SLOW HANDS

Love was such a messy emotion. It was bound to be inconvenient. You sure couldn’t put it on a schedule and love never played by the rules. He liked rules. And schedules..

Ah, hell, he was absolutely in love with her.

It was why he was sitting here in such a terrible mood that his usually easygoing office staff wouldn’t come near him for fear of being decapitated.

He looked again at the article, and his chest utterly caved in. Chloe. God, he’d been such an idiot. A complete and utter, madly-in-love moron. He’d reacted just like a petulant child, furious that his favorite toy was being taken away. In this case, Chloe had wanted to put their relationship on hold and all he could see was that she was pushing him away, and sacred that she’d leave him again, he had panicked. He’d been a total ass.

She needed him. Needed his support. And he’d told her to take a hike. Worse, he’d arrogantly told her not to bother changing her mind and come crawling back. He winced. Holy hell in a bucket but he’d said some horrible things. If there was any crawling to do, it would be him doing it. In the mud. Over broken glass.

Her tear-stained face came painfully to mind. The hell she must have endured. Her coworkers had seen the photos. Everyone in her profession had likely seen them. They’d all probably come to some very inaccurate conclusions.

He’d been selfish and demanding from the start. He hadn’t given one moment’s consideration to how their relationship would reflect on her. It had all been about him. His wants and needs. He didn’t care if anyone knew about them, but she had. And with good reason.

He should have been standing with her. He should have supported her. Now it looked as if the world had turned on her, and where was he? Off licking his wounds while she faced the world alone.

To hell with that.

He had a woman to win back.

———-

Evan Reese walked to Christina’s front door and knocked softly. Like Chloe had suggested, he had given her some space and tried as much as he could not to bombard her with texts or messages anymore, and it had been very hard for him. When he got the text from her saying that they had to talk, he had grabbed the opportunity. Although he was very worried about what she wanted to talk about. He prayed she didn’t want to talk about a divorce…Oh, he hoped that wasn’t the case.

He transferred the bouquet of rose flowers he was holding from his right hand to his left, sighed deeply, and then knocked again. The door opened and he was standing face to face with his wife. She didn’t smile or say anything, but stared blankly at him. Not knowing what to say, he quickly stretched out his hands with the flowers in it.

“Hi, I got you these,” he said softly. When she made no effort to take them, he felt horrible. Roses were her favorite and she used to get so excited when she got some. Now her expression was bleak. He was sure that she would refuse them, but he was surprised when she took them.

“Thanks,” she said softly. “Come in. i will go put these in water”

Evan shut the door behind him and sat down on one of the chairs. Christina returned but she didn’t sit down.

“I’m just going to say it ” she began and Evan swallowed hard.

“I asked you to come because I wanted to tell you that I am pregnant.”

That was the last thing that Evan thought she was going to say, and for a few seconds, he sat there, staring at her in shock…When she waved a hand at him, he stood slowly.

“I can’t believe…But the doctor…The doctor said….” He stammered.

“I know what the doctor said” Christina said as she gently rubbed her stomach. “I guess.. it’s a miracle. Evan, we are having another child. Can you believe it?”

“No, I can’t,” Evan replied. “Oh, Tina, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I will never forgive myself for putting our marriage at risk like this, but if you give me a chance to make it right, I will. Please don’t leave me. At first, i thought you were going to ask for a divorce and i panicked”

Christina hesitated. “I’m not going to ask for divorce Evan.” she said, “But things can’t just go back to the way they were. You told me what you did by yourself, but the damage has already been done. I need time”

Evan nodded. “I understand, but you are pregnant now. I don’t mean to and I promise not to rush you into anything, but don’t you think it would be better if you moved back home…so I can look after you and the baby? I want to help.

“Yeah…i think that would be good…for the baby. I need all the help I can get right now.

And he would be there to help, Evan thought. This wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but it was a start and needed to earn her trust again. He would do anything to get it back and this was the first step to fixing his marriage…and a baby…He was going to be a father…. It was the best news he had had that year as far as he was concerned

———————

Chloe sipped her hot chocolate and stared over the backyard . She’d always loved the view here. Darell’s house was perched on a cliff, though it was situated a good distance from the drop-off. It was peaceful here. The sliding-glass doors opened and Bryce stepped out. She turned all the way around in her chair to greet him, but stopped when she saw the expression on his face.

“I was about to say good morning,” she said as he came over and plopped down beside her.

He sighed and held out another newspaper. “I thought about not showing you this, but I knew if something was being said about me, I’d want to know about it so I wouldn’t be blindsided.”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Dread began low in her stomach. She stared fearfully at the extended paper. Then her disgust overcame her apprehension and she plucked it from his hand. There in black and white for the entire Bay area to see was a detailed account of all that had happened in New York. Oh, it was a blatant smear campaign.