SHE CAME HOME WITHOUT HER PANTIES

Can a night ride really make someone's panties disappear? My girlfriend came home from a night ride without her panties. I was dumbfounded. The wind couldn't have blown them off.

Could it? Chapter 1 My girlfriend got back from her night ride with a flush in her face that wasn't normal.

She leaned the bike against the entryway wall, picked up her pajamas without a word, and went into the bathroom.

Normally when she showered she'd call out for me to throw the clothes she'd taken off into the washer. Tonight she didn't say a thing. Something was off. Way off.

With the water running in there, I started digging through the laundry basket, and I turned up something that stopped me cold: where the hell were her panties?

I made myself wait until she was done, then went into the bathroom on the excuse of looking for something. Still no panties.

In that second, every bit of blood in my body went straight to my head. Three months ago she'd suddenly gotten into cycling.

I was busy with work and didn't have much time for her, and she was always complaining that there was nothing to do on her own.

So when a friend invited her into the local nightride club, the timing was perfect. Exercise had to be better than staying in and scrolling on her phone half the night.

Of course I was all for it. A fourthousanddollar road bike, all the gear that went with it — whatever she wanted, I paid for it without a word.

For three months she went out with the riders every night, keyed up about it, and came home later and later.

A buddy of mine heard about it and put it to me as gently as he knew how: the riding scene gets messy, keep an eye on things. But I trusted her a hundred percent.

What he said didn't stick at all. And now… I stood there in the bathroom with my head a complete mess. She was already in bed on her phone.

I went over and put my arms around her, trying to decide whether to just come out and ask. Instead she flipped the phone face down and shoved me off. "Can you not touch me?

I rode all night. I'm wrecked." I was testing her, so I didn't let up. She blew up. "Brandon. Don't push your luck.

I don't want to do that with you tonight." She rolled over, and I swallowed what I'd been about to say. Was it that she didn't want to do it?

Or that she didn't want to do it with me? I tossed and turned all night and never slept. That club she'd joined posted the night's route in the group chat every morning.

I watched it for days. No matter where the route ended, the group met at the riverfront greenway trailhead before heading out of town.

There was a water station there, a public restroom, and a lot where people parked and unloaded bikes. Anybody picking someone up or joining partway through went there.

Friday I left work early and parked across from the trailhead, in the shade of the trees. The pinned post said eight o'clock. I was there forty minutes ahead. I waited. And waited.

A little over half an hour later, she finally showed up. She was on the road bike I'd bought her, in a kit that showed every curve, her long hair down over her shoulders.

She was a beautiful woman to begin with. In a crowd of men on bikes she stood out. I watched every man who came over to talk to her. Every one of them looked suspicious to me.

About ten minutes later a tall rider came in. Everybody seemed to have been waiting on him. They all called out to him, friendly as could be.

The guy said something, and one by one they clipped in and rolled out. He and my girlfriend were the only two left, hanging back. That was when I noticed his bike. Damn.

Handbuilt Italian carbon frame. I knew that build — eighteen grand wouldn't cover it, and you could add up every other bike in that lot and probably still not match it.

So he had money, too. Chapter 2 I was still deciding whether to follow her in the car once she rode off. That was when the thing happened that put me through the roof.

The guy checked that nobody was around, yanked the zipper of her jersey down, and shoved his hand inside, kneading her hard. She didn't pull away. She leaned closer.

It hit me like a bolt out of the blue. My eyes were burning, and it took everything I had not to get out of the car and go at him right there.

The two of them stayed like that a good while before they finally pulled apart, and neither of them wanted to. My girlfriend was cheating. It was right there in front of me.

I had no choice but to believe it. Whatever part of me had spent the last day looking for an excuse for her — it was gone in an instant. She came home late again that night.

Humming. In a good mood.

I kept my eyes on the TV while the same questions went around and around in me: when had it started with that man, how many times had they slept together behind my back, was it always outdoors, what positions, did they use anything… The more I thought, the crazier I got. "What's wrong with you?

