Single Lady Spy 01 - The End of Me

who I couldn’t see, but I could tell it was a woman.
    "You think if I had any other choice, I would have let this happen?" he asked the lady.
    She put her hands on his jacket, on his chest. I placed the ice cream on the counter and dragged the video back. I watched her hands touch down on his jacket. It was an intimate touch.
    My stomach turned, but I forced myself to watch the rest. I was actually being given footage of one of his said infidelities. They knew? They knew and they let me watch the video?
    "Heartless bastards," I muttered and looked back at the video.
    The lady spoke plainly, "I just want you to be safe. They know about the Burrow, she knows for sure. There's no way Evie..." I knew her voice.
    "Shhhhh," he said and looked around.
    My guts burned. Why was my name being mentioned? I knew her voice? Where from?
    "James, they know about Evie …" she whispered, just as the camera lost her voice.
    I gagged. Of course I knew that voice and the way it whispered my name. It belonged to my best friend in the world. My best friend, who I believed to be on mission and unable to be at my side, as I learned my husband was dead. I waited on pins and needles for the camera to catch her face. If it was her , I was going to have a heart attack.
    He grabbed her arms, "I told you not to say that. You don’t know who's following us. Just stay out of this and stick to the plan. Meet me in Holland in a week. I have to break this to Evie and the kids. I know she knows, or at least, suspects something. She knows this is coming."
    My mouth dropped open. I didn’t, in fact, know. I never suspected.
    "I hate that she's going to get hurt." She rubbed her hands up and down the front of his body, making mine numb. I felt my lower lip creep out. I was actively praying it wasn’t her.
    His voice turned soft, "Melanie, I want to be with you. The kids are old enough. It's our turn. Me and you, baby."
    My mouth was completely dry, except for the sour taste in my cheeks. I dropped the iPod to the tile floor. My hands covered my mouth, "Fuck." Silent tears streamed my cheeks.
    Melanie… Melanie, who sat on the toilet nervously watching me check the pregnancy test. Melanie, the bridesmaid at my wedding. Melanie, who held my hand when I gave birth. Melanie, who I had prayed would get my dozens of desperate emails from the last two months .
    She was my best army friend. We had done basic together and Fort Huachuca. We had entered CI together. A million images flashed in my mind. He was fucking her too? The PTA moms weren’t enough? He had to take the only thing that was mine—she was mine.
    The video was still playing but I couldn’t hear anymore. I got up and left the bathroom abruptly.
    I needed to be away from the papers.
    I paced the hallway. My breath came in rough spurts and panicked half breaths.
    I burped the ice cream. It started to creep up my throat. I sat on the stairs; my tears wanted to come but the ice cream was blocking them.
    I gagged and ran upstairs to my bathroom, bursting through the door, and running for my toilet. I couldn’t go back into the bathroom downstairs, not yet.
    I bent over the toilet and gagged for a second before the scotch and ice cream started to flow. My guts retched and my heart broke. Not from his betrayal but from hers. Him, I had started to come to terms with. Hers might kill me.
    I finished throwing up and flushed repeatedly. I curled up on the cool floor and pressed my face to the tiles. My silent cries turned to blasting sobs. I let loose the horrors and the pain. I let loose the millions of things I hadn’t let myself see. The dam broke and I let the avalanche smother me completely.
    Images of things I had not wanted to see, ran like a movie behind my eyes until the movie ended and my eyes went black. But even as I passed out in the bathroom, I dreamt of things I didn’t want to see. His hand grazing her thigh, the two of them sneaking off during our wedding, the way he always insisted I invite her along.
    I woke to the sound of a man's voice.
    "James?" I stirred and wiped the drool from my face.
    "No. Come here."
    I blinked and saw Coop standing in the doorway. I blinked again and wondered if I was hallucinating.
    He had on a hoodie and sweats. I jumped when I realized he was truly there and banged my head on the toilet.
    He winced and stepped to me. He lifted me off the floor, "You don’t follow orders very well, Evans." He carried me from the bathroom and laid me on my bed,