The Other Other Woman | By Shoshauna Shy

Steve’s leaving his wife. But not for me.

Neither Miranda nor I suspected Steve had anybody else. For Miranda, I was the somebody else she once half-expected, suspected, then accepted. And when Steve wasn’t with me, I simply assumed he was being a husband to her. We all had our roles to play.

So, it was a double-whammy when Steve declared he was leaving us for another woman. For Miranda, it showed she hadn’t been able to keep track of him at all. For me, it meant that in all probability, Steve had made love with Tara in “our” rental apartment, and worse yet, possibly on the very same days he’d made love with me. Not just once, but a boatload of onces, enough to convince him he wanted more of his life with her. I was only a part-timer for him, he said, so it shouldn’t matter to me one lick that his focus had shifted from his wife to Tara. You’re still in the picture. But I hadn’t known there was a competitor in the picture, and that competitor had bested me - when I didn’t even know a contest was on! That just was not fair.

I still love you same as I always have, Steve kept saying when I refused to see him.

He didn’t understand how that was the problem.

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Author of five collections of poetry, Shoshauna Shy's poems and flash fiction have appeared in a variety of anthologies and publications, and are forthcoming in Naugatuck River Review, Idle Ink and Montana Mouthful. Her poems have also been made into videos, published inside taxi cabs, and on the hind quarters of Madison Metro buses. Not a monogamous writer, she usually works on 7-11 pieces at one time, and often gets new ideas while stuck doing something else.