The Bright Moon No Longer Shines on the Windowsill

Every day on her way home from work, Ebony Simmons brought me an iced dessert from that shop on the East Side.

All because I once said I liked it.

She went ahead and signed up for a membership, three years' worth.

Tonight she was working late, and I happened to be passing by, so I figured I'd grab it myself.

I gave the membership name and the phone number, and the clerk smiled as he confirmed it. "You're Mr. Fox, right?"

I frowned. "I think there's some mistake?"

Neither my girlfriend nor I is named Fox.

But the clerk said, all confidence, "No mistake, Mr. Fox. Your wife is one of our biggest customers."

"Last time we ran a members' promotion, she signed up for three years in one go, just to get that turquoise watch you had your eye on."

The more I heard, the more my stomach dropped.

I have material tastes. My jewelry is gold or silver, nothing else.

There's one person I know who likes turquoise. A buddy of mine.

And he just happens to be named Fox.

"Mr. Fox, your iced dessert is ready. Come back anytime."

I carried the dessert out and walked back in a daze.

I told myself it was probably just a coincidence.

I do like that iced dessert. That much is true.

Maybe the turquoise watch was just a freebie that happened to come with it.

Ebony knew I didn't care for it, so maybe she'd passed it along to Christian. That was possible.

Thinking that way, I felt a little better.

It was still a while before dark, so I carried the dessert and figured I'd wander around nearby.

But I'd barely gone a stretch when I looked up and saw Ebony.

She was gently peeling a shrimp for the man across from her. "Here."

I rubbed my eyes, afraid I'd misread it.

But that familiar figure by the restaurant window, I'd know her anywhere, even reduced to ash.

Even the white dress and the leopard-print belt she had on.

I'd picked them out for her myself this morning, before she left.

Five minutes ago, she'd texted me saying she had to work late at the office, two more hours.

Told me to find something to eat out and not wait for her to come home and cook.

I turned to look at the man across from her, and it stopped me cold.

My buddy, Christian Fox.

Without a second thought, I pushed the door open and walked in.

Ebony looked startled to see me. She stood up. "Guy?"

"What are you doing here?"

I looked her in the eyes. "You said you were working late. Why are you here eating?"

Right in front of Christian.

Ebony threw herself into my arms without a hint of hesitation, a helpless look in her eyes.

"I knew you'd ask that."

She pulled out her phone and showed me the work group chat.

"Half an hour ago my boss gave me a last-minute assignment, entertaining a partner company."

"Christian's my client. Having dinner with him tonight is business."

As if worried I wouldn't believe her, Christian even took a contract out of his bag.

"Guy, no need to overthink it now, right?"

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have handed your wife this partnership so easily."

I stared at that contract, and above it Christian's smile was flawless.

I knew how sharp his professional skills were.

Back when he was dating and got tangled up with a two-timing girl, the real wife caught him and took him for the other man.

To get himself out of it, he printed up a contract in five minutes flat and passed the whole thing off as a business deal. Sailed right through.

The situation right now made it hard not to picture that scene.

"Guy, don't just stand there."

Christian pushed the contract into my hands. "Why don't you take a look? We really are talking business."

He winked at me as he said it, like he was completely innocent.

I didn't look. I pushed the contract back.

The dessert had half melted in my hand, beads of water forming on the outside of the bag, dripping cold onto my fingers.

"You two talk. I'll head back first."

As I turned, Ebony called out, "Let me walk you out."

"No need. Don't let me hold up your deal."

I walked out of that restaurant.

Ebony watched me shut the door, and she really didn't come after me. She just sat back down.

Something was off.

The more I thought about it, the more it didn't sit right.

Ebony had always been so careful about boundaries, never mind that it was my buddy Christian.

Even just meeting up with any other guy, she'd report it to me first.

If she really were having a work dinner with Christian, given that Ebony was the type to snap a photo and share it with me over a stray dog on the street.

How could she not have mentioned it to me?

I didn't go home. I turned around and went back.

Back to that iced dessert shop on the East Side.

"Hello"

Same smiling clerk as before.

"Mr. Fox, you're back? Was there something else you needed?"

I asked him, "Just now you said my wife signed up for three years at your shop how did you know Ebony was my wife?"

