The phone screen clearly displayed an incoming call from Lyle. Having never reset my data or deleted his number, his contact was still saved as “my beloved” in my phone, and the sight of it made me want to throw up. I need to change his contact name as soon as this call is over.
No, I needed to change my phone number to a new one. That way, Lyle wouldn’t be able to call me if he found himself locked out again.
“Can’t you just tell me through the phone?” I wasn’t stupid enough to go and meet him in person all by myself.
“It has to do with your grandma,” he replied. “You care about her, don’t you?
There was a brief pause from my side. “Wait for me.”
I couldn’t care less about Lyle, but my grandma was a completely different story. I’d been worried about her ever since Lyle had gotten himself involved with Crystal, who I was sure was planning something sinister. Every time Crystal and I had a conversation, she would talk about Lyle as if he was a toy we were fighting over.
Whatever decisions Lyle made were his business and his business only. What concerned me was if grandma would get hurt as a result of him and Crystal getting married.
Descending the stairs, I spotted Lyle smoking a cigarette as he stood under a large tree by the entrance. He seemed stressed; there was a constant wrinkle between his eyebrows, which was surprising. I thought he’d be constantly over the moon considering the gorgeous lover he had waiting at home for him.
I approached him and stopped with about six feet of space left between us. “What happened with Grandma?”
“You’re living together with Christopher now?” he retorted.
“Why are you asking me that?” His tone annoyed me greatly. “I’ve already told you that it’s none of your business.”
“I’ve been thinking, Yvonne,” Lyle suddenly interjected. “You can’t go on like this. I know you feel hurt because I chose Crystal. But did you really have to go and become Christopher’s mistress just because of your grudge against me? What’s going to happen when he marries Monica? You can’t let yourself get thrown away and fall into despair once more.”
Not this again. ”You care way too much about your ex-wife,” I huffed, frowning. “Besides, the story of you and Crystal getting married has already been published in the papers. Aren’t you scared that a reporter might take a picture of us here like this? Aren’t you scared of what they might write about us? Or is that what you want: to be the main character of a love triangle?”
“I care about you out of the kindness of my heart, for goodness’ sake.” He rolled his eyes. “You once told Bianca that you hated mistresses and homewreckers the most, so why are you becoming one yourself?”
At that, my breath hitched in my throat. Those words had stabbed right through my chest like an invisible dagger. Back then, I’d chosen to marry Lyle because I loved him all while knowing that the girl he was truly in love with was Crystal. And now, Christopher and Monica were yet another picture-perfect couple that I was trying to insert myself into because of my love for Christopher.
Christopher could eat dinner with Monica and his family every night while I was left alone at home, ordering delivery food and waiting for him to pay me a visit.
This is embarrassing.
Lyle perked up when he saw that I didn’t have a response, mistakenly thinking that he had managed to convince me. “Listen to me: leave Christopher. If you need anything, you can always come to me! I’ll help you as much as I can. All I want is for you to lead a better life than this, Eve.”
I instantly snapped awake from my daze and pushed him away. “I’ve become this way because of you! What were you thinking? Did you not want your ex-wife to have another guy in her life so that she’d stupidly wait around for you to come back to her? Just for her to then get all heartbroken again when that doesn’t happen? I won’t fall for that anymore, so leave me alone!”
I raised my chin high up in the air as I swept my hair over my shoulder. Pride and insecurity; vulnerability and stubbornness; these were all the qualities that made me who I was as a person.
