It Takes Two

Eggos

Jake woke up to the sun in his face, and sighed. He sat up, groaning as he stretched. He was too old to sleep on a damn couch this often.

Today was the day CC and Alex were going to come over to look at the house. They had been there before, obviously, but never looked at it.

It was a strange feeling. Knowing that his dream home was about to belong to someone else. He had worked so hard to be able to get to where he was today and to afford such a nice home, but now it was all gone. He had spent close to two decades building up his reputation as a producer; working with some of the biggest artists in the world, and it all meant nothing.

He couldn't even afford his damn house payment on his own.

Jake checked his phone to see the time. It was barely past six in the morning.
"Gross." He said out loud. His back was uncomfortably stiff, and his neck was killing him, but he would live.

He stood up and walked into the kitchen. Jake was desperate for some caffeine. He popped a pod into his Keurig, and sat a mug in it. He loved his Keurig, but Clara had gotten it for him for Christmas so he wanted rid of it as quickly as possible.

Avery was still asleep so that gave Jake some time alone to think. Ever since Clara left, he's had no time to process anything because he's been busy trying to take care of his kid by himself. Jake didn't have the luxury of pretending he had no responsibilities.

He didn't think he would ever be able to fully process his divorce. Jake was completely blindsided by everything. One minute he was happy and in love, the next minute he's being told that it was all a lie.

So many moments were a lie. Work trips, working from home, office parties, and girls days that had all turned out to be false. Jake wondered if her boss was the only one, or if he was the only one worth imploding her life and destroying her marriage over.

Jake didn't think he actually wanted to know the answer.

Jake still remembered her trying to convince him not to tell anyone why they were divorcing.

"Other people don't need to know our business." She had said as if she hadn't cheated on him. As if she didn't break every vow she made the day they got married.

The worst part? Jake had kept it quiet too. He was so desperate to keep the peace for Avery's sake that he was willing to pretend they had just fallen out of love.

But sadly for Clara and joyously for Jake- she was a fucking idiot. She started showing off her affair partner publicly. As if no one would put two and two together.

How she thought no one would question her on the arm of her boss mere weeks after they filed for a divorce was beyond Jake.

She had tried to blame him for people finding out, but he just hung up on her when she called to scream at him over it. She had sent a few nasty text messages, but Jake deleted them without reading them. He wasn't going to allow that shit in his life after all the hurt she had caused.

Her parents had called and asked if it was true. Who was Jake to lie to them? Why should he continue to protect a woman who no longer cared about his feelings? Jake told them everything and answered every last question they asked him no matter how awkward it was.

Her mom cried, and her dad just kept apologizing. It broke his heart completely to hear them like that. They had been nothing but wonderful to Jake over the past decade. He promised them that they would always be family in his eyes, and would be part of Avery's life no matter what happened between him and Clara, which made them feel a lot better about everything.

Word of Clara's cheating spread like wildfire after that, and everyone knew. It was humiliating for Jake, but worse for Clara... well, it would be if she had even an ounce of shame. Most of their friends took his side of course, the rest chose not to take sides, wanting to keep the peace.