Just Us, Trust Us
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine.
Author’s Notes- This is for Day 19 of the July Challenge “trust”. This was requested by maxattack-powell and she never actually requested a pairing, so I went with her favorite, Chris. This idea just popped into my head and I ran with it. This is set a few months after the end of The Senior.
Pairing- Chris x MC
Rating- PG-13
Summary- A lunch with the wives of Chris’s teammates leaves Savannah questioning her relationship with Chris.
“Did you see the headlines about Tony?” Cassie, the wife of one of Chris’s teammates, the glee in her voice at odds with her next words, “poor Ashley, she must be so humiliated.”
“Is that why she skipped lunch?” Amanda, another one of the women asked, her tone just as gleeful as Cassie’s.
“I’d be making sure I was seen,” A third woman piped up, “holding my head up all that, especially if the other rumors are true.”
“Which rumors are those?” I asked, curious despite myself.
“That this isn’t just Tony getting careless,” Cassie told me, “Dylan,” her husband, “told me Tony is talking about leaving Ashley.”
“Which means she needs to control the story,” Amanda declared, “she either needs to do her best to ride this out and hold onto Tony or make sure she looks like the sweet wronged wife so that he gets crucified in the press.”
“Why would she want to hold onto Tony if he’s cheating?” I asked, picking at my food. The season had barely started and I’d already realized I hated these events. I hated having to make small talk with these women I had nothing in common with and listen to their often malicious gossip.
I found myself at the receiving end of several pitying glances.
“Oh, honey,” Cassie said, shaking her head, “I forgot how new you are at this. They all cheat, it’s only an issue when it becomes public or if it ends up serious. Otherwise, you just turn a blind eye and let them scratch that itch and remind yourself you are the one with the ring.”
I nodded, unable to form words. Luckily, she took my silence as acceptance and the conversation moved on, but her words stuck with me for the rest of lunch and afterward as I returned to the condo Chris and I had purchased with his signing bonus.
“Hey babe,” Chris greeted as soon as I walked in the door, “did you have a good lunch?”
“Sure,” I answered automatically, dropping my purse, my head still spinning from the conversation and Cassie’s matter-of-fact tone. It wasn’t like that for all of them, was it? Just casually accepting that their husband or partner would cheat? And it wouldn’t be like that for Chris and I would it?
Chris frowned, “what’s wrong? You seem upset.”
“It’s nothing,” I told him, forcing a smile, “just…”
“Just what?” Chris asked, coming to my side, his arms wrapping around me, “it doesn’t look like nothing, come on Savannah you can tell me anything, you know that.”
“Have you ever been tempted to cheat?” I blurted out.
Chris looked surprised and then wounded. “What?! No! I love you, Savannah, only you. Why would you even ask that?” Then he sighed. “I’m guessing something was said at lunch? I mean, I’ve heard some of the guys…”
“Talk about cheating on their wives?” I finished for him, “well, their wives talk about it like it is no big deal. I got told today that they all cheat.”
“Not all of them,” Chris told me firmly, tilting my face up to look at him, “Not me. Never me. No other woman exists for me, only you.”
“When we broke up, did you…. See anyone else?” I asked we’d never talked about it. My time in London, our time apart. We had just been so happy to be back together and neither of us had wanted to re-open that wound. And maybe part of me had been afraid of what I might hear and really, if Chris had been with someone else, couldn’t blame him. I’d broken up with him after all.
“No,” Chris answered firmly, “as I said, it’s only you, Savannah. All I could think about was you, how much I missed you, how I couldn’t believe I let you go.” He paused. “What about you?”
“No,” I told him, “I felt the same, I didn’t want anyone else.”
“Me neither and I never will,” Chris told me.
“I’m sorry.,” I told him, “I shouldn’t have let them get to me, but the way they looked at me like I was so naive and stupid and for a moment I lett that cloud my judgment. But I know you, Chris, I know you and I trust you, and no group of catty women can change that.”
“Good,” Christ told me, “and I”m sorry lunch was awful. Can I make it up to you?” Even as he asked the question, he was sweeping me into his strong arms.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, “I like how you think Mr. Powell.”
“That’s good Soon-to-be Mrs. Powell because you’re stuck with me for life.”
“And there’s nothing I’d like more,” I assured him as he carried me to our bedroom, the love in his eyes wiping away the memory of the pity glances and poisonous words. Maybe that was how the others managed it, but that wasn’t Chris and I and it never would be.
- End
