Secret Rulebook of Cheating

Rule #8: What She Doesn't Know Can't Hurt Her

“Sorry, Nikki.” Rob’s eyes shifted to me for a second but quickly returned to Jason. “Jason needs to be reminded every now and then that not every girl falls in the one-night-stand category.”

I stared at Jason puzzled. What was that supposed to mean?

“Speaking of one-night stands,” Jason muttered, his attention clearly elsewhere, “I may or may not be right back.”

He took another sip of his drink, left it on the table and set off with a determined pace.

“He’s joking, right?” I asked Rob when I saw him lean against another table, a few feet away, and start a conversation with a girl in a pink miniskirt and a too tight black top.

“Nope,” Rob uttered, taking a gulp from his beer, his eyes darting to Jason.

“So he didn’t just go there to ask that girl for the time or something?” There was a clenching in my stomach.

Rob looked back at me and chuckled. He lifted one hand in the air pointing to his wrist with the other. “I have a watch.”

I blinked a few times, blankly. Jason was still at that table with the girl in the pink miniskirt. He was saying something in the girl’s year and she giggled. The unwelcome realisation was slowly making its way through my brain activity. He was flirting! He didn’t need to know the time. Or a light or anything. He went there to hit on that girl! Some random chick! I could feel my insides shrinking. He preferred the company of her! Who didn’t even have an ounce of sense of style! What was that - ‘flash him’ night? Your boobs are supposed to stay under the top, girl! Ugh!

But hey, what did I have to complain about? I was Rob and Dan’s ‘friend’! One of the ‘guys’! Awesome.

The lump in my throat was no ice-cube from my cocktail.

I shook my head. All this shouldn’t matter. I wasn’t just Rob and Dan’s friend, I was also Brandon’s girlfriend. Jason could do whatever he wanted. I didn’t care.

I peeked at the other table where he was listening to something the girl was saying. ‘Ooh, I’m so dumb, blah-blah, blah-blah.’ I averted my eyes from there before I puked.

I turned to Rob as the question tickled my tongue. “So when did he and Dayan break up?” And how had I missed it? It was the fourth time I was seeing him without her. He was so eager to come here, where there were supposed to be half-naked girls. And he had even asked me to bring Chloe. I should have seen it.

“They didn’t. She’s out of town.”

“What?” I needed a moment to process that. “So he’s doing this behind her back?”

Rob shrugged. “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her, right?”

I looked at him baffled.

“Oh come, on, Nikki. You’ve seen how Jason is. He doesn’t exactly give the perfect boyfriend vibe out.”

A few flashes of moments with Jason rushed in my mind, like pieces fitting together - smug comments, teasing smiles, glances. Hanging with his ex at the bowling hall, a cash-slip tucked away in his back pocket. A party invitation. Maybe Chloe had been right. Maybe he really was flirting with her.

I let my eyes travel to the distant table where the subject of our conversation leaned closer to Pink Mini, flashing her one of his teasing smiles. He oozed confidence. His eyes never left hers and she was clearly happy with the attention. Could she shove her almost popping out of that top breasts in his face some more? Ugh! I could really throw up now.

“But he’s only flirting, right? I mean…”

Rob looked at me like I was a gullible child. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

I shook my head.

“Up until a month ago he dated another girl,” Rob added and my eyes moved back to him.

“You mean he and Dayan hadn’t been together that long?” Not that that was an excuse but I guess it made it a tiny bit more acceptable.

“No, I mean, while he was dating Dayan.”

Huh?

I looked at Pink Mini’s table again. Jason was playing with her hair, twirling it around his finger. It was like I was seeing him with new eyes. Not new – open eyes. That had always been there but not in my idea of Jason. In my idea, he was unattainable because he had a girlfriend.

“You look surprised.”

“I just. I didn’t figure Jason was the cheating type, that’s all.”

“You know, he has this theory,” Rob’s voice echoed. “About cheating.” I shifted my eyes to him. “Cheating is like casting. You need a lot of candidates to find the right person for the role of your soul mate. And you don’t stop at your first selection, because someone more suitable for the part might come along. But you’ll never know unless you give them a chance to audition.”

I stared at him without blinking for a moment. “You really believe that?”

“It makes perfect sense when you think about it.” Rob lifted his beer and took a sip directly from the bottle. “I know your naïve brain probably cannot process that, but not everyone shares your view on monogamy. Some people just live for the moment.”

Monogamy. Right. Maybe I was naïve - probably the last one on Earth. I did believe monogamy was the way to be in a relationship. But, Jeez! Why did Jason have to be so damn hot?