but I am sure the list goes on,” she said loudly in hopes dominance would win her this battle, but he was quick to rebuttal “Okay babe, and what evidence do you have that would make you believe this is true?”. Silas was an English professor who minored in psychology in college making him quick-witted and clever giving him an upper hand in any argument.

Gen walked away feeling defeated as always for she didn’t have any evidence just a sick feeling in her gut anytime he was gone. She was not willing to let it go however so she turned to her greatest asset which was her research abilities and amazing memory and got to work. First, she looked through his Facebook page in which he found nothing out of the ordinary. She did however find some physical proof of his and his mother's unhealthy attachment, she wondered if any other mothers have their own post thread of their daily plans to a T on their son's timeline. After getting sucked into reading about thirty-six entries and only learning one thing, Debra has a really boring life. She moved on. She found an unfamiliar friend on Silas’ Instagram following, hidden between two of our close friends' usernames, and decided to take a quick look just to be thorough.

The username was “godsfavorite_angel” which is something that was really peculiar to see in my sinful lovers following. Now he wasn’t a murderer or anything but he also wasn’t religious in any sense, I mean I have never heard another human take the lord's name in vain as much as Silas does. As I click on the icon I realize it is a public account and the first post is a bible quote and the account has over twenty-three thousand followers. Well, god's word is not really my cup of tea so I scroll, and it only takes one swift thumb move before I find my lovely fiance's face. It appears to be the two of them at a restaurant, the photo is taken by her and is of my lover leaning over the beautifully presented table kissing the woman's hand, and upon further observation, I see a ring. The caption reads… “I SAID YES!!” followed by two heart-eye emojis.

I decided since I am sure Sialas will find a way to woo me into believing it is not what it looks like or it was a joke or so forth I would take matters into my own hand considering I have never been a match for his swift dagger-like words. I decided to find out for myself just how deep this goes. I slide up on the woman's account and realize she has her church’s website linked in her bio so I click to get the address and hopefully meet her ‘accidentally’ there. Upon further research, I found a camping trip coming up for all who would like to attend and be hosted by hers truly for two days from now and you bet I will be making an appearance. I think to myself just how I can manage to play things off around him and be believable along with coming up with a lie as to where I will be this weekend. 

“Hey babe, I am sorry for accusing you of something so horrible, I know you would never do that, you know I tend to get in my head about everything.” she said in a truly apologetic way, he responded with “that's okay, but see this is what I mean by you always self -sabotaging things that are going well for you.” She could hear her blood boiling and could probably have killed him where he stood but instead, she sidestepped the insult and continued, “By the way my mother asked me to stay over this weekend and help her watch my niece, you know how she is since her hip surgery.” he looked at me and nodded, then returned to watching his sports game. She walked back to the bedroom to lay down for the night but the thought of him coming in to join her made her teeth grind and her body tense with rage. She finally fell asleep after tossing and turning for an hour or so.

It was finally the day she had been anticipating so she packed up her bags and searched the house for bug spray. She acquired her last item and began heading for the door in hopes Silas was too preoccupied to realize she had slipped out. Unfortunately, that was not the case. He bellowed from the sofa for her to come say goodbye, she thought to herself how he could expect anything from her while he has been running around with a hussy and has no shame. However, being careful she followed his orders disappointedly and wrapped her arms around him as he leaned in for a kiss all she could think about was wrapping her hands around his throat. Instead, she gave him a quick peck and then hurried out the door.

She had arrived at the church where the buses would be picking up the campers and parked her car in the lot before heading inside. At the door was a sign up for the trip so she jotted down her name and walked through the big doors into the holy site. Upon entering she was immediately met by the woman from the profile joyfully welcoming her. She had to be careful not to blow her cover so she kindly introduced herself, “Hi I'm Genevieve Blake, I am new to the church and thought this would be the best introduction.” “It's so nice to meet you Genevieve, I am Clare like the saint, I am so happy to help you get acquainted, I will not leave your side until you are fully comfortable,” she said back squeezing Gen tightly into a hug. I think the comfort train has left the station she thought to herself as she was intertwined in a tight embrace with her fiance's mistress. 

Gen excused herself to the bathroom where she sat and cried, baffled by how difficult this situation really was until the church bells rang and she heard the staff calling names to board the bus. She quickly dried her tears and blew her nose then walked out of the door just in time for her name to be called. She got her seat number from the desk and walked to her assigned bus, as she climbed on she made the terrible discovery that she would not only be sharing a man with this woman but a seat as well for a whole three-hour bus ride. She sat down and listened as Clare released her enthusiasm that they were placed together very loudly. She knew at this moment just how long these three hours were going to last. 

Luckily the drive was filled with prayers and gospel songs being sung and there wasn’t much time for conversation. When they finally arrived Gen quickly rushed off clenching her bag close to her body. The doors opened revealing more very anxious bible thumpers ready to assign each person their cabin. She exited and walked up to the closest person with a clipboard, it was a man with a big beard to whom she gave her name and in return received a ticket with her bunk number.

As she walked to her cabin she was met by the same aggravating face that had been haunting her since she saw it virtually. She decided right there that it was time to confront Clare before she chickened out. Gen angrily stomped inside and grabbed Clare’s arm without warning and drugged her into the bathroom. She takes a few deep breaths while ignoring Clare’s flustered rambles of confusion. 

“How can you be so shameless when you know who I am and what you’re doing to me?” Gen starts off with. Clare takes a step back and pure baffle stretches across her face as she tries to gather her words. After she finally does she says in a calm yet defensive way, “What are you talking about? We met not even four hours ago, am I supposed to just know everything to know about you”. Gen paused mouth hung wide and at that moment she realized Clare had no idea what she had gotten stuck in the middle of. Gen grabs her in a tight hug and tears fill her eyes remembering the pain when she found out and now knowing she has to invite Clare to the pity party. 

In the midst of a full breakdown, Genevieve begins trying to explain the situation to the best of her knowledge. This sends Clare into a full-on denial rant until Gen is forced to unveil the in-depth proof of her and Silas’ year-and-a-half-long engagement, their co-owned house, and so on. This was enough for Clare to abandon her religion and spiral; she started spewing the most filthy insults at the idea of the double-timers existence. The two quickly conduct a plan of attack starting with the same selfie of the girls together sent from both of their phones to his in a group chat to make sure they can take their anger out directly at him with ease. This quickly turned into them ending the trip early to pick up Clare's car and heading to Gen’s and Silas’ shared abode where they packed her things and burned every item of his. This left room and something in common between the two girls making them the perfect roommates and best friends and ever since the shared betrayal they have been inseparable.