Page 25 of Resolving Rumors

I flipped the locks and slid the door open a smidge, but he was having none of that. The man pushed it open wider, and knocked me out of the way as he moved into my home. "What the hell, Devin?" I shrieked at him as I stumbled out of the way and tried to catch my footing before I fell.

He ignored me and turned to shut and lock the door again with him on the inside. "We're going to have a chat. Since you won't answer your phone, I guess we have to do this the hard way – in person."

I laughed at him. "It's hard to answer a phone that never rings."

"Bullshit! I've been calling every day, several times a day, since I left your house that day. I've left voice messages and texts."

I moved over to the coffee table, where I'd thrown all my stuff down when I came back from the doctor appointment I never went to. My phone sat there, silent as the grave. I picked it up, unlocked it, and handed it over to Devin.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Look at my texts and call history, asshole. Not that I need to prove to you that you haven't contacted me. Though, I do think it's cruel to lie to my face and say that you have. Considering I've cried myself to sleep every night while you've been off living your best life and enjoying happy family time, I guess I'm not sure why you came here to lie to my face. I realize you might want to punish me for all the time I kept our relationship a secret, but trust me when I say, having the love of my life impregnate and marry another woman is more than even I deserved. Being forced to watch as you get to play happy families with her on top of everything else is devastating. Just leave me alone, Devin. See yourself out after you verify what you already know - I never got a single call or text from you because you never sent any.”

I turned and angrily stomped my way to the kitchen. I tried to give up coffee a couple days before my world turned upside down. Obviously, it was the wrong time to attempt caffeine withdrawal.

"So, all this proves is that you deleted them without looking at anything," Devin argued as he brought my phone back to me while I filled the pot.

"You cannot be that obtuse. I just told you I cried myself to sleep every night because after you left my place the other night, I never heard from you again. You couldn't even apologize to me. Not one single, "I'm sorry." If you were happier with her because it didn't have to be a secret, all you had to do was break things off with me officially. Instead, you had to cheat. Only," I laughed again, "it wasn't really cheating as far as anyone else knows, since they all thought she was your girlfriend, right? So, I can't even be mad publicly.”

He stared at me as if I had two heads, but I carried on. “Then you had to keep stringing me along and pretending that our relationship was the one you really wanted. Honestly, I don’tunderstand why you would do that to me. Why do you want to hurt me so badly?”

He argued. “In case you forgot, you're the one who wanted the secrets, not me."

"And now you're punishing me for that, even though you agreed it was for the best. You told me your parents wouldn't like our relationship. You were the one worried about losing your best friend too.”

"I was worried about those things, but I told you we could handle them together. I agreed to a temporary secret relationship to make sure we were good together before we broke the news to everyone else. You're the one who refused to change that up. Then, when Dallas started to question things, it was your idea to have us both be seen on dates, which is how the whole thing with Justice was concocted."

"You're right." I told him as I stuffed far too many coffee grounds into the pot before I turned it on. Bold coffee today seemed about right. "I pushed you to cheat on me. I stood there and told her to hop on your lap and go to town and make a baby while she was at it. I practically walked you down the aisle to her!" The words screamed out of me as my frustration built. "There were rules in place!YOUbroke those rules.Shebroke those rules.YOUbroke my heart, not the other way around." We had already hashed all of this out, but those early decisions were at the core of my misery again, and they did not want to be shoved back into the box I tried to bury them in when I gave Dev a second chance.

"Look, we’ve been down that road already, and I thought we worked through it, but obviously not. I had no intention of coming here to hurt you more though, and I have tried to call and text you.” Devin offered as he pulled his own phone out and unlocked it. Then he pulled up his text messages. He put his phone in my hand, and I scrolled back, looking at about five toten texts per day for the past few days. I glanced up to see his angry glare and shook my head in disbelief.

"I never got any of these."

"Bullshit!" He yelled at me as he snatched his phone back and pulled up his call log. "Look," he shouted at me again as he held the phone out for me to see. "I called and texted every day. Fuck! My boss damn near booted my ass out of the office because I was on my phone so much - and not to sell houses.

"Devin, if you need me to go pull up the records from my cell phone company, I can. I never received any of that."

"That's fucking impossible, unless you blocked me."

"Call me now," I suggested. He angrily stabbed at the phone and hit the call button. Nothing happened. I picked up my phone to show him that nothing was coming in. Then I called him. Nothing. It rang once on my end before going straight to voicemail.

"What the fuck?"

"You are the one who has me blocked!” My words came out on a gasp, as it registered that he had completely shut me out. Never mind the bullshit he tried to spew about how he had called and texted me. I don’t know who he called or messaged, but it hadn’t been me.

"I do not have you blocked. And why couldn't I get through to you?"

"Give me your phone." I held out my hand and he complied, but decided to invade my personal space as he crowded in beside me to see what I was looking for. I pulled up my personal contact sheet in his phone and then pushed the information button. Then, I pointed at what I saw there. "That is not my phone number." He took a solid step back and shook his head. "I don't know who you've been sending all those messages to, but it wasn't me. That's my name, but the phone number isn't right at all."

"I haven't changed anything. Your contact has always worked. Did you change your number?"

"No, I didn't. Maybe someone who had access to your phone changed it," I suggested.

"No one has…" Devin stopped mid-sentence and I could just image who might have access to his phone long enough to make it impossible for him to contact me without showing up in person.

"Let me guess, your wife decided that we should no longer be in contact now that she set her sights on you instead of the married man she was fucking."

"No. It's not like that. We're not together like that."

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