GINA

I jolted back to the present when I heard someone call my name. Startled, I realized that I was nearly bumping my forehead against the door of my apartment without even being aware that I had reached it already.

I heard my name again, louder this time. I recognized the caller voice as that of Dennis, my next door neighbour who had recently been divorced from his wife of three and half months.

I tried to quickly clean my eyes with the hem of my shirt before turning around to face him, grateful for the fact that it was night and the lone bulb in the hallway would not provide enough light for him to see my hollow eyes.

"Hey, Dennis, are you just coming back?" I asked, trying my best to sound casually but failing.

He walked closer to peer at me. "Something is wrong with you."

I didn't say anything. Dennis was not just my neighbour but also my friend for the five years I had been living in the apartment.

I was there to share in his excitement when he was all over his ex wife, Josephine the time he first met her. He was there to reassure me when I could not believe that I had fallen in love with Ken so quickly and was sceptical about him. He was quick to share his own reservations about Ken moving into my house when he became unemployed. I was also there to comfort him when his wife told him that she could not really go on with the marriage because she had accepted something that she had been running from all her life— that she was a lesbian.

So yes, there was absolutely no way I would speak and He would not detect that something was up with me.

"Gina, what happened?" He said in a low voice. "You are coming in late from work which is something you hardly do. I saw you come up to your door as if you are not seeing where you are going. Is your mother okay?"

"Yeah." I managed to say. Since he was close, I could see that his brows were furrowed in concern.

"And Ken? Is he okay? Is this about him?"

"Yes." The mention of his name made me slide bonelessly onto the floor, my legs in awkward angles and my head resting on my door.

I was too tired to pretend it was fine with me. That everything was fine with me. I was too tired to even feel angry upon hearing his name.

"What happened?" Dennis slowly crouched down in front of me, gingerly used two fingers to raise my drooping chin so he could look fully at my face.

After some seconds, he swore. "Tell me it's not what I am thinking, Gina."

The fact that he could figure it out so quickly made the tears slip once more from my eyes and rolled down my face silently.

"That bastard. After everything you have done for him? How dare he do such to you? Cheating on you after everything is the dumbest thing ever."

I didn't know how I managed to speak but I did. "He didn't cheat on me. I was the other woman."

"Pardon me? The other what?"

"The other woman. Dennis, Ken is married with a kid who should be about three years old. Hell, his wife is even pregnant."

The shock caused Dennis to land his butt on the floor abruptly. He stared at me as if waiting to hear from me that I was joking. That I was only teasing him.

After a full minute of no reply, he uttered in a whisper, "Jesus Christ."

My tears began to flow excessively and I began to tremble. I hated that I was like this. I was the type who sought for a solution in every problem, never ran from my responsibility even when they seem too much and hated being seen as weak. But I could not help shaking as if my core had been torn away from me.

What pained me the most was that on the day we first saw each other and I had asked him if he was married with kids, he had laughed as if I had made a joke.

I laughed as well, feeling very ridiculous for asking such a guy such a question. His charisma made him out to be the kind of guy who would not lie especially over matters as delicate as marriage and fatherhood.

How I have been so fucking stupid.

"What will you do now?" Dennis said to me as he reached out to clean my tears with his right hand. I turned my face away even though I did not know why I did so. He nodded as if he understood.

More silence drifted between us before I remembered he had asked me a question. . I thought over it while recalling what I had sent in the blaze of anger to Ken about two hours ago. There was no going back on it.

"I am leaving the apartment by tomorrow."

"You are what?" Dennis' eyes popped out from its socket in a way that made me want to feel pity for him. He had received so much shocking news tonight.

But so have I. Mine, even more

I had been looking forward to indulging in a long bath and a glass of wine after a stressful day at the restaurant while Ken tried to make me laugh only to be rewarded with this scattering heartbreak. It was not fair at all. It still seemed like a horrible dream.

"Gina, what do you mean by packing out if the apartment? Where will you go?" Dennis asked in a whisper.

"I can not stay here, Dennis. Ken has stayed in the apartment with me for the last four months. Hus memories are all over the place. There is no way I can handle staying in the apartment for long because everywhere I look will trigger a memory of what that bastard has done to me."

Gina—"

"I am sure about this, Dennis. Don't try to stop me. Besides, I have informed him of that already."

"You have told him that you would be leaving the apartment?"

"Yes."

"It makes no sense." The bewilderment clearly showed in Dennis' voice. "Ken should be the one leaving. You are the one paying for the apartment, isn't it?"