My Husband Never Took Me on Trips with His Friends. Then I Saw a Video of Him Kissing Another Woman novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Reel
Melina learns she is six weeks pregnant and then watches a friend's video of Cory kissing Amber, with the friends toasting Amber's twelve-week baby. She records it, calls her sister, and finds out Amber is invited to Saturday's dinner at her house.
On the Thursday I found out I was pregnant, my husband's best friend posted a video of my husband kissing another woman.
He deleted it within the hour.
By then I had already recorded it.
That morning I sat in my car outside the clinic and read the lab report three times.
Six weeks.
I didn't call Cory.
He was away on his yearly October trip with his college friends, and he would be home Saturday.
I wanted to see his face when I told him.
Back at my desk, I put a pair of tiny gray baby socks in an online cart.
I found a pale blue gift box in the hall closet and set it next to the report.
I pictured Cory holding the socks and asking if they were for somebody's baby.
Then I opened my feed, and the first thing in it was a new video from Heath, Cory's best friend.
The caption said, "Day six. Nobody wants to leave."
I tapped it.
The camera drifted from a bright living room out to a pool.
Two of Cory's friends waved at it with beers.
Heath's voice came from behind the phone. "Day six, ladies and gentlemen."
His wife was at the grill with another friend, handing him a slice of cheese.
I sat up.
Cory had told me for five years that this trip was just the guys.
The first October, I had asked if I could come. He said they had all agreed to leave their partners at home so everyone could relax.
I stopped asking after that.
Now the camera swung to the far end of the patio.
Cory was on a wide lounge chair in the sun, and a woman was curled against his side.
His hand was on her hip. The gold ring I had put on him was right there on his finger.
I knew her before she turned her face.
Amber Ketter had come to our house last Thanksgiving.
Cory said she had just transferred to his office and had nobody nearby for the holiday.
Heath was the one who called me to ask if we could set one more place.
Amber brought a pie and washed dishes with me afterward.
She asked what Cory liked best on the table, and she typed his answers into her phone.
I had thought that was thoughtful.
In the video she looked up from Cory's shoulder and smiled straight into the lens, at whoever held the phone.
Then Cory tipped her chin up with two fingers and kissed her.
My hand jerked, and the phone cracked against the edge of my desk.
I caught it, dragged the video back to the start and pressed record on my screen.
The video played through again.
It crossed the patio to a long table with a cake and a stack of wrapped gifts.
"Don't open them yet," Heath's wife said. "Wait for everyone."
Amber came to the table and Cory followed her. He took her phone out of her hand and set it down so she could reach the gifts.
She pulled the ribbon off the first box and lifted out a white baby onesie.
"Isn't it a little early for this?" she said.
"You're twelve weeks," Heath's wife said, and raised her glass. "We can celebrate now. To you and a healthy baby."
Cory stood behind Amber with his hand on her shoulder.
Somebody off camera said, "Next year, you can bring the baby on the trip."
Cory laughed.
"We'll see," he said.
The clip ended there.
I tried to play it again, and the screen said, "This content is no longer available."
The Reel was gone.
My recording was still on my phone.
I looked at my report and at the pale blue box next to it.
Amber was twelve weeks along, and I was six.
I put my hand flat against my stomach.
So I stopped waiting for Saturday.
I called my sister, and she picked up on the second ring.
"Megan, can I come to your place tonight? I have to tell you something in person."
"I'm off at six," she said. "Are you okay?"
"No."
My phone buzzed against my ear.
The group chat Cory's friends and I shared had lit up with a message from Heath.
"Saturday dinner at the Tollands', everybody. We'll come straight from the airport. Amber's bringing dessert."
Under it he had added, "Melina, we're all counting on that roast beef."
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