She answered, smiling, her hair perfectly done even though it was late. "Hey, honey."
"Hey. Just wanted to see you before I passed out."
We talked for a minute, the usual stuff. Then, as she shifted the phone, the camera angle changed. For a split second, I saw her nightstand. Next to her lamp sat a men' s watch. It was big, with a silver band and a dark blue face. It wasn' t mine.
I froze. "What' s that on the nightstand?"
Her smile tightened. "What' s what?"
"The watch. The silver watch."
Her eyes darted off-screen. "Oh, that. It' s... it' s a surprise for you. You weren' t supposed to see it."
She was a terrible liar. Her face flushed, and she couldn' t meet my gaze through the screen.
"A surprise?" I asked, my voice flat.
"Yeah. The connection is getting really bad, honey. I can barely hear you." The screen started to pixelate, but I knew she was the one moving the phone. "I' ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you!"
The call ended.
I stared at my blank phone screen. A watch. A men' s watch. I tried to make it make sense. Maybe it was a gift for her father. Maybe she bought it for me and was telling the truth. But my birthday was months away. And the look on her face wasn't excitement; it was pure panic.
I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. I was being paranoid. I trusted Olivia. I trusted my sister, Sarah, who was Olivia' s best friend. I was just tired and stressed from work. That had to be it.
An hour later, my phone buzzed. It was Olivia.
"Hey, sorry about that. My Wi-Fi just cut out completely," she said, her voice sounding perfectly normal now, almost too cheerful.
"It' s okay," I lied.
I watched her on the small screen. She was glowing. Her skin looked better, her makeup was flawless. She was wearing a pair of small diamond earrings I had never seen before. They were simple but looked expensive. I knew I hadn't bought them.
I decided to try a different way. "You look nice. Did you go out today?"
"No, just a lazy day at home. Cleaned the house a bit."
"Those are new earrings, aren' t they? They look great on you."
There was a tiny pause. "Oh, these old things? Sarah gave them to me ages ago. I just found them in my jewelry box." Another lie. I knew her jewelry box. I' d bought her most of what was in it. Those earrings weren' t in there last week.
She must have sensed my silence because she quickly changed the subject. "I can' t wait for you to come home. I have a real surprise for you. You' re going to love it."
Her voice was sweet, promising. For a moment, I let myself believe her. I let the hope push down the ugly feeling in my gut. Maybe the watch really was for me. Maybe I was just being a jealous idiot.
I came home three days later, exhausted but holding onto that sliver of hope. Olivia met me at the door with a kiss. She pulled something from her pocket.
"I got you your surprise!" she said, beaming.
She held it out. It was a keychain. A cheap, plastic keychain from a gas station, the kind that costs two dollars. It had a cartoon car on it.
I looked from the keychain to her smiling face, to the new designer handbag sitting on our kitchen counter. And I thought of the expensive silver watch on her nightstand.
The hope I' d been clinging to didn' t just fade. It shattered. And in its place, a cold, heavy certainty settled deep in my bones.