"They sure did, and that… that is what my troubled wife sees the day after she loses our baby. She turns on the TV for her usual morning programs, and there it is. Ethan went to her before the rest of us even knew what was going on. I tried calling, but no one answered.”
“I knew. I knew. The rules were broken, even if it wasn't my fault. I'd gotten careless. I knew better, but I was partying with the other guys. Thing is, they were single. I was married."
"What was in the photos?" Nicole asks.
"I wasn't doing anything but sitting on a sofa, some chick next to me, drinks in everyone's hands. Jesse… never mind that," Xander says looking at Lucy.
She makes a face. "I saw them. Jesse had two chicks on his lap. One was looking for his tonsils with her tongue while he had his hand beneath the other's skirt. Ben, uh…"
Nicole snorts. "Go on. I know who and what he was before I married him."
"You sure?" Lucy asks.
"Yeah. It's fine."
"Well, Ben was getting blown right there. Kennedy had his guitar. Ethan was there but holding a soda can, that I remember," Lucy concludes.
"I didn't even notice that chick. I was too fucked up. Hell, I was too fucked up to get it up that night. So, while the pictures damned me, I wasn't doing anything wrong aside from drinking my weight in tequila."
Xan begins talking about our time apart. Me doing friends-with-benefits with Dante and him doing his thing.
“I mean, she's my wife, right? I trusted her, even when I was a fucking asshole out there getting blown when I felt the need to get off. But, Christ, believe me when I say it's not like you think. I wasn't like Jesse. I spent a lot of time with my hand and a bottle of Jergens,” Xander tells them.
Summer snorts.
I shake my head. "I didn't want to see him. I buried myself in my paintings. I only used Dante whenever I wanted to get off. It was nothing but sex. Maybe a little bit of a weapon to hurt Xander in return for him parading around with all those… well. It was a very ugly time for both of us."
"How did you get through it?" Meggie asks.
“You mean how did we resolve things?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Meggie answers.
I smirk, and Xander chuckles.
“It certainly wasn’t easy,” he begins. “I’d had enough. Just… enough. I didn’t want to be without her anymore. So, I hopped the next flight with a really shitty plan. The next morning, I went to her place with a cup of coffee.”
Sera snorts. “Are you serious? Did that work?”
I snicker. “Um… no.”
Sera winks and gives me a thumb’s up.
“She opened the door a crack, looked at me, looked at the coffee I was offering, and then shut the door in my face,” Xan explains. “This for days! I switched tactics and brought her favorite flowers.”
“Dude,” Linc says.
"Yeah, that didn't work so well either. Nothing worked. Then we had a teleconference one day, and Cage Dude was on the line. I needed help, and these guys weren't giving it to me. So, I asked the boss man," Xander explains.
“I didn’t know that,” I say.
Cage merely nods in response.
“And what did my brilliant husband tell you to do?” Sera asks.
“He told me she didn’t want things. She didn’twantanything. Sheneededto be told she was loved. So, that’s what I did.”
“Did that work?” Lucy asks.
