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Chapter 28: My mother knows that name

Author: Bella
last update publish date: 2026-04-30 10:23:40

I drove home from Sunday dinner with Sandra's name sitting in my chest like something that has taken up permanent residence.

My mother said it.

My mother, who has no reason to know that name, who exists in a completely separate part of my life from everything happening with Caleb, said Sandra on the phone in her kitchen and then turned around and offered me cornbread like nothing happened.

She was good about it too. That is the thing. The recovery was so smooth, the pivot to warmth so immediate
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  • One night wasn't enough    Chapter 35

    Saturday morning. Lena is at my apartment uninvited with coffee and pastries which means she has an agenda."You cancelled on Caleb last night," she says, settling on my couch."I was tired.""You were avoiding.""Same thing sometimes."She gives me the look. "Have you talked to him?""We texted.""That is not talking.""It is a form of communication Lena.""Maya.""What.""You cannot keep doing this. Avoiding him, avoiding Sandra, avoiding the whole thing." She opens the pastry bag. "At some point everything you are avoiding is going to walk through your front door."My phone buzzes on the coffee table.We both look at it.Unknown number.Lena raises her eyebrows.I pick it up.He met her Thursday. Coffee place on Michigan, north end. Eleven thirty. Two hours.I read it. Show it to Lena without saying anything.She reads it. Puts the pastry down."Thursday," she says."Yes.""The day before dinner.""Yes.""When he said old acquaintance not important.""Yes.""Two hours Maya.""I can

  • One night wasn't enough    Chapter 34

    I lie awake until one in the morning making a list in my head.Reasons to tell Caleb.He deserves to know his ex has shown up. He is in a relationship with me and this directly affects that relationship. Keeping it from him makes me the person doing the same thing I have been frustrated at him for doing. Secrets compound. I know this. I have lived this.Reasons not to tell Caleb.Telling him means explaining how I know. Which means explaining the unknown number. Which means explaining that I have been receiving mysterious texts for weeks and did not mention it. Which means explaining that Lena has been investigating his social media. Which means a conversation I am not remotely prepared to have while I still do not understand what Sandra actually wants.I fall asleep somewhere around one thirty without resolving anything.Morning.I make coffee. Sit at my kitchen table. Open my phone.No new messages from the unknown number.Nothing from Sandra.Caleb texted at eight. Still on for ton

  • One night wasn't enough    Chapter 33

    Lena sent me the profile link before she hung up.I told myself I would look at it in the morning. Fresh eyes. Clear head. Not at eleven at night sitting on my couch with cold tea and too many thoughts already competing for space.I opened it at eleven fifteen.Sandra's profile is exactly what Lena described. Public. Fully public. Clean, curated, the kind of social media presence that looks effortless because someone spent time making it look effortless.Recent posts first.Work events. A dinner with friends. A photo at what looks like a rooftop bar, three women laughing at something off camera, Sandra in the middle looking like someone who belongs in every room she enters.She is beautiful.Not in a complicated way. Just straightforwardly, objectively beautiful.I scroll.More recent posts. More dinners. A weekend trip somewhere warm. A work celebration.Normal life. Full life.I scroll further.Further.There.The photos started appearing about two years back.Not a single photo. Not

  • One night wasn't enough    Chapter 32: Two women and one man

    I canceled dinner.Not permanently. Just tonight. I texted Caleb at seven forty five saying something came up at the studio, can we reschedule, I am sorry. He replies in three minutes.Of course. Everything okay?Yes. Just work. Tomorrow?Tomorrow works. Call me later if you want to talk.I put the phone down.Sandra's visit is still sitting in the room with me. Her voice. Her composure. The specific warmth of someone delivering difficult information carefully.He has a pattern.Nothing significant.The unknown number's message underneath it.Sandra is not what she looks like.Two women. One man. Zero clear answers.I called Lena.She picks up on the first ring."How was dinner," she says."I cancelled."A pause. "Why.""Sandra showed up at my studio."Silence.Complete silence."Lena.""I heard you," she says. "I am processing." Another pause. "She showed up at your studio.""Yes.""In person.""In person. Sat down. We talked for twenty minutes.""Maya." Her voice is doing several thi

  • One night wasn't enough    chapter 31

    She sits down like she has been here before.Not literally. She has never been in my studio. But she sits in the chair across from my desk with the ease of someone who makes themselves at home in rooms that do not belong to them. She crosses her legs, sets her bag on the floor beside her, looks around the space with a polite interest that feels slightly performative."Nice studio," she says."Thank you.""Very you somehow. Even though I've never met you." She smiles. "Caleb mentioned you were a designer. He said you had good taste."The mention of Caleb's name sits strangely in the room."How do you know Caleb," I say. Direct. I am not doing the slow approach with this woman. She showed up at my studio unannounced. She has been texting me from an unknown number. Direct is the least she owes me."We were close," she says. "For about a year. A while back." She says it simply, no drama attached. "We stayed in touch on and off after. The way you do with people who meant something.""You t

  • One night wasn't enough    Chapter 30

    I woke up Tuesday morning with that sentence still sitting in my head and made a deliberate decision to put it somewhere I cannot see it for a while.I tried meditation first.I have an app. Lena bought me the subscription last Christmas with the specific energy of someone who had been watching me stress eat crackers over a laptop at eleven at night and decided to intervene. I have opened the app four times since December. I used it once. Fell asleep during the breathing exercise and woke up twenty minutes later to a very calm voice asking if I was ready to set my intentions.I was not ready to set my intentions.This morning I opened it again. Lie on my back and pressed playWelcome, the voice says. Today we are going to practice letting go.Perfect, I think. Letting go. That is exactly what I need.Breathe in for four counts, the voice says. Now breathe out and release anything that does not serve you.I breathe out.Sandra is still there.Again, the voice says pleasantly. Release.

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