Page 12 of Resolving Rumors

We both sat very still in the light of that assessment. Then Devin spoke again and made me want to crawl under the table and hide away in shame. “It hit me hard because I had beenfeeling like the other man in an affair, waiting for the day the married woman would finally throw her husband away for me like she promised. There wasn’t another man - not yet. When your mom set you up on that date, it was all I could think of. I had been a dirty secret for so long, why wouldn’t you choose an easier, more age-appropriate option over me?”

“I never blamed you for everything, you know. I blamed myself for most of it.” He nodded as if he already knew that, and I suppose, on some level, he did. “I don’t see how we can make it work now though.” I glanced down at his left hand - the one that bore the evidence of his current married status. “For someone who claims he wants an annulment, you’re still wearing the ring, as if it is the proud symbol of commitment it is supposed to be when two people get married.”

“Fucking hell!” Devin shouted and stood as he yanked at the damn ring until it popped off his finger. Then he tossed it on the table. “There. Take it. It means absolutely nothing to me. She means nothing to me. I came here to talk this out because Jordan contacted me and after our conversation, I realized she might be on the right track. I wanted to make a plan with you. A plan to get me out of this mess with Justice and another to get us back together where we belong.” He huffed and yanked me out of my chair. “Only this time, we’ll be out in the open with everything because I’m not hiding my love for you any longer.”

I nodded my head in agreement, like an idiot, before his lips crashed down on mine and sealed his words between the two of us as if it was a sacred vow.

Chapter

Eight

DEVIN

It felt soright to have my woman back in my arms, even if it was short-lived.

“I love you, Vic. Never stopped. Never will. You are meant to be mine until the end of time.”

She rolled her eyes and sniffled all at the same time. I pushed my girl’s blonde hair back behind her ears because there was no way I’d be able to secure it in that bird’s nest of a bun she had it in before our kiss, and my roaming fingers, fucked it all to hell.

Victoria’s lips were swollen from our kiss when I pulled us away from the now cold and ruined shambles of breakfast and into the living room, so we could sit beside one another and hash things out in a healthy and productive way. We had both done enough of slinging accusations and trying to place blame on one another’s shoulders. It did nothing but push us further apart and I was done with that.

“What are we going to do about the…” Vic swallowed as if she were choking on the word she refused to say. I positioned us so that we were both turned inward, facing one another with our knees touching and our hands clasped together.

“I am almost one hundred percent sure that the baby is not mine.”

“How can you say that?”

“First of all, because unless she is bloating every time she eats, Justice is already showing.”

Vic scrunched her nose up at me. “That should be impossible this early.”

“Exactly. Besides, she’s the one who claims that we were together sexually, and I have no memory of that.” Vic cringed and tried to pull away, but I held strong to her hands. “No, don’t push us backward again. I know it isn’t easy, but we need to discuss this. I do not remember having sex with or even kissing Justice.” I let go of one of her hands long enough to tap the side of my head. “Up here is a blank. No memories, I swear it, Vic.” When I let go of her hand, it felt like a fucking victory that she placed it on top of our other two that were still wrapped around one another.

“The fact that she was there that night, and Brody was conveniently on a date night with the wife he routinely cheated on and couldn’t be bothered to go home to most nights, it all seemed too perfect. I don’t think Brody was on that date any more than I think Justice is pregnant with my baby.”

“You think she went there with the intent to set it up to look like you might have fathered her baby?”

“She fed me enough drinks after she arrived, that she couldn’t have been priming me for sex - not in a real way - because the chances of me passing out with that much liquor in my system were far greater than my ability to get hard with a woman who wasn’t you.”

“Come on, she’s a beautiful girl.”

“Yeah, objectively, she is. And you know what? She’s never made me hard because she’s not my type. She’s a brat who has no qualms about cheating on or with people. That isn’t the type of woman who revs my engine. If it wasn’t for our arrangement,I wouldn’t even be friends with her because she has no concept of loyalty.”

Victoria groaned. “Why did we do this to ourselves? I should have never suggested hiding our relationship, and you should have never agreed to go along with it.”

“We’re not looking back anymore, baby. We can’t change the past. Well, we can’t change the parts that count. We can make a plan to move forward and get out from under the bullshit with Justice. Let’s work on that, and then we’ll work on us, and where we want to be a year from now.”

“What if we discover we aren’t good for one another?”

“I don’t believe that any more than you do. Our problem was never ‘us’, it was your concern over what everyone else would think about us. I refuse to allow other people’s opinions to factor into my happiness because it isn’t working. If you decide that you can’t be with me because everything has become too messy, then I will have to deal with your decision. For the record, I want you. I don’t just want you, Vic, I need you in my life like the air I breathe.”

“What if…” She looked away and bit down on her lip, as if she refused to say the one thing that would make or break us. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Vic was worried Justice’s baby was mine and what that would mean for us.

“Let’s come up with a plan and leave that bit for later when we can get a definitive answer, okay?”

Victoria nodded her head and then quickly switched to shaking it. “I don’t think I could…” She hesitated again and I wanted to kick myself in the nuts for ever making her feel this way. Not to mention, the fear I lived with that for some crazy reason the baby turned out to be mine, it would mean that I would lose my woman. The only woman I’d ever loved. There would be no doubt about it. Vic wouldn’t be able to handle me having a child with someone else, but she also wouldn’t tolerateme abandoning my own kid to be with her. Not that I would ever do that, no matter how much I loved Vic.

“How are we supposed to do this, Dev?” She asked me and the only answer I had was to pull her closer. She snuggled into my body as I wrapped my arms all the way around her body and refused to let go.

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