Chapter 9 Man Down - Eva #2
Zeke had to have had his phone in his hand because before I had the chance to put my phone back in my pocket, his response was coming through, requesting a date with me. As much as I wanted to make time for him, I left him on read and returned my attention to the table setting.
It was like while I wanted to give him time, I felt as if I didn’t have the time to give. I was a single mother with an already full plate. I didn’t want to waste his time, and I didn’t want to waste mine either.
***
A Few Days Later
Walking out of the office, before my day had even started, I had my mind set on grabbing something quick like a sub sandwich or a salad for lunch and hurriedly returning so I could eat it in the parking lot before racing back to my desk.
However, when Trevor asked me to meet him for coffee on my lunch instead, I had to rewrite working through lunch so I could get ahead.
It was all hands on deck for our newest criminal case, and I was hellbent on doing more than my part to make sure the client Mr. Gray had been retained to represent was found innocent.
Nevertheless, due to how stressed Trevor sounded when he called me, I decided to repurpose the sixty-minute lunch I was afforded every day. Plus, it wasn’t like I couldn’t take work home with me and burn the midnight oil once Egypt and Tyger went to sleep for the night.
I had plenty of coffee and cans of energy drinks to get the job done.
Making my way into the parking lot of one of my favorite coffee cafés, I spotted Trevor’s truck and happily pulled my car into the empty spot next to him. Walking in, he was seated next to the door with an oversized coffee in his hand. Raising his head to meet my gaze, a smile covered his face.
“Hey! You look good,” he complimented, standing to his feet. “It’s been a minute since I’ve seen you in work clothes. Normally you’re already out of them when I get the boys.”
“You look good too, but I’m sure you know that,” I teased.
“I appreciate the compliment, and thank you for meeting me on such short notice. It’s been a crazy past few days, and I know I owe you some truth.”
Taking a seat across from him, I accepted the drink he pushed in my direction. Taking an inhale from the top, I knew it was a matcha latte with a few extra shots of vanilla.
“Trevor, you don’t owe me anything. I brought the situation to you because I would want someone to bring it to me if the tables were reversed. You don’t have to let me in on anything happening between you and Vivian.”
Lies. All lies. I knew damn well I wanted to know what was going on, especially giving consideration to how they walked away from my door, but at the same time, I would be respectful if he didn’t want to tell me about it.
“No, I do. I know how it must have come off to you, and because of how much I value the relationship we have, I want to be transparent.”
The dramatic pause he took after his statement had my nerves and mind blown because it was out of character for him.
One of the things which initially drew me to Trevor when we first started dating was how smooth he was.
Trevor had never been the type to give off an intense vibe and sitting across from him as he stared at me through nervousness, I felt like I needed something to spike my latte with because his aura was making me anxious, and I didn’t have a reason to be.
“Vivian and I have an open relationship,” he confessed, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Wait… What the hell?” I questioned, more than happy we were in the bustling coffee shop with plenty of traffic around us to avoid someone hearing the foolishness flowing from his mouth.
I was more than prepared for Trevor to pour his heart out to me regarding how Vivian was cheating on him and having a separate relationship with someone who he thought she wasn’t seeing anymore. I had a scenario in my mind that seemed believable to me, yet ironically, it was far from the truth.
“Trevor, I want to make sure I heard you correctly,” I stated, straightening my posture, scratching the tip of my nose.
I sat in silent hope, anticipating the combination of movements would somehow recalibrate my ability to understand what he was saying because it was obvious on my end I wasn’t hearing him correctly.
“Okay, you just told me that you and Vivian are in an—”
“Open relationship.”
“When the hell did this happen, and please tell me the two of you haven’t been exposing my sons to any polygamous activity.”
“Eva, don’t go there. You know me better than that. I would never expose our sons to anything out of the norm.”
“I did think I knew you before today, but Trevor, an open relationship. Really? That isn’t you, and we both know it. How the hell did you get swindled into this?”
“What makes you think it wasn’t my idea?” he asked, gaining a look from me which let him know I was more than capable of calling his bluff.
One of the main reasons Trevor and I didn’t work out was because of the traditional expectations he had of me once I got pregnant with Egypt.
The moment the two lines appeared on the early detection pregnancy test, he couldn’t see me beyond being married to him while I was at home barefoot and pregnant.
Honestly, I was okay with the marriage aspect of his desires, but I didn’t want it in the moment.
I didn’t want him to propose to me for the lone fact I was pregnant, and up until the day we found out I was pregnant, we hadn’t discussed marriage.
We went around and around in circles about how our household should function, and the friction only heightened after we had Tyger.
Not long after his birth, I reached the point of calling us both out on our miserableness and I suggested we end our committed relationship.
With all of that, I knew good and damn well he wasn’t the type of person to go along with that kind of lifestyle. If nothing else, he wanted his woman to himself, yet there he was sharing her with everybody. Not only was he sharing her, he was sharing himself.
“Okay. It was her idea,” he stated, holding his head down.
“Let me guess, you found out she was cheating on you and to save your relationship, you felt like it was okay to let her go be with whoever as long as she came back to you?”
“You’ve always been able to see through me.”
“Do you have somebody besides Vivian?”
“No.”
“So, it’s not an open relationship. It’s more of she’s cheating on you, and you know about it.”
“Something like that.”
“No, it’s exactly like that.”
“It works for us, and I don’t want to fix what’s not broken.”
“Don’t play yourself. It works for her, and you’re going along with it.
Trevor, I’m saying this as someone who genuinely loves you and cares about you, don’t sell yourself short.
If she feels like she’s missing something and has to go find someone to fulfill whatever she feels like she’s missing, then let her go and do that without you,” I advised, trying not to get pissed off.
He deserved better, and it angered me to know he didn’t know his worth.
How dare she play with him like that, and how dare he let her?
“What should I do?” he asked as I checked my watch to gauge how much of my lunch I had left. What I thought was going to be a quick chat with my son’s father was easily turning into an impromptu therapy session, which I needed to bill his insurance company for.
“I can’t tell you what to do about your relationship, but what I can say is it couldn’t be me, and she should have never put you in this situation. You’re too good of a man not to have a woman be sure about you.”
Most people went into relationships with the understanding from the beginning it would be open, and it was something both parties were on board with, but the situation with Trevor and Vivian was far from that.
“I appreciate those words. I need them.”
“Don’t thank me because I will be sending an invoice to your insurance company. You need to be thanking them instead,” I teased, making him laugh.
I didn’t know where his mind and heart would go beyond our conversation, but I hoped my words got through to him and he realized his worth.