We were only boyfriend and girlfriend. We weren't even married.

The clerk blinked, then smiled.

"Of course. Redeeming that turquoise watch required showing a marriage certificate."

"If you don't believe me, look. We still have the photo from last time."

The clerk eagerly flipped open a photo album and found the picture from when Ebony redeemed the turquoise watch.

Then he looked at the man in it, glanced back at me, and his face went awkward.

"Sir, you're you're not the Mr. Fox in the photo?"

The people in the photo were Ebony and Christian, beaming at the camera.

I stared and stared at the marriage certificate they held up between them.

"My name is Guy Pruitt."

"Not Fox."

By the time I got home, the iced dessert had melted into nothing.

I had no appetite left, so I dropped it straight into the trash.

I opened Christian's social media and scrolled through mostly travel photos, nothing out of place.

Then something occurred to me, and I switched over to his secondary account and looked through it too.

Sure enough, I found a post of a turquoise watch.

It sat on his pale wrist, with a caption of just one word: Love it.

Among the people who liked it was Ebony.

And she was the first.

I stared at that like for a long time, and something cold settled in my chest.

Ebony never liked anyone's posts, least of all a man's.

Her page was like still water, nothing shared except work.

When I sent her a selfie, she wouldn't even send back an emoji, only telling me in person, "Looks good."

And yet she'd liked Christian's turquoise watch.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Ebony: "You home yet? I just finished up, want me to grab your favorite barbecue skewers?"

I forced down my irritation and replied, "No need."

Twenty minutes later, the lock clicked.

Ebony came in carrying a bag of skewers, still steaming.

"I knew you wouldn't have eaten."

She set the skewers on the coffee table and reached over to pat my shoulder. "What, you mad?"

I said nothing. She smiled and sighed.

"I knew my guy was getting all suspicious again."

She wrapped her arms around me from behind, her warm breath tickling my neck.

"It really was just business. Christian's company has a project, and they needed my side to work with them."

"He only picked me because of you, you know."

I turned to look at her. "Why would he pick me for my sake?"

Ebony paused.

"Aren't you two close?"

"Close." I repeated the word, and found it almost funny.

"Close enough that he can take my girlfriend out to dinner alone?"

"Haven't I already told you? It was a work thing."

A flicker of impatience crossed her eyes.

She leaned down, bringing her face close to mine. "Guy, what's gotten into you today?"

I looked up at her.

Clear eyes, long lashes, soft features.

Just as pretty as the year we met in college.

And also exactly, exactly like the photo on that marriage certificate in the shop's album.

My chest ached, and I hadn't figured out yet how to face tearing everything open.

"It's nothing." I stood up. "I'm going to shower."

The second the hot water came down, I closed my eyes.

My head was full of that turquoise watch.

The next day, I went to Christian's place.

In the past, whenever work wasn't busy for him, we'd make plans to catch a movie together on the weekend.

But when I thought about it, the last time we'd hung out was half a year ago.

Lately he was always saying he was busy.

And he'd gotten himself a mysterious girlfriend.

I'd hinted at it plenty of times. "When are you going to bring your girlfriend around so we can see her?"

He always said, "Plenty of chances later."

All that hiding and dodging probably came down to one truth.

That girlfriend was someone he couldn't bring out into the open in front of me.

When he saw it was me at the door, Christian looked a little surprised.

"Guy, what are you doing here?"

"What, you're such a workaholic now you don't even have time for your buddy?"

I smiled and slipped past him inside.

Christian blinked, then trailed after me, keeping up a scattered kind of small talk.

We'd known each other since college. Six years of it, close enough that we might as well have been brothers.

Which only made it harder to accept that he and Ebony were keeping something from me.

"It's the weekend, stop fussing over work. Let's go play some golf. Go clean yourself up."

Christian went off to shower, laughing, and I wandered around with nothing to do.

Until I reached his desk.

There I saw a beautiful turquoise watch.

The same turquoise watch the shop had shown me yesterday, the one you got free for buying three years of membership, identical down to the smallest detail.

I'd just picked it up.

Before I could get a good look, a hand suddenly snatched it away.

"Guy, what do you think you're doing?"

