Played Affair

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

                     Two Weeks Later

       Melissa brushed her hair softly as she listened to the giggling of Janet in her crib and the shower running with Alex in it. She knew these next few weeks were about to be hectic with the wedding coming up. The only problem besides Faith?

       Alex.

       He was so distant these past two weeks. Was he stressed from his work to get ready for his time off? Melissa wasn’t sure but knew it was affecting her happiness too.       Alex’s phone rang in the bedroom loudly.

       “Babe, can you see who that is?” Alex requested from the shower.

       And that damn phone! Melissa walked to the room and picked up the phone and saw the name Dee flash across the screen.

       “Who the hell is Dee?” Melissa softly questioned out loud. She answered the phone making sure Alex didn’t hear. “Hello?”

       Dial tone.

       Melissa stared at the phone in confusion. Who the hell was this Dee person? She wasn’t even sure if it was a male or female.

       “Babe, who was it?” Alex asked coming out into the room with a towel around his damp body.

       “Dee.”

       “Oh really?” Alex asked in an enthusiastic voice grabbing his phone.

       “May I ask who this Dee person is?”

       “It’s a college buddy of mine. He graduated law school with me too.”

       “Huh,” Melissa simply said picking up Janet to feed her.

       “What’s wrong with you?”

       Melissa ignored his worry and walked out the room with Janet. Something was so weird about Faith not being brought up in the past weeks. And this new college buddy of his out of nowhere was suspicious to her.

________________

       Damn that was a close one. Alex slipped on some shorts and a shirt and sat in his home office with the door closed. “Hello?”

       “Hey Alex,” Faith said shuffling in the background.

       “Sorry about the missed call. I was showering.”

       “You’re fine. I mean, Melissa answered the phone, but I hung up before anything could escalate.”

       “She what?” Alex groaned. “That’s what’s so annoying about her. She’s so convinced that something will ruin her little perfect princess dream. I guess a diva is a diva.”

       “Diva? Understatement, Alex,” Faith laughed. “Nah, I’m just playing around.”

       Alex also laughed along and leaned back in his chair. “While you just playing around, you might be right. So what’s been up with you today?”

       “You mean since you last called me 4 hours ago at work? Nothing much. Work in about 30 minutes for me. You?”

       “Eh. Janet actually enjoys that squeaky key thing you recommended.”

       “I told you! I know what I’m talking about, Alex!”

       “Don’t flatter yourself,” Alex laughed.

       “Well, on a serious note, I did call for a reason.”

       “What’s up?”

       “Did you tell Melissa yet? That I’m coming, that is.”

       Alex rubbed his neck and loudly sighed looking out of his window at Melissa playing with Janet on the carpet. “No…”

       “Dammit Alex, you have to tell her. I’m not going to be held responsible for security trying to escort my ass out the building.”

       “I know, I know. It’s just…I don’t know how to tell her.”

       “Well you’ve given me the invitation already and I’m not giving it back. You need to tell her. Now.”

       Alex sighed loudly. “You always had that persuasive voice when you wanted something.”

       “Alex-”

       “Calm down, Faith. I’m going tell her now. I’ll call you back later.”

       Alex hung up the phone and sighed again. He really didn’t want to do this. But he knew he had to now before it got out of hand.

       “Babe?”

       “Yeah?”

       “We need to talk about something,” He sat on the couch looking down at Janet and Melissa on the carpet. “It’s about the wedding.”

       “You aren’t having second-”

       “No, sweetie. Regarding the guest list.”

       “Okay? We have 327 guests.”

       “328…” Melissa stared at Alex with a look of confusion. “Um…Faith is coming.”

       “WHAT?” Both Janet and Alex looked at her with surprise. “Faith is NOT coming to our wedding!”

       “Her and the kids-”

       “Kids? Hell. No. They will ruin it with the attention being brought around them all!”

       “No they won’t. I just feel that if we all have a stable relationship, everything will be better.”

       “Stable? I don’t want you to have any kind of relationship with her!”

       Alex rubbed his forehead and refrained from cussing. “Melissa. They’re coming. Faith, Natasha, and Nathanial. I don’t care what you say. If you don’t like it, best believe you won’t see me at the altar.” Alex stood up and walked back into the office and closed the door with a sigh. “Dammit.”