Four

The private room at the back of the club was dim and loud at the same time. Heavy bass from the main floor leaked through the walls in a constant low thump. The lighting was low on purpose, warm bulbs set into the ceiling, a couple of neon strips along the bar in the corner. Leather couches lined three sides of the space. Empty bottles and half full glasses crowded the low table in the middle.

  Daniel sat in the middle of the largest couch. Claire was pressed against his right side, one leg tucked under her, her hand resting high on his thigh. She kept shifting closer, rubbing her shoulder against his arm, laughing at things that were not particularly funny. Three of Daniel’s friends occupied the other seats. They had been drinking since early afternoon. Their voices were loose and careless.

  One of them, a tall guy in a dark shirt, leaned forward with a grin.

  “I’m telling you, she still thinks you’re in love with her. Five years and she hasn’t figured it out. That’s some next level denial.”

  The others laughed. Daniel smiled into his glass and took a slow drink. He did not correct them.

  Claire made a soft, disapproving sound and gave the tall one a light shove.

  “Stop. That’s mean. She’s not here to defend herself.”

  Her tone was gentle, almost playful. The men only laughed harder. Claire kept her hand on Daniel’s leg the entire time.

  They were still talking when the door to the private room opened hard enough to hit the wall behind it.

  Maya stood in the doorway. She had not fixed her hair or changed her clothes since leaving the house. Her eyes moved across the room once, past the friends, past the bottles, past Claire’s hand on Daniel’s thigh, and landed on Daniel.

  The moment he saw her, he shifted. He pushed Claire’s hand away and stood up in one quick motion, as if he had simply been sitting alone the whole time. Claire’s face tightened. She stayed seated, arms crossing over her chest.

  Maya walked into the room without waiting for anyone to speak. She stopped a few feet from Daniel, reached into her pocket, and threw two things at his chest. The photograph fluttered against his shirt and dropped to the floor. The necklace hit him and slid down onto the carpet.

  Daniel looked down. His eyes widened the second he recognized both items. The easy expression he had worn a moment earlier disappeared.

  “Maya….I can explain.”

  His voice came out uneven. The friends had gone quiet. Claire stayed still on the couch, watching.

  Maya’s eyes were already wet. Tears ran down her face without her wiping them away.

  “I trusted you,” she said. Her voice was low but clear enough to cut through the music leaking in from outside. “I loved you for five years. I gave you everything I had, and this is what you paid me with. You sold my father’s necklace and lied to my face about it. And you’ve been cheating on me with her the whole time.”

  She did not get to finish the next sentence.

  Daniel’s hand came up fast. The slap landed hard across her cheek. The sound was sharp in the small room. Maya’s head turned with the force of it. For a second the only sound was the bass still thumping through the walls.

  Then Maya laughed.

  It was not a happy sound. It was short and rough, the kind of laugh that had nothing to do with humor.

  “That slap is for every year I spent suffering next to you,” she said. She touched her cheek once with the back of her hand and then dropped it. “This is the last time we stand in the same room like this. After today, it’s over.”

  Daniel stared at her. Confusion pulled at his face. He looked at the necklace on the floor, then back at her.

  “Maya, I know what you’re thinking about me and Claire. She’s just a friend. That’s all it’s ever been.”

  Maya laughed again, harder this time.

  “Friends don’t fuck each other, Daniel.”

  The words hung in the air. One of the men on the couch cleared his throat and looked away. Another suddenly became very interested in his phone.

  Claire stood up. Her expression had changed completely. The soft, playful look was gone. She stepped forward and slapped Maya across the other cheek. The second impact was just as sharp as the first.

  Daniel watched. He did not move. He did not speak.

  Claire’s voice was low and steady when she spoke.

  “Daniel is mine. He has always been mine. You were just the replacement he settled for when I left. Nothing more.”

  Still Daniel said nothing. He stood there between them, the photograph and the necklace at his feet, and kept his mouth shut.

  Maya’s eyes moved from Claire’s face to Daniel’s. The tears kept coming, but her expression had gone flat. She did not raise her hand. She did not shout. She simply turned around and walked out of the private room.

  The hallway outside was darker and louder. She kept walking without looking back. People moved past her toward the main floor. Someone laughed near the restrooms. The bass was stronger here. She pushed through the crowd, past the main bar, past the bouncers at the entrance, and out onto the sidewalk.

  The afternoon light felt too bright after the dim room. She stopped at the curb and stood there for a moment with her arms wrapped around herself. Tears still ran down her face. She did not wipe them away. Behind her the club door opened and closed as people came and went, but she did not turn to see if anyone had followed.

  She simply stood on the sidewalk and let the city move around her.