“What the hell did he do?” My little sister is tiny, five-foot-two at best, but she is feisty. She always looked out for me even though she’s two years younger.
“I’ve caught him numerous times screwing around with the nurses.” Tears fall freely now, and it feels good to finally be telling someone.
“Oh, babe, I had no idea.”
“I tried to keep it in, deal with it myself because I was stuck there. I had signed on for two years, and I couldn’t break the contract, plus, I loved being there. I loved helping. Thankfully, one of the other doctors had fallen in love, so we swapped. It was last minute, and I didn’t have time to tell you. I just wanted to leave. I didn’t want Rob to know anything about me leaving, so I had to go.”
Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a cheating partner is hell. The first time I busted him, I’d woken up because it was so hot that night I couldn’t sleep. I stumbled from my bed and out into the night, the light breeze cooling me ever so slightly. I heard some strange noises around the corner of my tent and went to investigate. That’s when I saw Rob screwing one of the nurses up against some boxes. She was this beautiful, sexy French nurse, who had been flirting with Rob ever since we had arrived, but I never thought for one minute he’d cheat on me.
The diamond ring on my finger I thought gave me security, but I was wrong.
This is when I should’ve made a scene, screamed and yelled at him, told him what a horrible asshole he was, but I didn’t. Instead, I turned around and made my way to the food tent to grab a bottle of water where I sat and cried by myself. Then I trudged back to my tent and went to sleep. Pathetic, really. I pretended the next day as if nothing had happened, not because I thought it was okay, but because I was stuck.
A couple of other times, late at night, I have stumbled upon him, and each time it chipped away at my soul. I never said a word, that good old English stiff upper lip coming in handy.
I simply waited for a chance to leave, and when it did, I took it.
I messed around on Rob once too. So, I guess I’m not so innocent, but it was after the fifth nurse when I just couldn’t take it any longer. This gorgeous Canadian peacekeeper came into the camp—he was my new escort around the villages. While we were out, a huge storm started to brew, and we were too far away to safely make it back to camp in time. We had to wait it out in a tiny hotel room in the city. After a couple of drinks, I told him about Rob. How I had caught him one too many times fooling around on me, and that I was waiting patiently until my tenure was over where I’d leave and never look back.
The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine, and we ended up in bed together. Not going to lie, it was amazing. It felt like a big ‘fuck you’ to Rob.
Once I got back to camp, I felt guilty even though I shouldn’t have because Rob was most definitely not feeling guilty about his hook-ups. It was the one and only time for me, I never did it again.
“You bastard,” Lauren screams down the phone, pulling me from my memories. “You fucking bastard. How could you cheat on her?”
I can hear Rob trying to defend himself from Lauren’s onslaught.
“Lolly… Lolly… stop! Lol…” I’m trying to catch her attention, but it’s as if she’s dropped the phone.
“Lil.” Alistair picks up the phone.
“She’s making a scene, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, and to be fair, Rob’s acting like a pussy, telling her he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. That he never cheated.” My eyes roll so hard—the damn coward. “But Lolly isn’t backing down. Oh, shit! I think security’s coming. Gotta go. Will call you if we don’t get arrested.” And with that, he hangs up the phone.
I stare up at the wooden ceiling of the cottage, hundreds of years’ worth of structure, and I laugh. I laugh and laugh until my stomach hurts. I can just imagine my little pocket rocket of a sister slapping and hitting Rob, where she can reach, that is, and him trying to protect himself from her.
I love my sister so much. The fact she has flown halfway across the world to surprise me means everything, but even more so that she’s defending my honor.
Moments later, my phone rings again.
“Lolly… are you okay?”
“Yeah, I am. But Rob isn’t.” She sniggers. “I kind of caused a scene, and, well… told everyone he works with he’s a cheating scumbag. That my sister’s way too good for him…” I let out a loud laugh. “At least now everyone knows. They were all sad to see you’d left, you’re very much loved here.”
I begin to tear up again. “I know… I miss them all so much as well,” I state, thinking about the amazing villagers who had become my family while I was there.
“Did you say earlier you were in my room?” Lauren asks.
“Yeah.”
“Shit. Um…”
“I’ve already met the person renting out the house. I kind of stumbled in on him naked.”
“Oh my God, did you have to bleach your eyes?” My sister giggles.
“The total opposite, I couldn’t stop staring. He’s hot!”
Lauren squeals down the phone. “This is fate, Lil. Fate.”
Lauren is the complete opposite of me. She believes in fate, and soul mates, and happiness. She’s a hairdresser and spends her days dressed in bright, colorful clothes with rainbow hair. She’s dating Alistair, a farmer here in Glencoe. They’ve been dating for a long while now, but he