"Who said you could go touching my things?"

Christian's usually placid face suddenly showed a flicker of panic and tension.

It only made everything look more suspicious.

"It's just a watch. Why are you so wound up about it?"

"I'm not wound up about anything."

He tugged at the corner of his mouth, the smile forced and guilty.

"I just bought it. Haven't even broken it in yet. Don't want anyone else touching it."

"Is that right."

"Yeah."

He pulled the drawer open, shoved the watch inside, and slid it shut.

Fast, like he was afraid I'd get one more look.

"Come on, I'm already dressed. What are you dawdling for? Let's go catch the movie."

Christian practically pushed me out of the room, as if he couldn't stand my being in there another second.

I couldn't focus for a single minute of that movie.

Christian's mind was somewhere else too. Every so often his phone would light up and he'd type out a message.

"Chatting with your girlfriend?"

I started to lean over for a look, and he clapped a hand over the phone. "Stop that. Let a guy have some privacy."

He covered it fast, but I still saw it.

That woman's profile picture, the matching half of my couple's photo, was Ebony.

Back home, Ebony was in the shower.

Her phone, left on the coffee table, lit up.

A message popped onto the screen. The contact name read "Chris."

"Ebony, I think Guy's getting suspicious. Be careful for a while. We should stop meeting."

In that moment, my heart went completely cold.

For days after that, I still kept trying to get Christian to meet up.

"Where are you? Let's grab lunch."

"Ah... today's no good, I'm stuck at the office. Tons of stuff to do."

"Is that so?"

I glanced at the time on my screen. "Then I'll come to you. Your office isn't far from me anyway."

Two seconds of silence on the line.

"No, no, I'll be done soon. Another time!"

"Christian."

I said his full name, my voice going cold.

"Sneaking around with your buddy's girlfriend, does it feel exciting?"

Silence for a few seconds. Then came Christian's cold laugh, the sound of a man who'd stopped caring.

"Guy. Didn't think you'd actually catch on."

"What? You going to pull the same act those women do, the wronged partner busting the affair?"

Hearing him admit it, something in me turned to ice.

"Christian, we've known each other seven years."

"The year you got dumped, I climbed the fence at midnight to go drink with you, and the next day the RA hauled me in to write an apology."

"When you broke your leg in that fight, I skipped class to buy your meds and wait on you, and you cried and hugged me and said we'd be brothers for life."

"I always thought there was nothing we couldn't tell each other."

"But you knew Ebony and I had been together five years. You knew she was my girlfriend. So why did you have to go after her?"

"Christian, tell me, it's not like every other woman in the world dropped dead!"

The more I said, the more I fell apart.

"Why did you have to go after Ebony?"

We were supposed to get married next month. Everything was supposed to be moving in the right direction.

And like a soap bubble, Christian popped it with his own hands.

A long silence on the other end.

Then, finally, Christian spoke.

"Guy, you've got some serious rose-colored glasses on when it comes to Ebony, don't you?"

"You think I'm the only one who came onto her, and she's completely innocent?"

He sneered, and sent me a hotel address. Room 302.

"This hotel tonight. Come take a look."

"For old times' sake,"

"I'll let you see your good girlfriend's true face with your own eyes."

I waited through the day, uneasy the whole time.

I watched the sun sink inch by inch. Ebony's usual quitting time came and went, and she still wasn't home.

At eight, a message came in from her.

"Sweet Guy, working late again tonight, home late."

Right below it, a transfer of 1314.520.

"Buy yourself something to eat if you want, okay? Be good."

I clenched the phone, looked up, and watched with my own eyes as Ebony walked into that hotel.

I saw the lights come on. I tugged the brim of my cap down and followed her in.

Through the door of Room 302 came faint sounds, low and impossible to make out.

Until a delivery guy came and knocked.

"Hello, your adult toys order is here."

"Coming."

Ebony's voice. The handle turned, and I saw her come for the delivery in a camisole.

"Will that be enough?"

My sudden voice froze her.

She looked up, saw it was me, and the color drained from her face.

"Guy?! Why are you here?"

And I, in a single glance, saw the hickey on her neck.

Through the gap in the door, I saw Christian, bare from the waist up.

