We Share the Same Boyfriend

My Maybach was rear-ended by a little electric scooter. The girl who hit me was sprawled on the pavement, groceries scattered around her like fallen leaves. She started to cry, her voice small and shaky. “Wait, please… I’ll call my boyfriend. He’ll pay for everything…” On the other end of the line, a man’s voice erupted in anger, but underneath the fury was a current of undeniable concern. “When you dumped me, did you ever think you’d need me again?” “What about the engagement ring I bought you? It’s worth ten of these cars. Use that to pay for it.” “Julianna! Grow a spine! I don’t care who you’re dealing with, I’m here to back you up! Send me the address!” Less than ten minutes later, Ethan, who was supposed to be in a board meeting, screeched to a halt at the scene. Our eyes met. “Well, this is a coincidence,” I said, my voice dry. Then I turned my gaze to the girl, who seemed to have found a backbone now that her savior had arrived. “It seems we share a boyfriend.”

1 “I’m so sorry, I was just so scared…” the girl, Julianna, sobbed. “I just… I told them you were my boyfriend…” For a moment, Ethan was stunned. He clearly never imagined our first meeting with his ex-love would happen like this. I stood to the side, arms crossed, my eyes fixed on the ring on Julianna’s finger. A pink diamond, flashing with an inner fire. It was, without a doubt, far more expensive than the one on my own hand. “Are you okay? Did it hit you?” Ethan pulled me close, his hands running up and down my arms, checking for injuries. “From now on, I’m taking you to your appointments.” Julianna’s tears stopped. She stared, dumbfounded, at my gently rounded stomach. “You can go,” I said to her. When she first hit me, I’d told her my car was insured and that I wouldn’t press charges. But she’d insisted on making a scene, crying and calling for help. It was obvious now that it was all just an excuse to contact Ethan. “Get your rotten fish off the road! And Julianna,” Ethan’s voice was like ice, “don’t you ever use an excuse like this to call me again. I want nothing to do with you.” His words were brutal. But as we drove away, I saw him watching her in the rearview mirror. “The fish is dead,” I said quietly. “Careful your employees don’t get food poisoning.” The delivery slip that had fallen from the cooler had his company’s name right at the top. Ethan was a man of high standards; the food in his corporate cafeteria was exclusively organic. The sight of those cheap-looking fish could only mean one thing: a small act of mercy, a lifeline thrown to the woman he claimed to hate most in the world. The snow began to fall harder, blanketing the city in white. Ethan drove with one hand on the wheel, his mind clearly elsewhere. His phone rang. A number he didn’t recognize. He glanced at it, and then his foot slammed on the brake. The seatbelt dug sharply into my belly. A cold sweat broke out on my skin. “Ethan,” Julianna’s voice came through the speaker, a choked whisper. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to bother you… but my leg… I can’t move it…” Her voice trembled. “There are so many cars… I’m so scared…” Ethan looked at me, the panic on his face impossible to hide. “Phoebe, get out. I’ll have my driver pick you up.”

2 I had rarely seen Ethan look like this. Not even when he was closing a fifty-million-dollar deal. He was so frantic he kicked me out of the car. So frantic he sped away, the tires skidding on the snow-slicked road. So frantic that in the dead of winter, he forgot to give me the coat I’d left on the backseat. He was just gone. Leaving me to shiver in the biting wind. The ache in my stomach hadn’t faded, and as the wind sliced through me, cold sweat mingled with my tears. The combination of the freezing cold and the violent swing of my emotions triggered the first warning signs of a miscarriage. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning, long after I’d taken the medication the doctor prescribed, that Ethan finally came home, bringing the chill of the night in with him. His face was etched with exhaustion. “Julianna tried to jump off a bridge.” I froze. “She fell into the river. She wasn’t seriously hurt, but she was terrified.” He came over and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m sorry I made you get out of the car today… Julianna’s been having these… episodes. I was afraid she’d actually kill herself.” I didn’t know what to say. I knew Ethan had a great, tragic love story in his past. A woman who had been with him from the beginning, who had helped him build his empire from nothing, only to abandon him when it all came crashing down. He had been lost for years after she left. Then I came along. I was the one who helped him see the world again. I followed him from city to city as he rebuilt his life, piece by piece. I was the one who soothed the scars she’d left on his heart. “Are you really over her?” I asked. I was asking him, but I was also asking myself. Was he? Was everything I had done worth it? Could we really move forward from this? “You’re not,” I answered for him. The tears I’d been holding back finally fell. “Ethan, let’s break up.”

