Taylor Swift's Point of View
My knuckles are white-hot against the steering wheel as I pull up to Travis's house in Kansas City. A week. A whole freaking week of radio silence after I kicked him out. Did he really think I wouldn't find him? That I'd just wither away, waiting for him to beg his way back in?
The anger simmers just beneath the surface, a volatile cocktail threatening to erupt. I take a deep breath, willing myself some semblance of calm. I need a clean break, not a messy, emotional meltdown.
Using the code he texted me ages ago (probably for his deliveries because apparently even a cheating ex can't resist the convenience of online shopping), I slip inside the house. The familiar scent of Travis's cologne hangs heavy in the air, a fresh wave of nausea rolling through me.
Following the sounds of raised voices, I tiptoe closer to the kitchen. My heart jumps into my throat. There's Travis, his back to me, but the other voice... it's a man.
"We're done, okay!" Travis yells, his voice laced with desperation.
"Why? We have something amazing! You love me more than you ever have loved her. Admit it!" the other guy shouts back.
My grip tightens on my purse strap. Love? This is about love? The anger flares, a searing white that drowns out the rest of their argument. Did he just say love? After everything?
The air hangs heavy with a million unspoken words. Travis stammers, his voice barely a whisper, "She's just..."
"She's what?" The man's voice, so achingly familiar, tickles the edge of my memory. It's on the tip of my tongue, a name I should know.
"She's pregnant," Travis blurts, the words exploding out of him like a dam breaking. They hit me like a physical blow, the air knocked right out of my lungs.
"You had sex with her?" The man's voice is laced with disbelief, a harsh edge to it. As if I'm not the one standing right here, the wife who just found out her world is shattering.
"I had to do something!" Travis defends himself, his voice tight. "To make her think I wasn't..." He trails off, but I don't need him to finish the sentence. The affair hangs heavy in the air, a suffocating weight that's been growing for weeks, for months.
"Just run away with me," the man pleads. "We'll go to London. Start over." A flicker of a dream, a life we once fantasized about, ignites in my chest. But it's quickly extinguished by the reality staring me in the face.
"I wish I could," Travis whispers, his voice thick with emotion. "More than anything." But the words are laced with something else too, a heavy resignation. "I have a family here now. A baby on the way. I can't just leave them."
"Please," the man begs, his voice raw with desperation. "Don't leave me like this."
My heart aches for them both, caught in this tangled mess of their own making. All I can manage is a choked sob, a pitiful sound that hangs in the heavy air as I hide on the other side of the wall.
"I'm so sorry," He finally manages to force out, the words scraping raw against his throat.
"One more time," the man whispers, his voice barely a breath. "For old time's sake."
"Anything for you," Travis replies, his voice thick with a love that shouldn't exist.
My stomach clenches. Are they about to...? A shudder runs through me as I hear the soft sounds of their kiss. It's a sound that should be intimate, a sound of love, but here, in the wreckage of our lives, it sounds like a death knell.
The kiss is hesitant at first, a question mark hanging in the air. I clench my fists, the fabric of my jeans digging into my palms. Part of me wants to scream, to tear them apart, but the other part is glued to the spot, a morbid fascination keeping me silent. Then, the kiss deepens, a desperate plea for a connection that shouldn't exist. A choked sob escapes my lips, a sound that cuts through the tension like a shard of glass.
