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0039: BURSTING THE BUDDLE

Author: Ink Hashira
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-06 00:14:39

JUNE’S POV

I watched from the kitchen window, the dish towel frozen in my hands. Outside was like a silent play, and I understood every line.

When Franklin walked out, all bluster and rolled-up sleeves, my heart sank. He did not belong in their world of easy sweat and quick laughter. He was an intruder in his own backyard.

And Luca. God, Luca.

I saw it the second Franklin joined the game. A shift. It was in the set of Luca’s shoulders, the way his playful dribble turned sharp and predatory. He was not playing basketball with Adrian’s dad anymore. He was conducting an execution.

Every time Luca stole the ball from Franklin’s clumsy hands, it was not a steal. It was a stripping, a humiliation. When he drove past, leaving Franklin stumbling and red-faced, it was not a score. It was a statement carved into the pavement for everyone to see.

This is the man you are tied to. Look at him.

My knuckles were white on the counter. It was brutal to watch. It was also mesmerizing. There was a furio
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  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0044: GREEN WITH ENVY

    JUNE’S POVA white-hot bolt of jealousy seared straight through my chest. It was so intense it stole my breath, a real, physical wrenching right under my ribs. My fingers clenched around the tray of sodas I was holding.No. You ended this, remember? my mind reminded me. You told him to forget. He’s free. He’s a young, single man at your son’s party.The logic did nothing. The sight of his hands on another girl’s body felt like a violation. It felt like something of mine was being taken from under my nose, and I stood helpless, unable to do anything to stop it.And then, as if he’d felt my gaze burning into him, Luca looked up. His eyes found mine, locked right on through all that noise. The easy smile vanished. His gaze held mine, dark and unreadable.Then, deliberately, slowly, without breaking eye contact for a single second, he dipped his head and kissed her.It wasn’t some deep kiss, just a brush of lips, a party kiss. But it was a message. A retaliation. A brutal demonstration of

  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0043: COLD WAR

    JUNE’S POVMy heart began a slow, heavy thud against my ribs. No. It was impossible. It was my own paranoia, my miserable life looking for shadows everywhere. Sarah was my best friend. Franklin was… well, Franklin was a cheater, but with secretaries like Karen. Not with my best friend. Not for nineteen years. The sheer scale of that was too monstrous to even hold in my head.But the seed was planted. And in the fertile, poisoned soil of my broken trust, it didn’t need much to start growing.I stood up too fast. My chair scraped loudly on the floor. “I should get going,” I said, my voice oddly tight. “I told Marlene I’d help her with… something.”Sarah’s happy glow faded into pure worry. She stood and hugged me tight. “Promise you’ll think about what I said. And call me anytime. I mean it.”I hugged her back. I breathed in her familiar perfume. That scent had always meant safety, gossip, solidarity. Now it just made my stomach twist.“I will,” I whispered into her shoulder. But I wasn’

  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0042: THE SIMPLE OPTION

    JUNE’S POVSarah’s hand squeezed mine, tight. Her face changed, turned fierce, protective, and it made my eyes sting. “Junie, listen. Life is too damn short. If you’re not happy, really, deep-down happy, what’s the point? If Franklin isn’t treating you right, or if he just makes you feel empty, you have options. You could leave. You should leave. Get a divorce.”Get a divorce.The words just hung there. So simple. For one second, one breathless, weightless second, it didn’t seem bad at all. If anything, it was like a door swinging open in a stuffy room. I saw beyond it. No more stiff, careful kisses. No more lying awake next to a stranger. No more pretending for the kids’ sake. Just freedom. The kind that made Sarah’s eyes sparkle like that.My heart did this wild, hopeful little flutter. Yes. Why not? But then, fast as it came, cold reality crashed down. Like jumping from a daydream into ice water.It wouldn’t be clean. It would be a war. Franklin wouldn’t just let me go. He’d fight,

  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0041: HAPPY GUILT

    JUNE’S POVI gasped. I jerked my head back like I’d been burned. I couldn’t breathe. The whole room felt full of him.I tore the sheets off. I balled them up and shoved them deep into the hamper. My hands shook as I ripped open the new plastic. That crisp, chemical smell of new fabric and plastic wrap hit me. It smelled sterile, almost dead.I made the bed with insane precision, tucking the corners tight, smoothing the boring beige fabric until it was perfectly flat. Not a wrinkle. It was perfect. It was empty. It felt like I was making my own prison cell.I stood back and looked at it. It looked like a showroom, a place where nothing real had ever happened.But as I stood there, my heart still pounding, I knew it was all a lie. The new sheets were just a Band-Aid. The ghost of his smell might be gone from the cotton, but it was in the walls, in the air, in me. I could change the sheets, but I couldn’t change the truth staring back at me from the mirror.The next morning, after a quic

  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0040: NEW SHEETS

    JUNE’S POVGod, I could not get the images out of my head. Luca’s cold, challenging stare was burned onto the back of my eyelids. Then it would switch, right there behind my eyes, to Marlene’s hopeful little face, and then the crushed look that followed. My own kitchen started to feel like a cage. The air was thick, you know. Thick with the smell of Franklin’s pathetic failure and my daughter’s innocent heartbreak. I just had to get out.Without even really thinking, I grabbed my keys and my purse."Just running to the store," I called out. My voice was way too chirpy for the hollow quiet of the house. I did not wait for an answer. I did not look to see if Franklin was still wheezing in the den or if Luca was watching me from some shadow. I just fled.The slam of the car door was the best sound I had heard all day. My own space. My own noise. I started the engine and just drove. I did not have a list. I did not need milk or bread. I just needed to be gone.My hands were tight on the w

  • In Love With My Son's Best Friend   0039: BURSTING THE BUDDLE

    JUNE’S POVI watched from the kitchen window, the dish towel frozen in my hands. Outside was like a silent play, and I understood every line.When Franklin walked out, all bluster and rolled-up sleeves, my heart sank. He did not belong in their world of easy sweat and quick laughter. He was an intruder in his own backyard.And Luca. God, Luca.I saw it the second Franklin joined the game. A shift. It was in the set of Luca’s shoulders, the way his playful dribble turned sharp and predatory. He was not playing basketball with Adrian’s dad anymore. He was conducting an execution.Every time Luca stole the ball from Franklin’s clumsy hands, it was not a steal. It was a stripping, a humiliation. When he drove past, leaving Franklin stumbling and red-faced, it was not a score. It was a statement carved into the pavement for everyone to see.This is the man you are tied to. Look at him.My knuckles were white on the counter. It was brutal to watch. It was also mesmerizing. There was a furio

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