Writing Prompt Wednesday #46

TW: Cheating

​Write a story about someone who believes they are an extremely good judge of character. https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/general/write-a-story-about-someone-who-believes-they-are-/
    Phoebe was an incredibly good judge of character. Ever since she was a young child, she had a certain gift for it. She could tell when someone was lying, when they were telling the truth, whether or not they were a good or bad person. Some people called it intuition, but it was much more than that. It was a gift.
    She, of course, used this gift in her day-to-day life. It was extremely helpful when making friends with people. After all, you didn’t want to be friends with a liar.
    Her gift was why she trusted him. He was always so straight-forward and he had never lied. This was immediately attractive to her-she had a certain affinity for people who didn’t lie-and they started dating soon after they met.
    Her gift was also why she never suspected anything.
    Their relationship had been amazing. They were both so perfect for each other: he was the funniest person on earth and she had a great sense of humor. She was so nice and he was so generous. They were both incredibly smart, amazing people.
    Or so she thought.

    The harsh truth was, her gift was fallible. She hadn’t known it to ever fail her before, and why it did here she didn’t know.
    It had come as such a shock to her, to find out he was cheating. In fact, she at first thought that the woman who told her had been lying. But, she believed she was trustworthy. Not that her gift was that reliable as of late.
    Nevertheless, she confronted him about it when she got home. Oh it was awful, the crying, the screaming, the apologies. But Phoebe could tell it was all fake. After all, she was an incredibly good judge of character.
    And so, she was here now, by herself, moving into a new apartment. She missed him terribly, even after he had done such horrible things. Rain splattered all around her-the only shelter was the awning she stood under and she still had many boxes to carry inside.
    “Hey, you need any help with that?” a young man asked, passing by. He nodded to the box in her arms. “Looks heavy.”
    “Oh no I’m fine. Thank you though,” Phoebe said. 
    “Of course. Have a nice day!”
    Phoebe watched him disappear into the rain. Something told her that he wasn’t to be trusted. She thought that about a lot of people nowadays. People she had never had cause to distrust before now sent worry down her spine.
    But, they couldn’t be trusted. So, she walked back into the rain, alone. After all, she was an incredibly good judge of character.