3 “Are you crazy?” Ethan stared at me, his expression a mixture of shock and disbelief. “You want to break up with me over this? Over one stupid little thing?” “I’ve always told you I can’t handle being cheated on,” I said, my voice quiet but firm. “I made an exception for you. I let you keep Julianna tucked away in a corner of your heart because it was you.” “Ethan, I’m pregnant. We’re supposed to get married next month. And today, you left me stranded in a snowstorm for her.” “I can’t accept that.” I would rather cut my losses now than keep investing in a sunken cost. The pain was inevitable, but I refused to be a martyr in the name of love. Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. “…Don’t be ridiculous.” “I’m not.” I stood up and opened the closet, pulling out a suitcase. “I’ll be gone by tomorrow.” “As for the baby… I’ll have to think about whether I’m keeping it.” He blocked my path. “Haven’t you had enough?!” he roared. “Why do you hate her so much? Will you only be happy when she’s dead?!” His fingers dug into my arm, the pressure sharp and painful. His eyes blazed with a fury that was terrifyingly familiar. For a split second, I was a child again, facing my violent father. Fear coiled in my stomach, and I tried to pull away. He shoved me, hard. I stumbled back and fell onto the bed. I was too stunned to move, tears streaming down my face, soaking the pillow. The sight of my terror seemed to snap Ethan out of his rage. “I’m sorry… Phoebe, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be rough with you…” He reached for me, his voice trembling. “I just… I lost control.” We had been together for six years. He knew my past, he knew the pain I’d been through. In all those years, he had never once raised his voice to me. But for Julianna, he had fought with me ten times in the last month alone. And twice, he had put his hands on me. The first time was when I confronted him with the photo album of her he kept hidden away. The second time was now. “I’m not a fool, Ethan.” The strange perfume on his collar, the bite mark on his neck… and still he insisted there was nothing between them. “Can you honestly look me in the eye and say you’ve done nothing wrong?” He pressed his lips together, silent. That night, for the first time, we slept in separate rooms. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I opened my phone and, on a whim, found Julianna’s livestream. It was two in the morning, and she was still online, trying to sell seafood. To my surprise, tens of thousands of people were watching. Not for the fish, but for the user at the top of the gift leaderboard, who was showering her with virtual presents. A username I knew all too well. His messages popped up in the chat, one after another. [Log off. Go to sleep.] [You know you can’t stay up late with your migraines, Julianna. I’m not coming to take care of you if you have an attack.] [Unblock me. Send me your account number. I’ll send you a lump sum, and we’ll be done. Stop playing the victim.] The gifts kept coming, a relentless stream of digital money. Ethan was always generous, even with the woman he claimed to hate, he was willing to drop thousands. Julianna’s voice cracked as she tried to describe her products. She wiped away a tear. “Don’t you dare taint my love with your money.” [Your love?] Ethan typed back. [Julianna, I gave up my dignity, my money, my entire future for you. I begged you on my knees, I tried to kill myself. To forget you, I even accepted the affections of someone else, just to try and wash you out of my system. You’re the one who dragged me to hell. You’re the one who destroyed us!] I stared at the words someone else. A tear splattered onto the screen. My heart felt like it had been struck with a sledgehammer. My hands and feet went numb. The chat exploded. Everyone was shipping them, begging them to get back together. Julianna bit her lip. “Ethan,” she whispered to the camera, “what if I told you I would do anything, pay any price, to go back to the way we were?” “Would you take me back?”

4 I never thought that in the story of Ethan’s life, I would be cast in the role of someone else. Because of my family, I never had much of an education. I was timid, shy. Falling in love with Ethan was the bravest thing I had ever done. I was a girl who had never even left her own city, and yet I followed him across the country. “Have some cake.” In our damp, cramped little apartment, Ethan traded the wool felt in my hands for a slice of cake. The one I’d been staring at in a bakery window. “Don’t do this anymore,” he said, gently taking my hands. “Look at your fingers, they’re all pricked and raw. You don’t need to support us. I have money. I can give you a good life.” I knew he was working multiple jobs behind my back, running himself into the ground. His hands were covered in calluses. So I had started taking on small crafting commissions online, trying to make a little extra money to ease his burden. “I still have the old family house,” he said one day. “If things get really bad, I can sell it.” “No!” I grabbed his arm. “You can’t! That was the last thing your mother left you!” A few months later, I was hospitalized with a serious illness. While I was in my hospital bed, Ethan sold the house. After paying the medical bills, he showed up with several bags from a department store. He brought me new clothes. Warm, comfortable down jackets. He himself was wearing a coat so old the cotton filling was starting to clump. “Where did you get the money?” I asked. “I earned it,” he mumbled, avoiding my eyes. It took a lot of prodding before he finally admitted the truth. “You idiot!” I cried, a mixture of anger and overwhelming love. “We agreed you wouldn’t sell it!” “But you’re more important to me.” He pulled me into a hug, his voice muffled against my neck. “The house is just bricks and mortar. You’re real. I couldn’t stand to see you in pain while I held onto a pile of bricks.” I sobbed, pounding my fists against his shoulder. “But it was your mother’s…” “If my mom were here,” he said, gently wiping my tears, “she would have told me to do the same thing. She always said that the person who truly loves you is more precious than anything else in the world.” That night, I decided I would spend the rest of my life loving Ethan. I even hand-wrote him a little card, a silly, homemade “one free pass” for any mistake he might ever make. After that, his business took off. I was the one who went to his networking events, drinking until my stomach bled, forcing myself to transform from a timid girl into a woman who could hold her own. We endured so much hardship back then. So much that now, even the sweet memories are tinged with a bitter aftertaste. He called me someone else. An insignificant person. I wanted to rip his chest open and see what was inside. Was it flesh and blood, or a block of ice that would never melt?