You're just staring." Her voice snapped me out of it. I made myself smile. "Nothing. Something at work. Oh — you said your tablet keeps freezing, right? I got you a new one.

I already put all the apps you use on it." I handed it to her. Her face lit up. "Thank you, honey! You're so good to me!" Where she couldn't see, I let the smile drop.

Fat lot of good it did me. You're out there cheating on me anyway.

The next day at the office I opened the monitoring app on my phone, and there it was, synced over from the tablet: her thread with that man. [You tore my panties to shreds… does your wife ever satisfy you at all?] [That driedup hag can't touch you.

And come on, you like it better outside too, don't you? I found another good spot the other day. Let's go try it next week.] [Stop it~ I don't want to.] [Really, no?

Then who's begging me to go harder every single time?] [You're so mean to me!] The whole thread was filth.

By my rough count, they'd done it in all kinds of places: the levee road along the river, under the overpass, the grass in the park… And once, after a late group dinner, in the packed, noisy alley beside the restaurant.

My arms and legs went numb, like I'd been dropped into ice water. Two years and change with her, and the whole time she'd been the sweet, innocent one in front of me.

She'd blush if I told a dirty joke. I suggested fooling around in the shower once and got a solid week of her telling me my head was full of filth. And what was the truth?

She was this wild with somebody else. I made myself sick reading, but I read the thread to the end. Turned out the guy was the one who ran the nightride club. He knew I existed.

And he ran me down in front of her every chance he got. [A knockout like you, and you end up with a programmer?

Talk about a rose stuck in a cow patty.] [Boring brokeass nobody like that — bet he only knows one position in bed.] [Just dump him already.

Stay with him and you'll be miserable down the road.] [I'm twentynine. My parents are on me about getting married every single day. I dump him and then what, you marry me?

You get divorced and I'll break up with him.] [Baby, cut me a little slack here. I'll dump that driedup hag sooner or later.] A piece of garbage like that.

If I didn't pay him back for this, and pay him back hard, it was going to eat me alive. Lucky for me, his number was sitting right at the top of the thread.

Chapter 3 With that number it took me ten minutes to pull up his Facebook, his Instagram, his TikTok. Todd Draper. Fortytwo. A few bike shops in his name. Some money.

Married ten years, a son and a daughter, the good husband and good father everybody in his life bragged about. Bullshit. A turd with a shine on it.

I had to strip this hypocrite down to what he actually was. I got home that night and found my girlfriend there, which I hadn't expected.

She was on the couch with her arms crossed, sourfaced. She saw me and started in, snide about it. "You don't care about me at all anymore, do you?

Not one bit." I had no idea what she was talking about. What was she losing it over now? I'd been sitting on a bellyful of my own anger for days with nowhere to put it.

I frowned and said nothing, and she laid into me. "My friend Kayla — her boyfriend proposed to her today. You know how much he handed her parents? Eighty thousand dollars!

And he bought her a car!" "And me? What have I gotten out of being with you? Sixty thousand and your family has to think about it! You don't love me.

I never should have agreed to be with you." I didn't know where to start being angry.

The month before, our two families had sat down to talk about the wedding, and hers opened with sixty thousand dollars — a bigger number than anybody I know has ever been asked for.

I'd worked a few years and put some away, so if it came to it, I could have paid it. But her parents said flat out that not a dollar of it was coming back.

It was going to prop up her younger brother. And they weren't putting a cent into the wedding either. My parents said no, and the whole thing had been sitting there ever since.

I said it cold. "So what is it you want?" "Sixty thousand for my parents. Not a dollar less. Or we break up right now." Something behind my eyes went cold.

Two years of doing every last thing for her, giving her everything I had, and none of it could stand up against reality. And she'd been cheating on top of it.

Where did she get the nerve to open her mouth that wide? The old me would have started smoothing it over that second. Now? She could go to hell.

