Keeping a Strong Performance

The Truth

So this is another short chapter because I suck so yeah. Here you are.

Reiner's POV

When I woke up, Bertolt was already gone as usual. He always left early so he could beat traffic, and he probably tried to wake me up to say goodbye but I never woke up easily. I went to take a shower and found a note since Bert knew me so well. It read:

Good morning beautiful :D I figured you would take a shower first thing so I left a note to tell you that last night was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my first night, in what seems like years, off. I love you and you're the best husband anyone could ask for. Channing Tatum has nothing on you babe. Love you!

I chuckled at the note. Bertolt had some kind of obsession with Channing Tatum that I would never be able to understand. At the same time that I was laughing at him being so adorably stupid, I felt the pain in my heart known as guilt. The note was the icing on the cake. There was no way possible that he was having an affair. He was too innocent to do something like that.

I grabbed my phone before I got in the shower and texted Annie to get her to meet me at the cafe below our apartment building. I didn't wait for a response, I just jumped in the shower and washed myself off. After I got out of the shower and dried off, I got dressed. I put on a sweatshirt and jeans, accompanied by some boots because it was cold as ice out there.

I walked out of the apartment, locked the door behind me, and got on the elevator. I seen an old couple on the way down and they were telling me about how nice and lovely my husband was. I could only smile and nod because of the feeling eating away at me from the inside. Everyone seemed to be pointing out just how great Bertolt was, when I clearly knew that. I was just too damn stupid to believe that he actually worked all of the time.

I said goodbye to the couple and walked across the street to the cafe Annie and I always meet at when we want to talk. She was already there, as always, and I sat down across from her. She already ordered us coffee because we both always ordered the same thing. She looked at me skeptically for a moment before the waiter brought us our coffees. I took a sip of mine awkwardly while she seemed to glare at me.

"So," I began, "Bertolt came home last night." I said and she raised an eyebrow at me.

"That's a surprise. Did he go straight to bed?" She asked in an uncaring tone. I shook my head no and she seemed relatively surprised. "That's shocking actually. What did you guys do, then? Or do I want to know?" She asked and I laughed dryly.

"More of the second one." I said and she nodded in agreement. "Annie, Bertolt isn't cheating on me." I stated grimly while looking out the window next to me.

"And what makes you so sure of that? Now I'm not saying that he is and you're wrong, I'm just curious." She said and I took a deep breath before speaking again.

"When we participated in our activities last night, he acted like he never wanted to let go of me. The look in his eyes was so innocent and full of admiration when he looked at me. When we were laying in the bed together, he had our hands interlocked and he just kept reading over the words engraved on our wedding bands. He would smile at everything I said and did. He tackled me in a god damn hug when I opened the door for fucks sake." I said and put my head in my hands.

Annie sat there for a minute. "Good. Now you two can go back to being the holy married couple you were when I met you." She said and I shook my head. She seemed confused. "Now don't tell me that you feel guilty about cheating on him now when you knew the whole time that it was very unlikely that he was doing the same thing." She warned me.

"That's not it. Mika and I had been talking lately... She said it would be a good idea for him and I to finally just end it. She wants me to move in with her so we don't have to keep sneaking around." I said and Annie just stared at me with dead eyes. "I'd already drawn up the divorce papers." I said quietly and her eyes widened.

She hit the table with her hands. "I can't just tell Mikasa that I've had a change of heart and that I'm not going to leave him for her." I said before she could tell me how stupid I was.

"You're telling me that you can't tell your side chick that you aren't going to move in with her because your husband isn't cheating, but you can tell your husband you want a divorce because of your side hoe?" She raised her voice. "Just because you had already told her that you would go through with it, you're going leave the one you vowed to stay with forever?!"

"Well when you put it that way, it sounds a lot worse than it is." I said, we now had the attention of most of the people in he cafe. She had stood up now and had a murderous glint in her eyes.

"I don't think it could get any worse than this! Bertolt doesn't deserve to have his entire world ripped from him!" She yelled at me and I cowered back a bit, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the stares we were getting.

"You're the one who gave me the idea that he could be cheat-" she cut me off.

"I said it was a possibility. I did not tell you to go have an affair because you thought you would repay him for what you thought he was doing." She said, well more like growled. I let a breath out and stood up. I started to walk passed her but she put her hand on my shoulder, effectively digging her fingers into my skin and stopping me. "I will not pick the side in which wrong is done." She said and let me go.

When I was walking out the door, I seen Levi and Eren. Levi was glaring at me and Eren was staring at me with wide, and his eyes were filled with hurt. He and Bert were still good friends and I knew Levi didn't like the idea of cheating on your significant other. I just walked on through the doors and to the outside. I didn't know what to do, I just knew that my heart was pulling in two different directions at once, and that wasn't helping me.

I just needed to figure out which side was pulling harder.

Imma go cry now.