Chapter 3: The Outsider

Maddie really isn’t fat.

She’s just got that cherub face, all soft edges and baby cheeks, the kind that makes you look younger than you are. Kind of a Disney Channel vibe, honestly.

Whenever she puffed out her cheeks, Caleb couldn’t resist reaching over and giving her face a pinch, like she was his little cousin or something.

The two of them horsed around in the front seat like I was invisible in the back.

For a second, I just sat there, dumbstruck, replaying what Maddie had just said: “other people.”

Yeah, at that moment, I really did feel like an extra in my own life—a stranger wedged into the back seat of my own relationship.

Actually, calling myself a clown might’ve been closer to the truth. The kind who sticks around hoping things will change, even as the joke’s on me.

Ever since Caleb got the new car, he’d been name-dropping his carpool buddy:

“Rachel, I don’t have time for breakfast, gotta go—Maddie’s waiting for me at the curb.”

“Maddie gets off late tonight, so I’ll wait for her. I’ll be home later.”

“Honey, Maddie at my company loved the sandwich you made—she wants to try more of your cooking. Make an extra one tomorrow, okay?”

Maddie, Maddie, always Maddie.

Never once did it cross my mind that the Maddie he mentioned so offhandedly was a woman—let alone a woman this involved in our lives.

For the past month, Caleb’s been playing chauffeur for her, no complaints.

He picks up and drops off Maddie every single day, more reliable than an Uber driver with a five-star rating.

Even in weather like tonight—knowing I was waiting in the cold—he still let Maddie finish her cafeteria lunch at a snail’s pace before coming to get his own girlfriend, leaving me out in the rain.