⚠️ Trigger Warning: Infidelity.
Recap: Elizabeth admits that she told her boyfriend Liam about her relationship with Mason.
“I wish you hadn’t told him,” Mason said, and he did. He really did, because Liam was going to talk, and it was only a matter of time until Theresa heard about it and all hell broke loose.
“I didn’t mean to,” Lizzie said, and then she hiccupped because she was still crying a little. “I was just so mad.”
“What did you say exactly?”
She took a big shaky breath. “I said, ‘Mason might have a girlfriend, but he would never talk to me like you do.’”
It was true, as far as it went, but it was a low bar, too. So low you barely had to lift your foot to step over it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, for the second time, or maybe the third.
He kissed her on the top of the head. “It’s okay. It’s done now.”
And it was, and it wasn’t her fault. It was his.
He’d known Lizzie had a crush on him going all the way back, but he’d never taken it seriously. And when other guys started asking her out, it seemed like she’d gotten over it.
She was with Liam, and he was with Theresa when they’d started hanging out, treating it like a friendship in the beginning—a secret friendship, though, because they both knew where it was going.
Or maybe that was wrong. Maybe it was only him.
It just didn’t seem that way at first because Lizzie had been all in right from the beginning. There had been no seduction. No promises. No manipulation.
But that didn’t mean she’d understood where it was going.
For all he knew, she had expected him to break up with Theresa and be with her instead. But he hadn’t. And now it was too late.
Now Theresa was pregnant, and it wasn’t just about being Catholic. It was about promises he never should have made. He didn’t know if they’d get married, but he couldn’t just walk away.
Lizzie would keep on seeing him if he asked her, but she would not hold up. And he had hurt her enough.
He should have seen it coming and the truth was he probably would have if he hadn’t been so focused on himself.
He should have ended last Christmas when she’d slipped the cute homemade card into the pile on the kitchen island, and Theresa had found it.
Lizzie hadn’t signed her name, but she’d written his out in sparkle glue, so it was pretty obvious a girl had sent it. Mason had known it was her, but he’d told Theresa he had no idea where it came from—and stuck to it.
He’d felt bad about lying, but it hadn’t stopped him. It had felt like nothing could stop it then. But now someone had.
And he was pretty sure she knew it.
Her face was red and wet from crying, and her silky brown hair was stuck to the side of her face. “Are you mad?” she asked, and the tremor made his chest hurt in a way he did not want to acknowledge.
Mason pulled the damp hair away from her cheek and wiped her face gently with the edge of the blanket. “No.”
How could he be?
Nobody would blame him the way they would her. Even though she had just turned eighteen and he was already twenty.
There would be blowback, of course. His mom would get mad, and so would Jordan, but they would forgive him—and if he put the effort in with Theresa, there was a good chance she’d forgive him too.
His life would go on as planned.
But Lizzie wouldn’t be a part of it.
This short story is the inspiration for my upcoming second-chance neurodivergent romance Madison Revisited. Please sign up for my newsletter to get publishing updates and related content.
© 2026 Barbara Graver. All rights reserved. This is an original creative work. Do not reproduce or redistribute without the written permission of the author.
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