Not just "No," but "Hell, no!"

You take April’s hand, and she smiles; then you move it off your knee and let go, and she frowns. She avoids your eyes, looking everywhere but at you. “No, April. That’s over and done. I truly have found someone new, and I truly am happier with her; and even if I weren’t, I’m committed to her, and I wouldn’t just dump her to be back with you.

“Besides, you’re not being honest with me. Your decision wasn’t as sudden as all that. You were sleeping with Gene for months while we were still together, weren’t you?” It’s a shot in the dark, but the way Amber talked, it had to at least have been weeks. The shot goes home, though, as April flinches. Her face is clenched, and there’s something hard and angry lurking in her eyes. She doesn’t say anything, and after a moment, you speak again. “I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.”

In a low voice that throbs with some combination of emotions that you can’t quite identify, April says, “No, I suppose we don’t.” She stands up stiffly, suggesting she’s holding herself under rigid control. “I can show myself out.”

*******

You text Amber and ask her to come by after class. When she arrives, you sit next to her on the couch and tell her what happened. Her jaw drops when you recount her mother’s proposal; she looks furious for a moment, then is struck by some thought. When you finish, you wait patiently as she thinks. “Baby,” she says at length, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I don’t think she really wants you back.”

“You’re not hurting my feelings,” you tell her, “and I don’t think so either.”

“I think she would have been happy to fuck you, and would probably have recorded it to use against you once she identified—well, me. She always liked fucking you, even if you wouldn’t do everything she wanted. I don’t think she was very truthful about the rest of it, though. She’s up to something.”