Always the One (Always and Forever 1)

“Hel—”

“What in the actual fuck is wrong with you? Taking off and not answering my calls! I couldn’t find you because your Find My iPhone is off! What the fuck are you doing in Portland?” I know he knows about Trey, that’s the reason he called, I mean how else would he know I took off.

“I needed to get away from Trey for a minute, he really messed up, Kings.” My voice is so low I’m surprised he can hear me. I recoil into my shell, I hate when my brother yells at me. He never gets mad at me unless I mess up bad, and right now my vulnerability is at an all-time high. I need my brother to not yell at me, but instead to comfort me. My low voice tells him how upset I am, causing him to take it down ten notches.

“Baby…sis, I’m sorry, okay?” Kingston’s voice is calm this time around, coercing me back out of my shell.

“It’s okay.” I accept his apology.

“You’re my best friend and little sister, it’s my job to protect you and take care of you. If you take off, cutting off all communication, I freak the fuck out.” I know he does, believe me, he doesn’t need to provide another warning.

“I talked to him, Shayla, he’s fucking destroyed. I’ve never seen him this out of sorts. You need to call him.”

“No! He needs to know that Evan is nothing to me and just because he sent an innocent text doesn’t mean he’s trying to bang me.” My dad’s eyes bulge out of his head, his mouth agape. I mouth a quick “sorry” and continue with Kings. My poor dad didn’t need to hear that.

“Huh. Oh, Shayla, Evan isn’t really innocent with his intentions, but that’s beside the point. Yes, Trey shouldn’t act like you’re his property; you’re fucking Dad’s and mine, duh. Anyway, he didn’t go there with the intention to hit him. He wanted to tell him to keep it professional, and avoid any situation where you would feel uncomfortable. What else transpired I can’t say, but you need to talk to him about that shit.” Now I’m curious to know if there’s more than what Trey let on. “Besides, you know our boy, he had a fucked-up past, the one woman genetically fucking programmed to love him, left. Cut him some slack.”

Oh for Pete’s sake, that doesn’t work for every freaking time he messes up.

“That’s not a valid excuse with me, Kings. I’m not his mom, and I’m sick of him not trusting me and thrusting her shortcoming onto me. The way we laugh and play together or touch and talk, that can never mean what it does to me with anyone else. He’s my other half. I don’t care if we’ve been together a couple of weeks. That’s the man I want to marry. I want to bear his children for heaven’s sake. Why would I let some other guy come take me away from the greatest person I’ve ever known?” I’m not sure where I’m going with this or where the strength is coming from to admit these pretty substantial confessions, I just need someone to know how I feel and right now Kings is my sounding board.

“Baby?” My heart stops in my chest, hearing Trey’s voice come through the line—has he been there the whole time?

“Trey?”

“I’m here, baby, I heard everything. I’m coming sweetie, I need to get to you.”

“No, I need some time to get things together in my head.” I miss him, and I want to work this out, but for now I choose to be alone with my thoughts.

“Shayla, it’s me, your best friend, don’t push me away, let me get to you and fix us, let me explain this shit.”

“I have to go, I can’t talk right now.” I hang up the phone, not ready to hear his begging. My dad exhales loudly next to me, just as confused about what just happened between Trey and me.

“I better start explaining.” I attempt to find Zen before I even begin to repeat the events that transpired today. He agrees with the lift of his chin, signaling me to come back and sit down in the living room.

“You know how Lana and I got an investor to help open up another location here in Portland?” Nodding his head, he encourages me to continue. “Well, his name is Evan and he’s been amazing at helping us. Well today, before everything hit the fan, we were going to sign on a new location. Then to my surprise, he showed up with black eyes and a broken nose. Dad.” I break from conversation for a minute to collect myself, I’m sick of crying today. “Trey went to Evan’s office and broke his nose. For what purpose I don’t know, but I don’t think there needs to be one. It shouldn’t have happened at all.” Saying it only makes it more real. My gut is turning, making me nauseated; this almost feels like a nightmare.

“I’m trying to build my relationship with Trey, exploring this new part of who we are, all while building my career.” I pause, biting my lip, then push forward. “Right now I feel like both the things I love are clashing and trying to destroy each other. He’s so jealous because of things that have nothing to do with me or my actions, it’s his mother. She destroyed him, Dad, and I’m sensitive to that, I am. But I’m not her!” I’m shouting by the time I finish and he’s just sitting back, stunned silent in his chair, absorbing every word I’m saying.

“Geez, I thought dating back in my day was difficult, boy was I wrong.” He runs a hand through his brown hair. My dad is a handsome man, I got most of my looks from my mom, but Kingston is a spitting image of our father. My father has brown hair with scattered strands of gray. He has brown eyes to complement his round shaped face and his smile is accented with dimples. I love my dad.

“All right, start with Evan. What did he say in the message?” Surprisingly, I can’t remember, I didn’t pay close enough attention when I received it.

“I don’t remember exactly.” I pull my phone out from the pocket of my blazer and turn it on. Waiting for it to start up, I tell him a little bit more of what’s going on in my head and just like earlier, he listens to every word until I’m finished. When my phone powers up it goes crazy with notifications from both Kings and Trey. I dismiss them and open my recent text to Evan. Scrolling down, I find the incriminating text and read it out loud.

“Here it is.” I read it out loud, “Hey, gorgeous. I hope you’re having fun in Park City, not missing me too much I hope! Anyway, I just spoke to the board and the photo shoot was a hit! They are going to offer us $500,000 to open two new locations. We did it! We’re a great team, beautiful! Dinner on me when you get back.” Shit, that does sound bad. How in all that’s holy did I not catch that? I feel like a naïve moron now. Seriously, how did that slip by me?

“Doesn’t sound innocent to me, princess. If I were with a woman and some other guy was sending her those messages, I wouldn’t take kindly to it.” He’s right; I should have read the text before running off like a coward to Portland. I still feel like this message didn’t warrant that type of reaction. I mean a broken nose? I have to be missing something. God, tell me I’m missing something.

“I think you’re both right and wrong in this situation. You didn’t catch the comments earlier, because like you said, you don’t view Evan that way and you’re faithful to Trey. But you have a responsibility to the man you’re with to not let others come in and try to sabotage that. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes, but he was the one who treated me like property, not telling me those messages bothered him. Instead, he went all caveman on me and beat the shit out of Evan.” I’m standing my ground on this one, I know my dad’s right, but Trey also needs to be held accountable for his extreme behavior.

“Agreed, and that’s where his faults lie. He needs to communicate his insecurities and dislikes to you, in order to avoid this kind of thing.” Dad speaks volumes with his words; we both need to work out our crap.

I’m starting to learn a lot about who I am in this relationship. I’m a runner, I don’t stick it out when things get tough, and worst of all, I don’t think about both parties involved. I should have stopped and asked Trey what was said during their altercation instead of jumping down his throat. I’ve also learned my brother and father are wicked good with advice—sound advice is food for the soul.

But, I’ve also learned I’m a strong individual, my heart is a fragile thing that I need to protect. My life and my aspirations shouldn’t be jeopardized by someone’s lack of self-control. Evan hit on me and I turned him down. Sure, his joke was uncomfortable and the execution of it was terrible, but he has been pretty normal since then.