Yes - and he sincerely apologizes

When I finally made it back home for the evening, I got out my phone and called Sonya.

"I love you," I started simply. Right off the bat, my tone of voice told her something was very wrong.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"No, I'm not. I... let something happen. Something really stupid. And I need to tell you about it."

"What are you talking about?"

Every word took tremendous effort for me to **** out, like I was pushing a boulder up a mountain. "There's... these two women at my new job. Last night, I—"

"Last night you WHAT?"

"One of them kind of had a thing for me and—I didn't push her away when I should have."

There was a long, painful pause while Sonya gathered her thoughts.

Our relationship had been going great. She was supposed to move in with me in a couple months. A year from now, we both knew I was probably gonna start shopping for a ring. What if my behavior last night had put a wrench in all that?

"How far did things go?" Sonya finally asked.

"Second base."

"What the fuck is 'second base'? Is that like a blowjob or something?" she snapped.

"What? No! It's, you know, second base. First base is kissing, second base is feeling a girl up, third base is—"

"So you spent all night making out with some random girl and grabbing her boobs?"

"No, it was just for a couple of seconds, then I stopped it. I swear."

She made me sit through another of those horrible pauses.

"You promise that's all?"

"I promise. And I promise it will never happen again."

"This is so fucking lame, Michael."

"I know, babe, I'm so—"

She hung up.

"Sorry."

The rest of the week creaked by in pretty much the same miserable way, with Claire and Tami refusing to talk to me, and Sonya refusing to answer her phone or return any of my emails. I was so scared of losing her, I even considered flying back out east to see her in person—but ultimately accepted that she wasn't talking to me because she didn't want to. Maxing out my pathetic little credit limit to buy a plane ticket wasn't gonna change that.

I should have spent that first week going out, trying to get a feel for the city, making new friends and building a new life. But frankly, things were so weird I never felt like leaving my apartment. So instead, I cleaned and unpacked, organized all my shit, and then cleaned everything all over again. I filled what free time I did have discovering just how terrible most television shows really are when you watch them all by yourself.

When Saturday rolled around and I carted my dirty clothes downstairs to the community Laundromat, I stumbled upon Claire, just as she was cramming a load of wet clothes into the dryer. We both froze awkwardly at the sight of one another.