I swung my hand across her face.

"Ebony, is this how you treat me?"

"Guy, don't do anything crazy!"

Ebony grabbed desperately for my arm, but I was already inside, swinging my bag down at Christian.

"Christian, you piece of garbage!"

"You called me here just so I'd see this? You have no shame."

Christian sat there calmly, a cigarette between his fingers, smiling at me.

"Guy. How about it? Didn't disappoint you, did I?"

I lost my mind completely.

I lunged to hit him, and Ebony seized my wrist.

"Guy, can you please calm down?"

Three people at the same table, and for the first time the air was this heavy.

Ebony had put the shirt back on, the one covered in lipstick marks.

Christian had crushed out his cigarette too.

And I sat by the balcony in silence, my voice cold as I demanded an answer.

"Talk. When exactly did the two of you start?"

Ebony was quiet for a long time, then sighed.

"Guy, the truth is, Christian and I knew each other before you."

I froze. "What did you say?"

"You two only became buddies in college, but he and I knew each other back in high school." She lifted her head and looked at me. "He was my first love."

Something in my stomach churned violently.

Her eyes were the picture of sincerity.

"I never wanted to hide it from you. I just didn't know how to bring any of it up."

"He and I broke up, and then I met you in college."

"Guy, you were so wonderful, you made my heart race, and after we got together, you were the only person I loved."

A wave of nausea rose in me.

"And that stopped the two of you from sleeping together?"

Ebony didn't argue. She lowered her head in silence.

"I just never imagined fate could be this cruel. After everything, you turned out to be Christian's best friend."

"Christian and I broke up a long time ago. Every time our paths crossed after that, it was because of you."

Listening to her earnest lies, I let out a cold laugh.

"All because of me?"

"Going to the county clerk's office with Christian and registering a marriage, was that because of me too?"

"Ebony, how much longer do you plan to lie to me?"

Ebony's head jerked up, stunned.

"You already know?"

She spun toward Christian. "You told Guy?"

"It wasn't me." Christian sighed. "Ebony, I told you a long time ago. You can't keep a fire wrapped in paper."

I closed my eyes in despair. She'd admitted it herself.

Next month we were supposed to hold our wedding.

Both sets of parents had already met each other.

I thought getting married would go smoothly. I never imagined Ebony was already another man's wife.

I was the only outsider here. What was there left to face off over? I grabbed my bag and turned to leave the hotel.

But Ebony chased after me.

"Guy Pruitt, let me explain."

The panic on her was plain to see.

"Christian only came to me for help getting that license so he could deal with his family."

"And we already agreed. The moment things blow over on his end, we'll go straight to the county clerk's office and file for divorce. No one will ever know, no one will ever find out"

"Besides, it's just a piece of paper. You don't care about that either, do you?"

The nerve in her tone almost made me laugh.

I didn't care.

That was because our love didn't need a piece of paper to hold it together.

But that didn't mean she could go register a marriage with someone else.

"Fine, Ebony. So in your eyes registering a marriage is that simple. I guess I overcomplicated it."

If it was that simple.

Then me registering a marriage certificate with someone else, that wouldn't be a problem either, would it?

But hearing me say that, Ebony's tone finally softened.

She thought I'd come around.

"Guy, I knew you'd be reasonable. I knew you'd never take a little thing like this to heart."

"Don't worry, I've already booked the appointment to file for divorce with Christian."

"It absolutely won't get in the way of our wedding next month."

Seeing that I stayed silent, she added gently,

"I promise you, after tonight I will never have anything to do with Christian again. I swear it."

But a woman without a shred of honesty.

Her oaths were worth no more than a dog barking.

Once Ebony turned and left, I dialed someone's number.

"Free tomorrow? Come with me to register a marriage."

The next day, the moment my license was done, I announced it publicly on social media.

Plenty of mutual friends left comments and congratulations.

And a few calls made their way to Ebony.

"Ebony, look at you. Didn't you say the wedding wasn't till next month, the license not till year-end?"

"Locked down Pruitt, the campus heartthrob, already? Should we start calling you Mrs. Pruitt ahead of schedule?"

Ebony's grip tightened on her phone. "What license?"