5 As I was dragging my suitcase to the door, Ethan blocked my way. He was holding the little card I had made for him all those years ago. “Give me one more chance,” he said. “I promise, nothing like this will ever happen again.” I stared at the worn piece of paper. After a long moment, I let go of the suitcase. I don’t go back on my word. But that didn’t mean I had forgiven him. “There’s my girl,” he said, pushing the suitcase aside. “I’ll make you breakfast. What do you want? I’m taking the day off. We can go shopping, get that bag you wanted.” I didn’t answer. My eyes were on his phone, which he had placed on the counter. It was on silent, but the screen was flashing relentlessly. Julianna. “Aren’t you going to get that?” I asked. “No.” He shook his head. “I’m never answering her calls again.” If he was truly done, he wouldn’t have just silenced it. He would have deleted and blocked her number. I didn’t call him on his lie. I was too tired to argue. I just turned and went back to my room. A message popped up on my phone. [Phoebe, I’m back in the country! Come to my welcome-back party?] It was from my best friend, Sophie. [Okay.] I needed a change of scenery. That evening, while Ethan was busy in the kitchen, I slipped on my shoes and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” he asked, his voice tight with anxiety. “Dinner,” I said vaguely. “You want to come?” “I… I have something to do. I can’t.” “Okay.”

6 Knowing I was pregnant, Sophie had swapped out all the wine for milk. A few of our friends were gathered around the table. “Hey, I heard Julianna is working here part-time. Should we go take a look?” one of them whispered. “Are you crazy? I wouldn’t dare. I glanced at her once, and Ethan looked like he was about to gouge my eyes out.” “He was so devoted. They even have matching tattoos on their lower backs. A pair of birds, from a design Julianna made.” My hand trembled, and milk sloshed onto my pants. Matching tattoos… Ethan had told me the two birds were a symbol of freedom. I thought it was a beautiful idea, so I got one tattooed on my arm as well. I still remember the look in his eyes when he saw it. Surprised, and something else I couldn’t decipher. “You should get it removed,” he had said. “It doesn’t suit you.” “No way! If you have one, I want one too. So we can be a pair!” What a joke. I wanted to laugh, but all I wanted to do was cry. The tattoo on my arm suddenly felt like it was on fire, burning all my foolish assumptions to ash. When I came back to myself, tears were streaming down my face. I was grateful for the dim lighting in the private room, which hid my shame and confusion. Suddenly, a loud crash came from the room next door, followed by a girl’s panicked cries. The voice was familiar. It sounded like Julianna. We all rushed over. The moment we pushed open the door, we saw a man standing on the coffee table, blood trickling down his forehead, reeking of alcohol. “I asked you to pour me a drink, not smash the bottle over my fucking head!” he roared. “This isn’t over!”

7 Julianna stood her ground, her chin held high, the picture of defiance. “My only job is to deliver the drinks!” The man was livid. “Either you pay for my medical bills, or I’m calling the cops!” Julianna’s lip trembled, but she forced back her tears. Her red-rimmed eyes swept over our group. “Don’t arrest me…” Her voice grew louder, addressing everyone. “If you want to laugh at me, go ahead. I’m just a waitress, but I’m no less than any of you. Don’t push me too far.” She made it sound like we were the ones ganging up on her. The man jumped off the table and grabbed her by the collar. “Then pay up.” “I don’t have any money.” “Then drink every bottle in this room, and I’ll let you go.” The man’s eyes landed on the ring on her hand. “That pink diamond looks expensive. Maybe you can pay with that…” “No!” Julianna finally broke down, sobbing. “It’s the only thing I have left of him!” “I’ll drink!” She knelt by the table, grabbed a bottle, and started chugging, coughing and choking on the alcohol but refusing to stop. I couldn’t watch anymore. “How much does she owe you? I’ll pay.” “Get lost!” Julianna screamed, her composure shattering. She swung her arm and slapped me across the face, hard. “This is all your fault! You’re the one who stole my Ethan from me!” she shrieked. “You’re the reason he won’t forgive me! Can you live with yourself? Don’t you have nightmares?!” “And now you’re trying to insult me with your money! I don’t want your pity!” My ears were ringing. The room spun, and through the haze, I saw the door fly open. Ethan rushed in, brushing past me without a glance. He pulled the weeping girl into his arms. “Julianna, don’t be a coward! Fight back!” he commanded, his voice fierce. “I told you, I will always be your shield!” My legs gave out. I leaned against the wall for support as a sharp pain shot through my abdomen. “Phoebe!” Ethan’s head snapped toward me, his eyes blazing.