I was thrilled when my best friend Roberto got a job with the same company as my long-term boyfriend. The two of them got on like a house on fire and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. Bobby, my boyfriend, was comfortable with Roberto’s sexuality and consequently never threatened by the closeness of my friendship with him.
When Bobby’s hours started getting longer and longer and he began coming home later and later, I confided my suspicions of an affair to Roberto. I was worried Bobby was cheating on me with his new, and decidedly attractive, colleague. Roberto was fantastic. He assured me he had his finger on the pulse with office gossip and that I had nothing to worry about — Bobby never even looked twice at the new girl on the block, he was just working harder than ever.
I still had my reservations. Call it women’s intuition, but something wasn’t quite right. If he wasn’t at the office, he was on the phone, if he wasn’t on the phone, he was on the computer. He was becoming distant and I couldn’t get through to him.
Bobby called one night to tell me he’d be working late and to go ahead and eat dinner without him. This was becoming an everyday thing, but he sounded exhausted and genuinely sorry. I felt guilty for suspecting he was doing anything else but working and decided to pack his dinner and take it to his office. In hindsight, perhaps it was instinct driving me to see for myself that everything was okay, that he wasn’t cheating on me. I called Roberto to see if he wanted to come with me — perhaps crowding into Bobby’s office and cracking open some wine was exactly what everyone needed — but he didn’t pick up.
When I got there, I was let upstairs by the doorman and found Bobby’s office easily enough. A small beam of slight shone beneath the partially drawn curtains. I moved to push open the door but a flurried movement caught my eye through a small gap in the material. I peered closer and had to stop myself from crying out at what I saw. Roberto and Bobby, together. My heart stopped. This couldn’t be happening — my boyfriend and my gay best friend? How could I have had no idea?
I decided not to walk in and confront them. I couldn’t face them in that position. Instead, humiliated and hurting, I went back home, threw Bobby’s dinner in the bin and started planning. I was burning with anger. I had been betrayed by the two people closest to me. My boyfriend was not who I thought he was and my best friend had exploited that. I had never felt so alone.
I lay in wait for the next opportunity and it came when Bobby called again, a few days later, to say he’d be home late. I told him I’d be in bed when he came home, put my coat on and went out to his office. This time, I simply walked to the window, looked through the gap and snapped a picture with my mobile phone. I went straight back home and hacked into his e-mail — it was easy, his password was always my name.
I clicked ‘Send to all’ in his contacts, attached the picture, titled the e-mail, “There is something you all should know”, took a deep breath and clicked ‘Send’.
He came home the next day with the news he had lost the promotion he’d been campaigning for. I tried to comfort him, but couldn’t bring myself to. Then he broke down and told me about Roberto. He blamed his PA for letting it leak to the company and to this day believes she sabotaged his career because he was immune to her advances. Bobby became depressed and quit his job, unable to deal with the workplace ramifications of his affair and his sexuality.
I moved interstate soon after it all happened. The memory of the pain he had caused me and the guilt of the pain I had caused him was too fresh. He will never know it was me who outed him to his entire office or cost him his promotion.
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