He rubbed his face.
“Rachel and I weren’t supposed to fall in love.”
I felt a strange emptiness.
“You weren’t supposed to fall in love?”
“It happened gradually.”
“How convenient.”
He looked at me.
“I know how that sounds.”
“Do you?”
He nodded.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then he began explaining.
He told me that Rachel had joined the company during a period when he felt overlooked and underappreciated. She had listened to him complain about work, laughed at his jokes, and told him that he deserved more from life.
At first, they had only spoken during office hours.
Then came private messages.
Then lunches.
Then dinners he had described as business meetings.
Eventually, he said, the relationship had become something he could no longer pretend was innocent.
“I know I was wrong,” he said.
“At what point did you remember that?”
He flinched.
I continued.
“When you started lying? When you booked the restaurant? When you came home and kissed me? Or when you promised Rachel my house?”
