Chapter thirty-one: Love and Trust

"Whoah! I'm so shocked! I never know you were good at formulas and computations! Where did you take that? I thought you repeat your first year in high school because you failed your math subject? Aww, dude!" 

"Bullshit, Ryan!" Jack exclaimed and he playfully narrowed his eyes on Ryan. But of course, Ryan and I just laughed at him. Well, that's true. He's actually one year ahead of us, but since he failed his math subject in his first year in high school, he needed to repeat again that year, that's why he became one of our group members.

"You actually should be thankful to Gavin." We were back into serious mode after a while.

"And why should I be thankful to him?" I asked Ryan in confusion.

"Because I remember Cari told me, she was the one who really pushing Rian to have a date. A blind date and any kind of date."

Rian's words from the hotel before suddenly played in my head about these 'date things'.

"And Gavin, the one you've been jealous with.. he was actually the one who pulled Rian back and always remind her that she's still married even though Cari was too eager to set her on a blind date. And as Jack said earlier, if Gavin was after Rian... I'm sure he already made a move two or three years ago. He screwed your wife already. But no.. because as you can see, he supported her to be strong and stayed on your marriage."

I don't know what to feel.. become annoyed with Cari or to feel delighted about the new information about Gavin. And after minutes of thinking... I stood up as I get my wallet and put some cash on top of the table. I don't have time to wait for my card if it's the one I'm going to use to pay my bills.

"Hey, where are you going?" Both of them looked at me as they asked in unison.

"I'm going home."

"Home or room?" Ryan asked raising his eyebrow.

"Room," I answered as I get my jacket from my jacket.

"Ohh.. which exactly room is that? Your room or Rian's room?" Jack shouted from behind as I take my steps out of the VIP room.

"My wife's room!" I also shouted back before I walked past the dancefloor and towards the exit. I missed their mischievous exchanged of laughs and high five. I ran to my car and probably ran towards my wife's door even it's already late this night.

Rian's POV:

As soon as I stepped inside the door, I didn't control anymore the tears that keep on coming down my face. And that... I didn't even notice Cari is still in the living room and just turned off the TV. She heard my sobs and immediately ran towards me with her face full of concern.

"Hey, what happened to you? Why are you crying?" she asked almost in panic and I hugged her. I cried hard on her shoulder while she soothes my back up and down."Shhh.. care to share what happened? Is this about Alex?" 

Hearing his name brought again tears in my eyes. She guided me to the couch and ran to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She came back not a minute passed with a glass of water on her hand and a box of tissue on the other.

"Drink this first."I take the glass from her hand and bring it to my mouth. I only gulped two to three times and I put it down on the center table."I think I don't really need to ask if you're okay because I know you're not. What happened, Rian? Is it about Alex? Did he cheat on you.. did he fuck----"

"No, Cari!" I cut her off as soon as I found my voice again. "It's not something like that," I said in a hoarse voice.

"Then what? Tell me please?"

I sighed and started to tell her everything that happened including the morning that I called Gavin with Alex in front of me. 

"Ohh... that bastard! He got over jealous again with Gavin!" her first comment after I finished telling her what happened.

"I just don't get it. I-I mean, why does he have to be like that? He can't understand me no matter what and how I explained to him that Gavin is just a best friend to me, to us! Nothing more... nothing less!"

"Why don't you tell him the truth?"

"What----that Gavin is gay?"

"Yeah, so he would stop being so possessive to you over Gavin."

"Oh, Cari.. you don't get my point. This is not about Gavin being gay or not. This is about trust. His trust in this relationship, to this marriage, to me and everything between us. And I purposely didn't tell him about my work, because I know this would be his reaction. I want him to know Gavin more before I could tell him. I want him to trust me because I don't want this to happen anymore every time I meet a man in my life. He easily got jealous and became over possessive."

"I got your point, girl. Jealousy is always eating him up especially when it comes to Gavin. You know why?" I looked at her as I shook my head. "Because he's a bit insecure about your closeness with Gavin. Maybe he thinks that.. since he's been out in your life in those past years, and Gavin was there which is true. His insecurities as a man together with his ego eat him up. You're still not on the stage that you can both open your feelings to each other, while with Gavin you can share everything. But of course, he also didn't know that the person he's been jealous over with is a 'freaking gay' of the town!" 

I chuckled at her last sentence.

"So, when are you going to tell him? When he already punched Gavin square on the face?" I laughed again.

"Oh no, that would never happen. I will tell him everything but not for now. I want to test him. I want him to learn to fight with his jealousy issues first."

"Okay, but for now, you should take dinner first and take a rest." I raised my eyebrow.

"Why, did you cook?"

"Oh yeah.. just for you, princess."

"Haha... funny."

And we laughed together after that. She hugged me again tightly before we walked towards the kitchen. She stayed beside me while I eat. She keeps on talking and blabbering about her and Ryan and their relationship. I can see how happy she is with him. And I am so happy that Ryan finally came to stop being a womanizer in town. He proved that he's capable of being romantic and commit to a relationship.

After eating dinner, we stayed for an hour in the living room and watch some movies by Chris Evans. It's 9:30 pm when we finished our second movie. She decided to sleep in my room and shared some more of their escapades with Ryan. She walked back to her room to clean herself while I used my bathroom. 

"Rian, rhetorically question!" She blurted out suddenly when we're both in bed and getting ready for sleep.

"What is it?" 

"What would you do if he... I mean Alex, suddenly knocks on the front door tonight?" I was taken aback by her question.

"I-I don't know," I answered suddenly thinking. I noticed her always checking on her phone since she came back from her room. It always beeps, and of course, I don't really need to ask if who she's been texting.

"What if he knocks tonight and apologizes for being a jerk earlier? Would you talk to him?" Then her phone beeps again.

"I don't know. Maybe not or maybe tomorrow."

"What do you mean maybe tomorrow?"

"I would just talk to him tomorrow when I'm ready to face him again."

"But what if---" she was interrupted when we heard the doorbell from the front door.

"Oh, I'm gonna use the bathroom! I think my stomach needs her friend right now. Can you just open the door, please?" And she immediately ran towards the bathroom, clutching her stomach.

"Wait! What's the---"

"Thank you!" and then she slammed the door.

"What's the matter with her?" I asked myself, shaking my head. Little did I know that she already knew that this will happen tonight. And she knew who's knocking on the door and she just acted to use the bathroom so I would be the one to open the door. Great!