Start Again

Part 26

The following two weeks were tense to say the least. Lindsey avoided Kristen the best he could without her becoming suspicious. Maybe she was, but she didn't let it show. His mind was still a mess and he was afraid to somehow accidentally reveal that he'd slept with Stevie. Although, Kristen didn't seem to mind. She kept herself busy with whatever project she was currently working on, so there weren't that many opportunities to run into each other, except for when they went to bed at night. Lindsey thought that the least he could do was sleep in his marital bed, maybe it would help put his wife's mind at ease. 

Lindsey kept his distance not only from Kristen, but Stevie too. He'd visited her, well Luke more than her, only a couple of times, using his usual excuse that he was busy working on new material. Stevie didn't question it, but he had a sense that she wanted to talk about that night they spent together. The one real conversation they had after, she steered it into that direction, but he quickly pulled them back. The last thing he wanted was to prove her right, for her to believe that he was just lonely that night, that he used her. If anything, he wanted to tell her, he was in love with her, but he couldn't just spit it out. No, first of all he had to understand what he wanted and what he thought was the right thing to do. 

He wasn't going to be able to stay away from Stevie for that much longer, though. Now, it was her birthday coming up in less than a week. He got off the phone with her an hour ago, a quick call, which felt way too formal. It's just dinner, she said. They had dinners before that started out normal and ended up in complete disaster. Kristen was invited as well. Given the recent events, Lindsey feared that something was bound to go terribly wrong. 

Kristen was in the family room, looking through a furniture catalogue, which Lindsey didn't doubt were expensive. He wasn't quite sure, how to approach the subject, so he decide to bring it up, whatever happened after that - he had no control over it. 

"What are you doing?" Lindsey walked into the room, hands in his pockets.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Kristen replied without even glancing at him. 

Great start, Lindsey sighed. "So, listen." He cleared his throat, still considering leaving the room before saying anything else. "I just got off the phone with Stevie." Now he had Kristen's full attention. "Her birthday is next Saturday and we're invited."

"We?" Kristen raised an eyebrow. "You and I?"

"Yeah." Lindsey shrugged as if this wasn't that big of a deal. "It's just dinner." He echoed Stevie's words. "A group of close friends, no big event."

"And she told you, she wanted me to come?" Kristen asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"She didn't specify." Lindsey rolled his eyes. "We're married, she's not gonna invite only me."

"Oh, so now you remember that we're married?" Kristen scoffed, picking up her catalogue again.

"Look, if you don't wanna go, that's fine. Just say so. You don't have to start-"

"No, no." Kristen shook her head and lifted her eyes back up. "I'm going with you."

Fuck.

~

AN: the last and this chapter were a little boring, so the next one is going to be messsssy and I'll try my best to post it tonight.