When I didn't move, she got angrier. "Not talking? Fine. I'm leaving right now. Don't come crying about it later." She slammed out the door. Inside, I was sneering.

If she really wanted to break up, wouldn't she have packed something? She was waiting for me to do what I always did. Come crawling and beg her to forgive me.

She was texting Todd Draper the second she was out the door. [Where are you? I want to see you.] [It's my wife's birthday today.

I can't get out.] [Who matters more, your wife or me? I don't care. I want to see you.] [Sweetheart, don't start.

My fatherinlaw, my motherinlaw, my brotherinlaw, they're all here. I really can't get away.

Another day, and I'll take good care of you.] Watching the two of them go back and forth, I felt a plan for revenge slowly taking shape in me.

The next day I took the day off and was outside her office early, waiting.

She came out with a few coworkers, froze for a second when she saw me, then put on a face that said stay away from me. "What are you doing here?" I took her bag, and pitched my voice loud enough for the people beside her to hear. "Picking you up to go look at places." "Look at places?" The women she worked with pounced on it. "Ooh — is that the place you two are going to live in after the wedding?" I smiled. "No.

It's going in Jocey's name, hers alone. A gift from me, before we're married." There was a wave of noise, and every one of them turned to look at her, envious.

She just stood there, blank. Chapter 4 The giant surprise dropping out of the sky had obviously knocked her sideways.

We went through the model units at several new developments that day. She was beaming the whole time, chasing the sales agents around with questions.

On the drive back she was still weighing one against another. "Honey, what about that one?

Three bedrooms, two baths, windows at both ends, bright all day long." "Although that other one wasn't bad either.

Everything's right there, and the location's easy." "Oh, and — that one's a big developer, and it's completely finished when you move in.

You buy it and you don't have to deal with a thing!" I floated it on purpose. "Should we hear what your parents think?" Her head came up right away, impatient. "What do they have to do with it?" "It's a big thing to buy, that's all.

They've been through it. I figured we'd hear them out—" "No. If we tell them, it's after the place is bought. And I mean it, not one word before then." I let it go.

Her parents favored her brother. Anything worth money in that house went to the son first.

They were worrying over a place for him right then, and the sixty thousand they wanted from me was his down payment.

She was obviously afraid that once they knew, they'd come after this place too.

That night, after days of ice from her, she was the one hanging on me, and we went at it more than once.

For days after that she floated around on the joy of getting a home for free. The second she was off work she was digging through listings, and the night rides didn't get a thought.

That dog Todd Draper came looking for her on her phone a few times. [Baby, why haven't you been coming out? You mad at me?] [Hmph. Don't you have your wife to keep company?

What do you want with me.] [I've been buried at the shops. I'm serious.] [Sure you have.] [All right, all right. Tonight, our usual spot. I've been dying for you the last few days.

I dream about you and me…] [You're shameless.] It was time. Time for the next part of it.

I told her we had a new project going live and I'd be getting home after midnight every night. She didn't question it. She took the opening and went straight back to her old flame.

They'd gone a stretch without seeing each other, and they went up like a match in dry grass.

They couldn't even wait — they did it in the trailhead restroom the moment nobody was around. I honestly don't get it.

With me, she wouldn't let anything happen unless I'd been in the shower a solid half hour. So why was she throwing herself at some other man out there?

I kept out of sight outside the door and sent Todd Draper's wife a few texts. [Hey, driedup hag.

Any idea how much you turn a man's stomach?] [Your husband is lying right here next to me.

He says my waist is smaller than yours, my chest is bigger than yours, my skin is better than yours, and I'm the only one he actually feels anything with~] [The one nobody loves is the outsider here.

If you've got any dignity left, walk away from Todd on your own.] Sorry, ma'am. I didn't mean any of it. I just wanted you to find out sooner that the man in your bed is garbage.

The calls came in a barrage right after. I didn't pick up, obviously