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“Let’s head outside,” said Alex. “We can’t chat here. I’m done for the day, but my boss is still about.”

She forced her arms into the sleeves of her coat and walked ahead of him, searching for a location that wasn’t too comfortable; the less time spent talking to him, the better.

The theatre’s glass doors slid open. The perfect venue stretched across the Thames in front of her. “Have you seen the view from Waterloo Bridge?”

Devin shook his head.

“Follow me.”

They climbed the nearby cement steps in silence, Alex leading the way with Devin in her shadow. She stomped along the bridge’s eastern sidewalk and stopped a third of the way across, the late afternoon’s darkness dotted by office lights, illuminated attractions and the occasional helicopter slicing through the sky.

“You’ve come all this way. Say your piece.” Alex fished a chewing gum packet out of her coat pocket. Her gaze swept across the eastern skyline, flitting from Somerset House and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Oxo Tower and the Shard.

“I see you’re still wearing the necklace I gave you…”

Alex exhaled heavily and yanked her coat closed. She shoved a stick of gum in her mouth, her eyes still avoiding him.

“I made a huge mistake,” said Devin.

A procession of four double-decker buses rumbled past, kicking up a blast of wind filled with crisp leaves across the pavement.

Alex brushed her wayward bangs out of her eyes, staring down at the muddy Thames, churning like chocolate milk in a blender. She snapped her gum and began to rip its packaging into shreds.

“I’ve felt sick about everything that happened. I’m not that person. I don’t lie. I’ve felt like a fraud ever since,” said Devin.

Alex tossed tiny pieces of gum wrapper one by one into the river. “Well, our relationship certainly was a fraud.”

Devin shook his head. “Not in the beginning, it wasn’t. Not for two years.”

“And now you’re with Taylor…so, all is right in the world.” Alex chucked the last tatters of paper down to their watery grave.

“No, we broke up.”

Alex snorted and raised her voice. “Fantastic. What do you want? Sympathy? I don’t give a shit about either of you, okay? I’m only standing here to get some closure. You two tore my life to shreds. The two people I trusted more than anyone. What don’t you get?”

Devin did a double take at the passing office workers glaring at them. He kept his volume low. “Alex, I get it. That’s why I’m here. I treated you terribly. I’m so sorry.”

“So you come here to apologize now? It must be nice to clear your conscience and move on. But I’m still dealing with being left and lied to. It’s too little, too late.”

“Maybe. But I owe you an honest explanation at least. I never gave you one.”

Alex turned away and leaned on top of the white painted railing, gnashing her gum at a fast clip.

“…It wasn’t planned. That’s the truth. I know that sounds like a total cop-out, but I never set out to cheat on you. Taylor and I, we were both home in Louisville that summer. We hung out a lot. She was in a bad place. Remember how upset she was about her parents’ divorce?”

Alex rolled her eyes skyward. “You’re preaching to the converted.”

“I tried to distract her—took her to movies, concerts. One night we had too many tequila shots. She was really upset. One thing led to another. We kissed. I swore it wouldn’t happen again, but it did.”

“I don’t need to hear all about your grand seduction. Just tell me. When did you sleep together?”

“Is the when that important?”

“Devin!”

“…That first night.”

Alex threw her arms into the air, just missing a fast walking businessman on his smartphone. “You’re disgusting. You couldn’t get into her pants quick enough.”