Gotcha.

My mouth went dry.  I could feel my heartbeat in my throat and struggled to make sense of what I was reading.  I knew immediately that it hadn't been Michael.
Rob's name was there, clear as day.  Michael didn't even know Rob's name and would have no possible reason to block him on my Facebook account.  I felt sick to my stomach, knowing that Eric would be the only person to have a reason to do this.  How could someone I trusted and thought so highly of do something to violate my privacy like this?

My mind raced, struggling to figure out how he could have accessed my email account.  It was obvious based on my account login history that he'd had access for some time, now.  Why he waited to get into my Facebook account was unclear to me.  I took deep, calming breaths.  In, out.  Focus.  Think.  It dawned on me, then.  A few weeks back, I'd logged in to my email account at his house to confirm our movie ticket purchase.  That had been well before he'd shown unease towards me hanging out with Rob and it had even been before he told me he wanted us to make it more official and see each other exclusively.

My first instinct was to call Kate, but by now, she'd be out with Jack.  I knew she had been looking forward to their date and had no intention of interrupting that.  Seeing Jack seemed to be great for her.  She'd cut back on drinking and partying significantly and seemed more put-together overall.  Calling Holly was out of the question, she'd be at work tending bar.  Rob has already done so much for me, I couldn't bear to burden him yet again.

I knew what I had to do.  I forced myself to come down and rehearsed what I would say.  As soon as the quaver left my voice and the sick feeling departed from my stomach, I picked up the phone and called Eric.

"Hey, babe, I didn't expect you to call.  I thought we'd decided tomorrow would be better for us?"

I swallowed hard, steadying my nerves.

"Actually, I really need to see you tonight.  Can I come over?" I crossed my fingers, hoping I sounded casual.

"Yeah, of course.  My roommate is going out later, we'll have the place to ourselves for awhile," his voice dropped, sounding husky and inviting.  Good, I thought.  Let him think I'm coming over to spend some time between the sheets.  It won't give him a chance to cook up a story.

"Mm, sounds good," I forced myself to flirt back. "I'll be there in twenty."

"See you soon, doll."

I ended the call with shaking hands.  Knowing he'd try to deny it, I grabbed the screenshots I'd printed the day before showing the IP address that had been logged.  My plan was to pretend I needed  to check my email when I got there, saying I was expecting a message from Rebecca.  Once I was logged in on his computer, I'd pull up the active session on my account and compare the IP address it showed.  If the IP address matched, the proof would be irrefutable.  If it didn't match, I'd casually bring up the hacking and see what Eric had to say.

I grabbed my overnight items (gotta look believable, right?), slipped the printed screenshots into my bag and headed out the door.

When I arrived, Eric pulled me in for a kiss.  It was tough kissing him back and pretending everything was perfectly fine. I pleasantly greeted his roommate, Adam.  We made idle chit chat for a few moments before I was able to slide in that I needed to use the computer, if Eric didn't min Eric didn't even blink when I said I needed to check my email real quick.  He continued talking with his roommate while I made my way to his bedroom where his computer was located.

My nerves were shot as I logged in to my email.  As expected, my phone vibrated, asking me to confirm I was logging in.  At least I knew that feature was working.  I pulled up log-in activity on my account, holding my breath and hoping I was wrong about Eric.  I finally exhaled when I saw the IP address.  It matched.  It fucking matched.

Have you ever been so angry that all sounded faded into a dull roar and your vision seemed to zero in?  That's how I felt in that moment.  Not knowing what else to do, I took a picture of the screen using my phone.  I then took a quick screenshot and emailed it to myself, deleting the saved file from his computer after it showed up in my account.  I worried that if I took much longer, Eric would come looking to see what I was up to.  I quickly logged out and cleared the recent history.

"Eric, can you come here for a sec?" I called.  I didn't want to make a scene in front of Adam.

I listened to Eric's footsteps as he approached.  He entered the room, looking gorgeous and grinning at me.

"Could you shut the door?" I asked.

"Ya missed me that much, huh?" he shut the door and gave me a suggestive look.

"Sit, please."

He did.  I stood then, fumbling for the papers in my bag.  I stared him directly in the eyes and tossed them in his lap.  I wasn't worried about him destroying them, I had backup copies at home.

"You want to explain this?"

I relished in how he flinched when he realized what the papers implicated.

"Did you think I wouldn't fucking find out?" I demanded. "How dare you?  Like I don't have enough shit to worry about, you pull a stunt like this?"

Eric was silent, eyes downcast.  The shame on his face was just as much proof to me as the matching IP address.  He looked like a puppy that had been scolded for piddling on the rug.  Still, he was silent.

"Start talking and start talking now."


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